Sports Notebook
9/6/2005 3:00 AM | | Mike Hebert. Photographs courtesy of University Athletics. |
By Chris Coughlan-Smith
Sports Chat: Volleyball coach Mike Hebert
Although Mike Hebert has earned numerous honors in a 29-year volleyball coaching career (the last nine at Minnesota), the past two seasons may have seen his finest work. In 2003, Minnesota struggled early but rebounded to reach the NCAA Final Four. And last year he installed an unusual two-setter offense to keep opponents off-balance, a strategy that led all the way to the national title game. This year, Minnesota returns two all-Americans-seniors Kelly Bowman and Paula Gentil-but will field a team that is almost half new faces. In late June, Hebert spoke about the recent past and his new challenges.
Q: Did the last two years' teams exceed your expectations?
A: We really don't have expectations in terms of wins and losses. Our principles are grounded in trying to get maximum performance and response each time out. The principles we teach them to believe in early on are the ability to develop confidence, to face tough situations, to have positive interactive skills. . . . There's a whole litany of things we focus on very succinctly every day. Those are the things we watch. It's hard to say, 'If we do these things well, it means we'll finish second.' Sometimes a number of necessary things have to happen before chemistry and leadership can arise, but if you [instill] those things, you will usually have a successful team.
Q: What are the challenges for this year's team?
A: We'll be a good team, but how good depends on developing two good left-side players with the ability to block and terminate. The other one is just having so many newcomers. You need a nucleus who have bought into the system and understand the culture and can pass that on. That's a lot easier when you have 11 returning players and two or three new ones. This year we have seven newcomers [in a recruiting class ranked fourth-best in the nation] and eight returning players. Another one is whether we play a [one- or two-setter] offense. What we see in early practices will determine that.
Q: What are the strengths of this year's team?
A: We'll be very strong in the middle. We have two of our best defenders back in Paula Gentil and [junior] Marci Peniata. Last year, they gave us tremendous ball control. We had great serve reception and [were able] to rely a lot on crossing patterns and misdirection. The emergence of Kelly Bowman last year gives us great flexibility. We knew she could set and we knew she could hit, but we didn't know she'd be able to do both at such a high level. Finally, we'll have the most depth we've had since I've been here. That's a good thing. There's no motivator like having to [compete for] your starting spot.
Sports Notes
The pomp and excitement of spring's on-campus Gopher football stadium news wilted into a tired holding pattern by mid-July. Despite strong backing by the governor and several key legislators, the U's request that the state issue bonds for 40 percent of a $235 million, 50,000-seat football stadium fell victim to a deadlock over the state budget, which resulted in a partial government shutdown and deep public frustration. Under those circumstances, there was no political will remaining to discuss stadium legislation once a budget agreement was passed after a seven-week special session.
U officials were concerned that the inaction could put at risk several elements of the stadium plan, most important being the $35 million put up by TCF Financial Corporation to name the facility TCF Bank Stadium. And although there is talk of a fall special session to discuss stadiums and other “amenities,” U officials fear that momentum has been lost for attracting other major donors, a key component in raising the remaining 60 percent of the cost. Although some environmental site work is under way  | | U Athletic Director Joel Maturi gave women's hockey coach Laura Halldorson a pat on the back after her team won its second consecutive NCAA title in 2005. This summer Maturi gave her something more important -- a contract extension. |
on the proposed locations east of Mariucci Arena, without a state funding commitment, U officials will have no option but to delay further spending on the project, which would delay the proposed 2008 opening and drive up eventual construction costs because of inflation.
It's unfortunate that the stadium proposal was held up by politics rather than debated and passed on its own merits. The reality is that the Metrodome, where the Gophers now play under a rather disadvantageous lease agreement, is going to cease to exist, or radically change, by 2011. The Minnesota Twins baseball team will leave the Dome, either to a new stadium or a new city, and the Minnesota Vikings want a bigger, flashier football stadium in the far northern suburbs. Something must be done for the Gophers, and soon.
After winning back-to-back NCAA titles and her third national coach of the year award, U women's hockey coach Laura Halldorson finally has a little job security. In 2004, she worked under a one-year contract extension, but recently received a three-year deal. With a record of 226-44-2 in eight years at Minnesota, it's hard to question Halldorson's ability. But that's apparently what happened last year after disagreements with an assistant coach and comments from a star player that questioned her ability relative to national team coaches.
To measure a college coach against a national-team coach is not a fair comparison. College coaches take 18-year-old student athletes, the majority of whom will never make a living at their sport, and help them navigate through greatly increased competitive and academic demands while adjusting to life away from home. National team coaches get the cream of the crop and can push the athletes physically without having to worry about NCAA practice restrictions and balancing the life of a student athlete.
Halldorson, a humble individual who still answers her own office phone, has done an admirable job of managing the annual changes in team chemistry and turning the young players into team leaders who take responsibility for the success of the team.
Although the volleyball team has the nation's fourth-ranked recruiting class, the top group hitting campus in fall may belong to the men's hockey team. Coach Don Lucia signed three key members of the U.S. team that won a gold medal in the World Under-18 Hockey Championships in April-Phil Kessel, who scored a pair of goals in the title game; goalie Jeff Frazee, who made 48 saves in that game; and Ryan Stoa, who notched three assists in the six world tournament games.
Second-year soccer coach Mikki Denney Wright also boasts an impressive group as she looks to return Minnesota to the top of the Big Ten. Among her recruits are a national “top-100” player, Minnesota's Ms. Soccer 2004, and Iowa's player of the year for 2004-05.
Quotebook
“I've battled that my whole life, that girls aren't supposed to play hockey, and if they're not supposed to play, they aren't supposed to coach.”
-U women's hockey coach Laura Halldorson
“We are the coldest Division I institution [with a women's rowing team] in the country. We practice in the mornings in the fall . . . when it's maybe 32 degrees. These students come off the water and they're cold. Now we can actually let them shower.”
-Women's rowing coach Wendy Davis on regents' approval of a $4.6 million boathouse on the Mississippi River flats below Coffman Memorial Union, to be shared with the men's rowing club. For five years, the women's team has used an unheated tent below the University's steam plant.
“It's no weirder than any other sport.”
-Ben Erickson, captain of Minnesota Puck-N-Loons, one of the 21 teams that competed in the U.S. National Underwater Hockey Tournament at the University Aquatic Center in July.
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