Phill DeSalvo (and the evolution of Aussie Volleyball)

Phill | Hey mate,

I enjoyed reading a bit about your teams at school cup. It’s a great tournament and I hope that over everything you had a fun week.

I was just having a look at what you had to say about the panic plays… I think the reason that we ended up taking Korea at world cup in the 5th (29-27) was the fact that we did not have a panic play. I think this came down to the fact that we played so many games during the year (60 national team matches plus some people up to another 25 with their european club). Many of these games went to 5 sets and for me now at 15-15 in the fifth it feels a lot like 0-0 in the 1st…

I am going to start giving some insight into players palying over seas here in Europe on my blog so if any of your youngsters want to know anything about playing pro or maybe finding out some things about the guys that play national team then tell them to jump over to my site. I am going to get started on it over the next couple of weeks, see how it goes and take it from there.

take it easy mate
phill

—————————

Not a lot of people read my blog, but I was fortunate that one of them was Phill DeSalvo, current Libero for the Australian team (although I’m sure he gets plenty of competition for the spot from Aden Tutton). Phill is the son of Victorian Volleyball legend Allan Desalvo. I first saw Phill play in Victoria at national juniors. His brother, Matt was the starting setter for a fierce U21 team that thumped us and took the gold. I think Phill was more of a passer-hitter than setter, although i don’t doubt he was a good setter too.

He went to Wonthaggi and in 2002 played in one of my favourite teams I’ve seen there in Open Honours Boys. David Jones played in that team, but they didn’t have a lot of height, or much on the bench. They worked their arses off and won off really long rallies. In the end they finished with a Bronze medal, behind a Stuart Maycock led Heathfield and a Nathan Roberts led Brighton. I’m pretty sure Phill’s performances built a strong case for his selection into the national programme, because it wasn’t long after, i started noticing his name on the AIS/VTAM lineups.

Phill now also plays for Czech club CZU Praha with fellow Aussies Andy Hunter (who was one of my first coaches in junior volleyball) and Andy Earl (who I played U21s with a few years back). You can read all about his experiences on his blog, which is a great read and has a lot of great insight for anyone looking to follow that path.

Phill’s experience says a lot about just how far Australia has come in the last few years in terms of competitiveness in international volleyball, and just how many more opportunities there are now for talented players. But, maybe it’s worth remembering how far we’ve come.

The Stone Age of Australian Volleyball

It’s hard to imagine just how bad volleyball was here but my dad told me a great anecdote once. My father lived in France for a good 15 years from the late 60s to early 80s, and played volleyball there in div 2 or something. He said he once saw an exhibition game between France and Australia. While the professional French warmed up in pairs, the Aussies seemed to be standing in a circle knocking 1 solitary ball back and forth. It was real social-standard stuff not even fit to be played in a nudist colony. But at least it told him that there was some form of volleyball here which I’m sure made the choice to move here shortly after all the much easier.

Ethnic based clubs

It’s hard to tell how volleyball came here. Much of this is now in the realm of the mythical. Someone told be once Mark and Alexis Lebedew’s dad brought it over. I know a lot of it in SA came from the Eastern European migrants that settled here who formed some of the first clubs like USC (Ukrainian Social/Sports Club) Lion, Polonia and Estonia.

The “All-stars”

By the 80s things were starting to look a lot better and we had some sort of national programme and organising body. I once coached ex-Australian setter/captain Raoul Tuul’s nephew and he gave me this great tape of a 1989 match between the “Australia All Stars” and a Japanese club team.

It was a series of 6 exhibition matches played in each state to promote the game (If anyone has ANY of these matches, PLEASE let me know!). The Aussies were called the “all-stars” because they had bit of a weird line-up. Their starting included Craig Buck, 6′9 middle for the 1984 & 1988 Olympic gold medal winning USA teams. I heard a rumour once that he’d originally come to Australia to play beach with Steve Tutton (again, this now falls into the realm of the mythical and is purely speculation).

The team also included Raoul Tuul (i’ll see if I can youtube this footage of him setting a quick from his knees facing the wrong way. It’s hilarious!), the Tuttons, a rookie Mike Reu with mullet and young Eddie Vukosa. they won the game i had on tape in 5 sets, but they also lost a few. our best weren’t good enough to beat a club team from japan.

Sydney and Beyond

I think volleyball started to get a lot better with the buildup to the olympics. The government spent a shirtload on getting the teams up to scratch and the VTAM and VTAW expanded significantly. they got a great coach in Canadian Stelio DeRocco, and we were seeing more and more players play for clubs overseas. The men beat Spain and Egypt, and made it to the quarter finals. They were beaten by a #1 ranked Italy but took a set off them. It was a quantum leap from where we had come from, but the country was too absorbed in teenage swimming sensations, the beach gold medal, water polo and obscure cycling events to truly appreciate (or even notice) the achievement.

I thought with the Olympics gone, public enthusiasm would die down along with funding and the sport would go down the tubes. But the men kept getting stronger. Former Argentinian international and silver medallist Jon Uriarte was now coach, and they qualified for the 2002 world championships (which i don’t think they had done before). They were silver medallists in 2001 and 2002 at the Asian championships, losing out to Korea. Finally, they made the 2004 Athens Olympics through the Asian qualifier. They did it on their own! I remember reading an article in the Australian about it. I think a lot of Asian countries were pissed off because Australia had qualified as the “Asian” country. Just splendid.

Unfortunately, the women didn’t go too well and some time not so long ago VTAW got shut down. Maybe they figured it was better for them to just put money into the beach programme and find the next Pottharsts and Cooks. I didn’t like that much. As far as I can remember, Volleyball has always been a very equal sport locally and internationally. Men’s and women’s volleyball have truly equal status and profile. They have the same international competitions (world league/Grand prix, World Champs, World Cups, Olympics, Grand Masters etc). South Australian clubs are required to have both a men’s and women’s team. There aren’t a lot of other sports with volleyball’s sort of participation numbers that can say they’re this equal. Women’s Soccer and Basketball doesn’t get nearly as much respect as their male counterparts.

The thought that they would cut the national women’s programme was just absurd. Obviously, there’s probably some rhetoric about costs and some worthier place the money got put to, but it still sucks. What on earth do coaches tell the thousands of junior girls they coach (which at my last count outnumbered junior boys 2.5 to 1 in SA) about what they can hope to achieve? [NB, exaggerated here. Read my post on 31/12/2007 for the corrections].

These days

You take a read of Phill’s blog and you can see how great it can be now. Phill is one of the many Aussies out there making a living out of playing volleyball (Allan DeSalvo’s blog seems to be the nexus for all the comings and goings of these guys). And it’s not just the guys and girls on the national teams. There are other like Brad Tutton, Nik West and Jonathan Hague and Andy Hunter who have all had opportunities. Thankfully, even without a national programme, we’re seeing women’s players out there too like Lauren Bertolacci playing overseas. You might not earn that much, but to get paid to do what you love and get given maybe a car or apartment and to see the world, it’s certainly not bad!

I remember as a kid hearing from my dad how Tania Gooley got into the University of New Mexico and thinking it was pretty remarkable. Seeing people getting scholarships into the American colleges is a lot more common now. You can now get a free overseas education from being good at volleyball! beats an inflated HECS debt if you ask me.

Who would have thought any of this would be possible just 10 years ago? It used to be hard to justify to parents why their kids should play volleyball instead of (Australian Rules) Football or Netball, but the evidence is compelling now. I love and respect both of these sports, but can either of these sports get you a college education? can they give you a career based overseas? will they let you see more of the world than the average end-of-year pissup in Bali? Can you wear the green and gold playing a game that makes sense to both teams? Well, maybe netball can do some of these things, but the question with volleyball should now be why not?

I guess to cap it off, it was nice to hear from Phill that the Aussies beat Korea 29-27 in the 5th set of their game at the World Cup. I remember how excited we all got when they lost to Korea in 2001 and 2002 to win silver at the Asian Championships just a few years ago (we were overjoyed in SA. Adam Maskell was the Libero and Andy Earl was a starter!). Now we can beat them. And Japan. It wasn’t even that long ago that we couldn’t even beat one of their club teams! These days the Australian Men are formidable. They qualified into the World Cup as the Asian continental champions, and fingers crossed, they’ll do the same to get to Beijing. So get on board and support them!

And if you’re pissed off like me and want to see the VTAW restored, write to the minister for sport Stephen Conroy and let Canberra know. If you can’t get something done in a populist government like this one, well when can ya?

[NB. wrong minister. see here for the correct minister]