All articles previosly posted on www.usavolleyball.org and usolympicteam.org

Gabe Gardner Blog - It's Gold, at last...

by Gabe Gardner / August 04, 2008

Rio de Janerio, Brazil. Well we did it. We, the USA volleyball team, became our countries first volleyball team to win the Gold at the World League since the tournament was started by the FIVB in 1990. It was quite an amazing feeling to be a part of history. It was even sweeter improving on our last year's finish of 3^rd, at the time our countries best finish.

For those of you who may just be joining my posts, I'll take a little time to detail the significance of our recent triumph. World League began in 1990 as the largest organized prize money volleyball tournament in the world. The FIVB commits something close to 15 million dollars to pay our prize money for winning teams, best individual awards, and federations. It has grown into a 16 team, annual, tournament that consists of 12 matches for each team in pool play (4 teams/ pool) and 4 total pools. To win it all, you'll have to win something like we did - 12 of our total 15 matches. The top teams from each pool, plus the host country (this year Brazil), and a wild card chosen by the fivb, meet for a final round to decide the winner.

In the final round this year was perennial favorite Brazil (winners of the last 4 in a row), Serbia (Gold medalist in 2000), a strong Russia team, USA, up and comers Poland, and Japan.

The final round of the tournament was held in our favorite location of the event, Rio. We stayed in a marvelous hotel named "Gloria" which offered us all enormous rooms, great food (I am personally partial to Brazilian food after living and playing there in 2003), and a spectacular view from the pools to the Rio coastline topography. And to make matters even better, it felt like the middle of spring in what was Rio's middle of winter, ah...what great weather.

We took advantage of our accommodations to relax our state of mind heading into our first match. That did not work out so well for us. Our first match vs Serbia we came out flat and did not play well, loosing quickly 3-0. To Serbia's credit, they seemed to be peaking at the right time playing very sound volleyball.

We were forced to recover quickly, playing Poland the following day. Now we were not only in a must win (only two of the three teams in the final round pool moved to the semi's), but were playing a well rested team since Poland had the previous day without a match. Also, Poland is a very good team. They have been winning against some great teams the last several years (also a Beijing Olympic team).

We struggled, we fought, and we endured a long and debilitating match to win in 5 sets. We just pulled it out with a lot of courage and heart that those matches require. It was a great feeling and gave us a breath of hope to move to the semi's. All we needed now was Serbia to win against Poland the following day and we would qualify.

Serbia was nice enough to oblige. While we all took the morning off to take the famous train up to the top of the "Cristo Rendentor", a famous icon of Rio sitting atop the mountain overlooking the city, Serbia was preparing to help us out. We returned from out trip to the top of Rio and could barely come down from the high we had seeing Serbia trounce Poland 3-0. We were in.

The following day meant a long time clash with Brazil, the #1 team in the world for a few years now. To say the least, they were not #1 on this day. We came out strong and never held back, taking it to the Brazilians in front of their home crowd (who often booed and cheered against us all tournament long) winning in style 3-0. We were on to the finals in dramatic fashion, winning vs. the #1 country in the world in their home.

Finals were the culmination of some good luck and great timing by our team. Not only were we sort of lucky to get into the semi's, but we were great in timing our ability to play well against brazil, and soon thereafter, against our final foe, Serbia. We were forced to step it up for the sake of our country and history and enact a bit of revenge on Serbia....we won 3-1. We were champions of the World League for the first time in history.

As a finishing note, sitting up there on the podium just made you want more. Every one of us could feel that addiction to winning really set it. We had medals placed over our necks and awards were handed out to two of our best players that tournament, Lloy Ball was named MVP and Best setter, and Rich Lambourne was named best libero. Best of all, we all held the monster check for 1 million dollars together, high and proud, with our countries on our back and a bit of history forever in our souls.

Gabe Gardner Blog - A Weekend on the Black Sea - Bulgaria

by Gabe Gardner / July 30, 2008

(Photo: courtesy of the FIVB at http://www.fivb.org/)

We spent this World League final weekend in Varna, Bulgaria. Allow me to talk a little about my history in Bulgaria.

My first trip to Bulgaria was to Sofia with my professional team 2 years ago. It was in the winter, our team had a CEV (Championship European Volleyball) match, and we played in Sofia. The gym was not updated at all, and although the hotel was nice, the city itself was very depressing. Although Bulgaria had just joined the EU, it sure did not feel that way being in Sofia.

Arriving in Varna with our USA team was a whole new experience. Varna is the largest port city in Bulgaria situated on the Black sea. It was of course summer time, and fun and enjoyment was all around. We stayed in an amazing huge resort near the Black Sea with 3 huge pools and sun cabanas abound. That all in all feel of vacation was all around us. Bulgarians and other tourists were proud to walk around the hotel in nothing more than a speedo with flip flops.

As I mentioned in my previous blog, there was not a huge urgency to win these last two matches of our pool because we had secured our place in the final round in Rio the previous weekend. However, quite a few of the guys (myself included after returning from a week in Bloomington where I sprained my foot during the match) going to the Olympics were here to get some serious playing time. Four of our main starters rested and stayed in the USA, therefore that gave a lot of us time to really get dialed in playing full time again.

Fortunately, we did not disappoint. We really took a fully loaded Bulgaria team (all there players) in Bulgaria and pushed both matches to the limit. The first night we barely lost in five, and the second we lost in the 4^th by just a hair. But we really fought, hung tough, and all in all got better as a team. Sure we lost, but believe me...it was a powerful loosing weekend.

I want to say just one last thing people may be wondering about us. No we are by no means famous in the USA. In fact, most people here do not know the most famous volleyball player in the world is an American named Karch Kiraly. However, volleyball players in a lot of countries around the world are famous. As famous as an NBA player, MLB, or famous NFL quarterback. It's no joke. So when we go to these countries, like Bulgaria this last weekend, where the volleyball players are really famous, it's a neat yet weird realization for us American players. We kinda scratch our heads and say, "they know you because you play volleyball?" We are rushed by crowds of people in public places, and mobbed for pictures and autographs outside matches. It's as if some of us are part time celebrities, just not in our home country. Just as well, fame is not meant for the faint of heart!

Gabe Gardner Blog - We are going to the Finals

by Gabe Gardner / July 24, 2008

In our most recent World League weekend, we were in Bloomington/Normal Illinios. For our team, the weekend was far from normal. We won both matches vs. Spain and thus were successful in securing our pool, and locking a return to the World League final round in Rio, Brazil. This was the first time we have been to the World League finals in consecutive years since the early 90's.

As I mentioned in my first blog, going to the final round was a big goal of our team's for obvious ($$$) reasons. But aside from money, it was a welcomed sign that we were able to win our pool when we had one of the stronger pools in the competition. Bulgaria was 4^th in World ranking (we are 3^rd), and Spain is also high in the rankings. Finland is certainly an up and coming team playing very well.

More rewarding than securing our pool in Bloomington came the understanding that we would not have to win our final two matches vs. Bulgaria the following weekend. Obviously, for many of our players this would provide a crucial week of rest and recovery without having to travel from CA to Varna Bulgaria. Not that the matches would be meaningless, but they could not affect our going to the final round in Rio.

Bloomington was a surprisingly nice city. We stayed in a hotel with an interesting theme, but a very comfortable one. Across from the hotel was a typically huge American shopping center, where we could find just about anything. My roommate, Dave Lee, proceeded directly to the Target store and came back with a remote control helicopter that was flown all weekend in our hotel room to my dismay. There were quite a few times that I had to King Kong the thing, batting it away from my head.

The US Cellular Coliseum was a very nice gym to play in, filled with great fans for both of our matches. In typical American fashion, people arrived in droves decked out in USA gear to show their support. After the matches, many kids and families stayed to get some autographs of what may be the closest they would get to Olympians before Beijing.

One final note that is worth mentioning: circus time. In between our sets and some technical time outs, there were quite amazing circus performers doing their thing on the volleyball court. Their "thing" consisted of one time the worlds' strongest man lifting and contorting his female counterpart on what seemed like one finger. Also, there was some kind of wheel that rolled around the gym with a girl drown and quartered inside. Hard to explain, but for most of us guys who have not been to the circus since we were kids, a lot of fun to watch. All in all, it was a great weekend for team USA.