Former 49er Volleyballers Will Play For Olympic Gold

By Kurt Helin
Editor

While all the world seems to think of Misty May (now May-Treanor) when it comes to Long Beach State volleyball, she is only one of six former 49er volleyball players going to the Olympics.

Five others — two women and three men — will be part of the indoor volleyball teams for the United States competing in Beijing.

“It’s an incredible honor for them and it makes the program very proud,” said Long Beach State men’s volleyball coach Alan Knipe.

On the women’s side, Danielle Scott-Arruda and Tayyiba Haneef-Park were named to the team. On the men’s side, Scott Touzinsky, David Lee and Tom Hoff all will represent the United States.

Knipe added that the coaching philosophy he and women’s coach Brian Gimmillaro promote helps foster good international players.

“The international game is played at such a high level of athletes,” Knipe said. “You have to not strap the players down in the system but celebrate their athleticism.

“I think our players’ advantage on the national team is that they come out of here in that style of play with a good base to grow from.”

This will be Scott-Arruda’s fourth Olympics, tying her with another Long Beach State product, Tara Cross-Battle, for most in team USA history. Scott-Arruda, 35, first competed in the Olympics in 1996 in Atlanta.

This will be the second Olympics for Haneef-Park. Her former coach at Long Beach State, Brian Gimmillaro, thinks she is a key to Team USA’s chances.

“She is 6’7” and 11 feet when jumping, she can play so high up,” Gimmillaro said. “She is an option on every play, and mostly the major option. She has to have a big Olympics for the team to do well.”

For the men, this will be the third Olympics for Hoff and the first ever for Touzinsky and Lee. No other university has three players on the Olympic roster.

Hoff was part of the United States team that finished fourth in the last Olympics in Athens.

“Hopefully, we will draw strength in (remembering) our great comeback versus Greece (in 2004), knowing to never give up,” Hoff said in a released statement. “We also saw how small the difference is between winning a medal and not when we played Russia (in the bronze-medal match).”

This time around, the men of Team USA are again expected to be in the medal hunt, entering the Olympics as the third-ranked team in the world. The team starts play Aug. 10.