By Khalida Sarwari
The 2020 Olympics in Tokyo may still be a long way off, but for the athletes who hope to compete there, the time to start preparing is now. And that’s what a group of volleyball players did last month in Mexico, with a little help from one local coach.
Armen Zakarian, the women’s indoor and beach volleyball coach at West Valley College, went down to Mexico City to join the three-member coaching staff of the USA Volleyball Men’s National Team that competed in the Pan-American Volleyball Cup May 21-26.
Zakarian’s team, which included head coach Ron Larsen, fellow assistant coach and Olympic gold medalist Sean Rooney and a dozen players, first convened at the USA Volleyball facility in Anaheim for about 10 days of pre-training.
“It was great,” he said. “I knew what to expect. I’d coached a few of these players when I was working at UC-Irvine, so I knew our roster. That made it a little bit easier to come in; I didn’t have to make new relationships with the athletes.”
The pre-training helped the coaches whittle the team down from 20 to 12 players, said Zakarian, and from there they jetted off to Mexico City for the tournament. That location was a last-minute change from Sinaloa for reasons the coaches weren’t informed about, said Zakarian, and although there were some concerns about safety, no one seemed to mind.
“The competition site was the same venue where they held the 1968 Olympics, so it was nice to walk into a part of history,” he said.
His job as assistant coach was to work with the players on “serve receive,” a volleyball term for players preparing to receive the ball from their opponents, and back row defense. It was his first time teaming up with Larsen since the two worked together at UC-Irvine. Larsen, a gold medal winner as an assistant coach at the 2008 Olympics, is the one who invited Zakarian to take part in the tournament. Zakarian touted his ability to organize practice and put together a training plan.
“I think one of the great things about Ron, our head coach, is that he’s been to two Olympics and he understands what matters most in the time given,” he said. “I think Ron does a really good job of getting the best out of these kids in a short amount of time.”
In the end, the USA team came in fifth place, but they’d already qualified for the 2017 FIVB Volleyball World League competition, said Zakarian. FIVB, which stands for Fédération Internationale de Volleyball or International Volleyball Federation in English, is the international governing body for indoor, beach and grass volleyball. The USA team was pitted against Chile and the Dominican Republic, both of which they defeated–the latter team, twice. They were defenseless, however, against Canada, which dealt them their only loss in the tournament. Cuba defeated Argentina for first place, according to Zakarian.
For the USA team, winning wasn’t the ultimate objective, said Zakarian.
“For us,” he said, “this tournament was looking at the young athletes we have in the pipeline and seeing which ones have potential for the 2020 Olympics. We identify the top kids and we get them ready for the national team.”
And win or lose, for him personally, it was a gratifying experience, said Zakarian.
“It’s something that I’d like to continue doing with USA,” he said. “I think anytime you get a chance to represent your country, you should take advantage of it. It’s been a treat.”
Link:
Los Gatos, Saratoga: Zakarian helps develop Olympians … for 2020
