An Alum Perspective of the 2008 National Championship

Submitted by Dave Bittner (PSUMVB '88) ...This is good! Read it!

Fellas:

I just returned home from Irvine, having seen our boys win it all. It was something truly special. Maybe '94 was more important, because it was our first championship (and the first by a non west coast team), but since I didn't see that one in person, this one was the most important from my point of view. Thought you might be interested in some of the highlights from the perspective of a fellow alum. I'm hoarse from screaming at the match, so it's handy that I'm typing this. Guad, I'm sure I've left out some important stuff, so please add as necessary.

Here we go... When I arrived about 2 hours before gametime (having just made a 5 1/2 hour nonstop drive from Phoenix to Irvine), I met Guad and Skids for some tailgating on the roof of a parking garage overlooking the arena. (In answer to the question I know you're asking, Yarros, we were drinking cans of Bud Light and shots of Canadian Club.) About 25 people were there. Of those, 10 or so were former players. By age, it went Guad, Skids, Kissinger, Mull. Then a big gap. Then me. Then another big gap. Then Hodge, Proper, Meerstein and a few others from the '00s whom I don't really know. In addition to team alums, there were 3-4 were current and former players from the PSU women's team, 4-5 parents of current and former men's players and a few groupies/cattle.

As I was talking to John Cott, the former PSU roommate of Guad and Skids, I saw over his shoulder that Meerstein, some kid named Boner (I shit you not), and one of former players from the women’s team were taking their clothes off. Must have been some kind of double dog dare gone awry. Anyway, they peeled down to their underwear and were posing. Guad was laughing along until he saw the camera phones emerge. Flashing before his eyes were visions of this seemingly harmless antic ending up on BadJocks.com. So much for our hopes of getting Guad that Board of Trustees seat.

Shortly before match time, we wandered into the arena. We had great seats, 15 rows from the court. In the Penn State section, there were 200 or so hardcore PSU fans, about 15 of which were former players. Other PSU fans were in the building, but they were too few and far between to make much noise.

As for Pepperdine, the only fans they had in a concentrated group were the ones who assumed the free tickets given up by the Long Beach fans who left after their team lost Thursday. They were noisy but not nearly as raucously invested as we were. Jeff Stork was the only former player from Pepperdine that I saw in attendance. What a pitiful turnout for them, especially since their campus is only an hour or so away from Irvine. Maybe the rest of their former players were “on mission,” if you catch my drift. I did see a guy who looked really familiar from the days when I played. But I think it was Lee Nelson from UCSB, the guy they called Grape Ape.

As the teams were finishing their warm up, I took what I call "the coaching inventory." That's where I see who's on each team's coaching staff and decide how lopsided the mystique factor will be. Per my review of the respective benches, our coaching staff consisted of Pav, a Neanderthal former player from Ohio State (I think his name is Colin and he seems like a good guy, but I still like making fun of OSU, even though we’re now coaching bedfellows with them ~ yyyyuck), and some short, fat kid. Pepp's coaching staff was Marv Dunphy, Rod Wilde and Gary Sato. Yikes.

The match began, and the atmosphere was electric. I'll spare you the Pav-like details since I'm sure you can find the play-by-play in his recap (plus I bet you watched the ESPN2 broadcast, except for Hogan, who was probably watching Bassmasters), but suffice it to say... Game 1 was heartbreaking. We had a commanding lead then let it slip away. There was no magic man to drive balls off the top of the Pepp block like Keith did in Kansas City in '87. I was preparing myself for the disappointment of watching yet another PSU team, who was equal to the West in talent, lose due to inferior drive and confidence.

But Penn State came back strong in game 2, and after surviving two Pepp game points, evened the match at 1-1. Then, in game 3, the intensity, drive and confidence that other recent PSU squads so sorely lacked kicked in for the Lions. Some strange combo of Anderson's power, Holt's irreverence, and De Valle's hot-blooded Puerto Ricanness was the magic formula they needed. They won game 3. Then, went up by 8 or so points early in game 4. WE ARE PENN STATE was ricocheting off the walls. Our brains were telling us that it should be an insurmountable lead (in rally score world) and it was time to start enjoying the inevitable victory, but our stomachs were telling us to keep worrying, which we did. But watching us stuff Paul Carroll repeatedly in game 4 sent us into a frenzy. When he hit the ball out for match point, the place erupted.

During the postgame festivities, the team was awarded the trophy and their championship watches from the NCAA (I think the rings come later thru PSU). Handing out the watches was our own Shakes, doing his NCAA committee duty ~ his final year in that role. One of the moments I won't soon forget was when Pav accepted his watch from Shakes. He gave Ron a hug that lasted for about 30 seconds and brought Pav to tears. It was really moving.

Soon we descended to court level to celebrate with them (and ripoff some sport-court floor tiles as a memento). When leaving the gym, Guad bought every single T-shirt, hat, ball and other piece of PSU/championship merchandise the souvenir stand had left. He had to tell them 3 times that he was serious when he said, "give me everything you got that says Penn State." They finally did.

After the match, we returned to the rooftop for postgame tailgating (after Skids and I attempted to steal the NCAA banner on the bridge over the street leading to the arena). Someone had beaten us to it (I think it was Meerstein ~ who needs to forward the banner to some bar Guad knows in Saxonburg, PA. Frank says that's where the 2006 banner flies now). So, Skids and I just went back to the tailgate and fired up some cigars. More Bud Light, more Canadian Club. More WE ARE PENN STATE ringing across the sky of UCI. Shortly thereafter, a campus cop kicked us out.

Later, we went to the Hyatt, where the team was staying. We hung out with the team at the hotel bar. More WE AREs rang out. And Skids led the whole place in a rendition of Ol' Black Water. It was a good time. Halfway through the celebration, AD Tim Curley sprung for a private reception in a room nearby. In there, Pav called us over while he checked his email on his handheld. It was great to see the congratulatory messages streaming in. He got 85 messages just in the time we were watching over his shoulder. We saw messages come in from John Hartranft, Guillo, Carlos, Bones, Ramon, Russ, Bones (again), coaches from other volleyball programs, coaches from other PSU teams, former players, parents of former players, campers, parents of campers. My favorite was one that said, "Congrats, Pav. You wouldn't remember me, but I was the P.A. announcer for the team in the early 90s. Now I work at ESPN as coordinator of SportsCenter. You can be damn sure I'm putting a highlight of Penn State win in tonight's top 10 countdown." Freakin' sweet.

When I got home, I was looking online for news coverage of the win. Though I knew they wouldn’t cover it, I ended up on CNN.com. That’s when my heart sank to my stomach. Right there, halfway down the list of headlines was the title: ““Students Strip to Skivvies Before Finals.” Guad’s worst nightmare had come true. Our naked teammates had ended up on national news. I clicked through to the story and found this video clip: http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/us/2008/05/05/von.arizona.asu.undie.run.ktvk. Boy, was I relieved.

Thinking back to the celebration at the Hyatt, I’ll always remember something Pav said. When he first entered the hotel after the match, the place went nuts. In response to chants from the crowd, he made an impromptu speech, standing on top of the nearest coffee table. He told us how overwhelmed he was, and in addition to all the normal stuff, like explaining how hard the team worked all season, he gave a lot of credit to the alumni who built the program. Though he didn't say it quite like this, it was essentially that... This edition of our volleyball program has reached its heights by standing on the shoulders of giants.

Yes, indeed it has.