A Grand View

It is an inevitable question, one that Al Scates will hear every year until the moment actually arrives.

When will he stop coaching?

“I feel like I’ve got another good 10 years in me,” he said. “I’m really enjoying it and I think I’m getting better at it.”

Wait a minute.

Did he just say he is getting better?

This is Al Scates, the only men’s volleyball coach UCLA has ever had. The most successful collegiate volleyball coach of all time, winner of 18 NCAA championships, a record for any sport. The first active coach inducted into the Hall of Fame. A certified legend who has taught some of the world’s greatest players.

And he feels the need to become a better coach?

“People think he just goes to work, goes to the matches and just racks up wins,” said Reed Sunahara, one of Scates’ many former players and a one-time UCLA assistant coach. “He’s up till late, he watches video all the time and looking at his sheets.

“It’s part of his life. He never takes a break.”

Scates needs only one victory to reach 1,000 in his illustrious 38-year career. He could get it tonight, when the Bruins play Long Beach State at Pauley Pavilion. If not, he gets another chance Wednesday at home against Cal Baptist.

The former U.S. national team player is far and away the winningest coach in volleyball history, men or women. Don Shondell of Ball State retired in 1998 with 769 victories.

Looking at him, one wonders if he doesn’t have another 1,000 in him. He is a youthful 61, and the years of coaching seem not to have taken a toll.

In fact, as the game changes and new rules are put in, such as the conversion to the international rally-scoring format, Scates is invigorated. Why should he quit?

“Some people might have felt that as the game has evolved, could he evolve with it? That tends to happen for any coach that has been in one place for a long time,” said Karch Kiraly, a four-time All-American at UCLA. “Clearly Al has been at the top of his game over three decades now and he still is.

“The only shock I’ll ever have is when he does call it quits. I really think he’s enjoying it now more than ever and I see no reason why he should stop.”

The school already is celebrating the milestone. Scates was honored at Thursday night’s UCLA men’s basketball game against Oregon State.

The attention has Scates doing things he doesn’t normally do, such as reflecting on his career. He’d much rather talk about tonight’s match and how tough it will be for the Bruins to win without injured starter Mark Williams than assess what 1,000 victories mean to him.

In fact, the only victories that mean anything to him are the ones that bring home titles.

“My goal was the same as it is now,” Scates said. “Just win the last game you play.”

If he isn’t embracing the attention, others are.

“I’d think it’d take me a hundred years to get 1,000 victories,” said Matt Sonnichsen, a former UCLA All-American who is the Tulsa women’s volleyball coach. “It’s not only his total number of victories but you look at what kind of wins they are and who he’s scheduled. I’m sure there are a lot of coaches who have a lot of wins but they’ve never won a national title or they’ve got a lot of wins against weaker competition.”

Said Pepperdine Coach Marv Dunphy, a winner of 302 matches in 17 seasons: “You have to be real good over a long time to accomplish that. The real good ones are those who can keep their programs good over time and Al certainly has done that.”

Under Scates, UCLA has been the dominant school in each decade since the NCAA sanctioned men’s volleyball. The run of success continues to this day, the Bruins having won five national titles in the last eight years, among them last season’s. The longest dry spell between championships was three years, in the early 1990s.

The individual success is overwhelming. Scates has coached 48 first-team All-Americans, 37 U.S. national team members and 21 Olympians.

As much pride as he takes in seeing Bruins dot the Olympic roster or watching players such as Kiraly reach legend status, Scates loves seeing his former players follow him into the profession.

Some have become the sport’s mainstays, like himself, such as UCLA women’s Coach Andy Banachowski and former U.S. national team coach Fred Sturm, who both were on Scates’ staff in the early 1970s. Others are relative newcomers.

Sunahara, who just completed his first season as the women’s coach at Cincinnati, played at UCLA from 1982-84 and 1986 and served as an assistant coach under Scates for six years.

He said he owes his career to Scates.

“Just my working with him, working with the best there is helped me,” Sunahara said. “I learned volleyball inside and out.

“It was an easy transition for me [from playing]. He made it a lot easier.”

Scates has seen the evolution of college volleyball from club and intramural status to major sport, particularly with the rise of beach volleyball in the 1980s. He has also seen the popularity of men’s volleyball dip in recent years and laments the dwindling number of college teams. Only 22 schools field Division I men’s volleyball teams.

To a degree, Scates has reduced his role in the sport. He doesn’t promote it as much as he once did. He leaves the recruiting chores to Brian Rofer, his chief assistant for the last 11 years.

But Scates still loves to coach.

“The only thing I want to do is win NCAA championships,” he said.

You tend to believe he will.