SAN DIEGO — It's not the most flattering team photo in the history of sport, but the shot of Team USA in the World League Volleyball program tells the story.
There are some disinterested looks. There are some half smiles. There are guys looking away from the camera.
But there is one who looks a little different than the rest.
He's sitting as tall as he can in the front row, hands resting between his legs, shoulders back, looking straight in the camera, big ol' smile stretched across his face. Javier Gaspar looks like every straight-arrow, straight-A kid who ever attended Mr. Sturm's third-grade class.
He actually glows.
Javier Gaspar is a walking, talking, jump-setting billboard for the U.S. national team, the two-time defending Olympic gold-medal winner. But the U.S. is rebuilding a program that expected to win every competition it entered last year. Instead, it was 1-11 in World League play. Everyone looks to the quarterback when things go bad, and it is no different in volleyball. Gaspar is the setter of attention.
He will again be the central figure as play develops tonight at the Sports Arena when the defending World League champion, Italy, arrives for the first of a two-match series against the 1991 team, the undefeated Americans.
Gaspar's team.
The Natural
Gaspar joined the national team after a collegiate career at Penn State in which he twice helped the Nittany Lions to a third-place finish at the NCAA Final Four. He was a four-time All-American selection and twice made the first team. And his coach, Tom Tait, hadn't even seen him compete until he walked on to the court for the first time.
The videotape that Gaspar sent to Tait never arrived, but Tait probably got more than he expected from scouting reports when Gaspar stepped into the gymnasium. He hadn't even played organized volleyball until his sophomore year and hadn't worked as a setter until Tait got hold of him. But that first year, Penn State finished seventh nationally and Gaspar was All-American honorable mention, one of only two freshmen named. The other was U.S. teammate Scott Fortune, the lone holdover from the 1988 Olympic team.
Gaspar was a natural on the court. He's also a natural off it.
"He's very, very good in public speaking situations," said first-year U.S. Coach Fred Sturm. "He's a super role model. I've been told he's wonderful with people and wonderful with kids. He's real friendly. He's just a first-class man."
"He's the kind of guy I would like to see succeed and have a great deal of success. In many, many ways, he's representative of the kind of individual I like to have in the program."
The Role Model
He is a public relations dream.
Gaspar is 24 and fluent in two languages. He attended Penn State and was going to be a dentist when he joined the national team. He is articulate. He is interesting. He makes sense. And he makes great passes to his teammates.
"He's a classy individual," Sturm said. "He's considerate, respectful of others and he's a gentleman. To me, I like athletes who are competitive and classy. I don't think you have to be a jerk to be a top competitor and I don't think you have to be a gentleman and a nice guy to be competitive, but he's also gracious. I don't think being a nice guy means you're not competitive. It's a very fine line to walk."
Yet Gaspar walks it, talks it and embraces it. Need a diplomat?
"We're not only volleyball players, but we're ambassadors to the U.S.," Gaspar said. "Some places we go, the only Americans they see are the athletes and they think all Americans behave this way. It's important for us to be role models, not only in the U.S., but everywhere we go in the world."
What? In an age when professional athletes are taking potshots at fans, an amateur athlete is saying turn the other cheek? Gaspar says that player \o7 re\f7 action is detrimental regardless of the volleys lobbed at them.
"You have to be mature enough to control your emotion," Gaspar said. "A lot of these guys in professional sports, they think because they're making all this money, they can do whatever they want and get away with it. Volleyball players are very conscious of that. You can't be doing stuff like that on or off the court because it's not good for you as an individual or good for the program.
"People have a right to say whatever they want, and even though it's rude, that doesn't justify you going and punching them."
He has heard the Brazilian fans, the international equivalent of the Cleveland Browns' Dawg Pound. They yell, scream, taunt, throw cups, hurl insults, "give you the finger and say the F-word."
"(Retaliating) is detrimental for any sport, it doesn't matter what happens," Gaspar said. "It's something that shouldn't be allowed. It shouldn't happen."
Gaspar could use a part-time job--could Jose Canseco use a consultant?
The Big Question
Who will set in the Olympics?
Right now, Gaspar is the setter. But whenever a team doesn't perform to expectations, it's the quarterback who becomes the focus.
