USA NT 2012

  • i'm not kidding, read careful what I said, sometimes and for some people is best to read some sentence more times in order to understand what somebody is saying.


    It would be valid for some people but for you, ignoring would probably be best solution :roll:

  • I agree with you that will carry most burden, because that is weakest position on US team.

    yeap OH is the weakest position in prism of USA other positions.

  • Weak is not the best adjective to use. Are Larson and Tom as physically impressive as Hooker or Akinradewo? No. Are they skilled all-around players that MANY teams in the world would love to have as their starters? Yes.

  • No, but you should learn to use words correctly.

  • I guess that with Bown, Akinradewo, Tamas and Scott, Harmotto will be left out.
    Big mistake if so: she has proved to be one the best middleblockers in the world right now, and she's so skilled both in attack and blocking. It would be an inadequate choice (IMO obviously).

  • I think at this point Harmotto has done enough to surpass Tamas on the depth chart. The only reason I could see Hugh opting for Scott-Arruda is that experience in the middle is very important at this level. Yes, Scott-Arruda performed well at the WC this past year but her performance in Brazil was no where near what Harmotto did in Italy this season. But I agree that Harmotto has demonstrated that she can both block and attack at a very elite level and should definitely be in real contention to make the squad.

  • I hope Carli will have chance to play much more in this new season,she deserves it,she was phenomenal in Busto!

  • I think that at this point Hugh will give all them a chance at the World Grand Prix. The last 2 years it was only Tom that was not playing the first week, so Hodge could play instead. This year although the pools are very hard I think Hugh won't take Tom, Berg at the first week.. and during the matches I think Larson and Bown will have a rest so that the younger players as Klineman, Hodge and Harmotto could play. Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe Hugh will like the USA to take this WGP title by any measures so he won't make any bigger changes in the line-up, but all the players will have a chance that;s for sure. The first week USA are facing GER which is strong, but then they play DOM and TBD which I think they can play without their best players. As for LOGAN TOM and Larson.. how can anyone say that they are week, or even worse weakest in the USA team. Well FYI Logan is doing everything. It's sad it can't be showed in the stats,like the 30 points Destinee scores, but Logan is not just passing, she is digging, setting when out of system, serving killing serves (maybe not always aces, but the ball could be attacked) and attacking. Not to mention that Lindsey usually sets her, not so good balls because when the reception is excellent she goes to Akinradewo, Bown or Destinee.... When Logan hits it's maybe not the hardest of hits but it certainly is well placed so if the opponents defend it it can not be attacked. Just watch a game and look what she does to the players, one is a short ball behinf the block, the other is in the corner, another hits the block and out, then she hits the 3m line with a cut shot... soo she is far from bad.. not to say worse. Larson is a great player too.. passes well, serves great and she also hits very smart. The new Logan I think. So I guess this will make you reconsider the things you said about them. Go USA!!!

  • Additions to the 25 player WGP roster



    Lauren Gibbemeyer (MB)


    Tamari Miyashiro (L)


    Courtney Thompson (S)


    Nellie Spicer (S)


    Kristin Richards (OH)

  • Logam Tom is the best OH.
    She is the only one who can set, dig, receive and make a great defense just like a libero. :obey:

  • It's possible, you just have to believe in yourself and really not care what other people say, because I've heard it all.
    If you let someone else dictate what you're going to do in life, then you won't get there.


    Non so neanche come onestamente: in due mesi ero di nuovo in campo.



  • Bus crash? Coma? Her Olympic dream beats both

    By SCOTT M. REID / THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER


    ANAHEIM – Maybe she reaches for it to steady herself.


    In the year since U.S. volleyball player Stacy Sykora emerged from the wreckage of a near-fatal bus crash in Brazil that left her in a coma and brain damaged – her daily life altered, her dream of playing in a fourth Olympic Games in peril – she and her friends and family began noticing that she rubbed her right hand over her heart whenever she spoke of the horrific accident and the damage it wrought.


    "I never used to put my hand over my heart. But then people started noticing that I rubbed my heart every time I talked about the accident. I didn't even realize I was doing it. But I do do it. Like right now," she said, her hand pressed on the center of her chest. "I reach for my heart without realizing it."


    Sykora, 34, has felt it beating strong and felt it on the brink of breaking. She has felt it as she tries to put back together the pieces of her life and Olympic dream along with the details of the crash that shattered them. But mainly she has followed it through an often frustrating year of trying to overcome vision and memory problems created by the accident while facing the already daunting challenge of making another Olympic team, a compass to guide her through the fog.


    "It's like living in a fantasy world," she said, "and not a reality world."


    Maybe she reaches for it to remember.


    Beneath her palm, a tattoo bearing the numbers "4/12/2011" rests on Sykora's left breast. April 12, 2011: the date of the crash. The day she can't remember. The day she can't forget.


    "I put that date on my heart because it's in my heart," she said. "It changed my life. I put it over my heart because it might be the biggest thing that ever happened to me. I put it there because I have to remember that my life wasn't taken for a reason. I'm here for a reason."


    Maybe she grasps it because it holds a song.


    Sykora, a libero, or defensive specialist, has been a constant on the Anaheim-based U.S. national team since 1999.


    "An iconic member," USA Volleyball Chief Executive Doug Beal said.


    "Stacy is a rock for USA Volleyball," Team USA setter Lindsey Berg said.


    The former Texas A&M All-American was second in digs at the 2000 Olympic Games, leading the U.S. to the bronze medal. Four years later, she won the Best Digger award at the 2004 Games in Athens. A third Olympics in 2008 brought Sykora a silver medal. Twice she had stood on the Olympic medal podium but neither time had heard "The Star-Spangled Banner" played.


    "I wanted to hear that, I wanted to stand on top," Sykora said. "Do I want to win a gold medal? No question."


    So she decided to pursue a fourth Olympics, moving to Orange County from Colorado Springs when Team USA relocated to Anaheim in 2009. In 2010, she was playing some of the best volleyball of her career. Sykora was voted the best libero at the 2010 World Championships and helped the U.S. win the FIVB World Grand Prix.


    To make a living, post-college, volleyball players rely on contracts with foreign professional teams. And in the spring of 2011, Sykora was playing with Volei Futuro in Brazil.


    On the wet night of April 12, 2011, Sykora was sitting on a teammate's lap, the pair sharing the headphones to her iPhone, as Volei Futuro's bus approached an arena outside Sao Paulo. Sykora and her teammate, Clarisse, were listening to one of Sykora's favorite songs when the bus overturned only a few meters from the arena.


    At first, after she was passed out of the wreckage through a broken bus window, Sykora didn't appear seriously injured. She was cut and bleeding on her forehead and placed into a stranger's car with two teammates and taken to a hospital only as a precaution. But at the hospital, Sykora began having problems with breathing, among other symptoms. An exam revealed that she had bleeding and swelling on the left side of her brain.


    She spent three days in a coma, a week in intensive care. She had to relearn how to walk and remaster other motor and cognitive skills, a process that continues still. Between her initial treatment and rehab in Brazil and Southern California, Sykora spent 36 days hospitalized.


    Sykora has no memory of the crash, the days leading up to it or the days after it. She doesn't remember speaking for days to visitors in three languages. She doesn't remember learning how to walk again.


    A few weeks ago, Sykora was back in Brazil, back on Clarisse's lap, back on the team bus headed to the same arena and the scene of the accident.


    "This is the song, this is the song!" Clarisse shrieked. It was the same song, she explained to Sykora, that they had been listening to when the bus crashed.


    Sykora listened closely and smiled. It was Marvin Gaye's iconic version of "The Star-Spangled Banner."


    •••


    Maybe she holds it because it has been touched.


    Sykora's first memory after the crash is of sitting in a hospital in Brazil talking to U.S. outside hitter Logan Tom. The date was April 23, 2011, 11 days after the crash. Tom had been in Brazil for days, having rushed to Sykora's side after the accident. "She is my sister," Sykora said of Tom. "I owe her my life, I owe her everything."


    Other teammates reached out as well. Berg played for her pro team in Italy with "SYKO" written on her taped fingers. The support from her teammates, USA Volleyball and the sport's community has continued as Sykora tries to secure a spot on the 12-player roster for London that might only include one libero.


    "The only thing that kept me going, to be honest with you, is USA Volleyball and training with the No. 1 team in the world," Sykora said.


    "My teammates are my sisters. This is my family."


    Sykora's presence in the Olympic training camp, however, has nothing to do with the esteem her teammates and sport hold her.


    "She's here and a lot of people aren't," said U.S. coach Hugh McCutcheon, who expects to name the team in June or July. "There's no room for sympathy here. She's earned the right to be here."


    Whether she can earn a spot on the Olympic team is another matter, Sykora said. This is one of the deepest U.S. player pools in history, and the competition at libero, in particular, is expected to be intense.


    While McCutcheon said Sykora has made significant progress in the past year, Sykora acknowledges she's still on a physical and emotional roller coaster.


    "Some really down days and moments, and some really up moments," she said.


    "Stacy is very strong and normally doesn't want others to know her frustrations," Berg said. "She keeps a lot of it in and confides in some people that really understand her. Like any athlete that can't perform like they are used to performing, it is going to be frustrating – whether you have knee problems or had to deal with her situation and injury. She has been a soldier. Never wanted anyone to feel sorry for her, but just every day tries to get better and be better for the team.


    "I know it is not easy. And I also know there is probably no one else that could handle the situation better."


    Perhaps the biggest obstacle between Sykora and a fourth Olympics is her ongoing struggle at times to visually pick up the ball.


    "I'm daily challenged," she said. "And every day helps me. That's what it's like when you have brain damage."


    Just as she had to learn to walk again, Sykora has had to relearn a game that for decades was second nature to her.


    "I watch videos of myself to see how I played," Sykora said. "It was like I was Jane Smith, and I was trying to learn how to play volleyball by watching videos of this Stacy Sykora.


    "I want to be like Stacy Sykora."


    She paused for a moment.


    "I've learned a lot," Sykora said. "I've learned a lot about me."


    She wasn't just talking about volleyball.


    •••


    Maybe she clutches it because it has given her something to hold onto.


    Sykora found herself at a recent practice standing next to U.S. assistant coach Paula Weishoff, the UC Irvine head coach and herself a two-time Olympic medalist.


    "You're a miracle," Weishoff said.


    Sykora realizes it will take another miracle to reach a fourth Olympic Games in London.


    "Some people might say it's a fantasy, a dream," she said. "But it's my dream."


    On the days when she thinks she's back at rock bottom, and the days when she soars, she finds herself reaching for her heart and squeezing tight. Even on days when the speeding ball and the past year are a blur, she holds onto a vision, clear and vivid, of finally standing on the top of the medal podium in London, gold medal around her neck, surrounded by her sisters. As a familiar song begins to play, she brings her right hand to her chest, placing it over her tattoo, the reminder of a tortured journey, resting it on the one piece of her that could never be questioned.


    Her heart.


    "People might say it's impossible," Sykora said of her quest. "Nothing's impossible. Is it going to be tough? Oh, hell, yeah. But I'm not going to let go. This is what I lived for."

  • My heart goes out to Stacy...whether she makes the US Olympic Squad for London Games or not, I totally admire her. She just continues to inspire many people and that includes me. I wish Stacy the best of luck! (You know what, I have a feeling Hugh will take 2 Liberos to London)

    "[size=8]It's years and years of work and sacrifice and dedication. Along with a lot of these girls, we've sweat and we've bled and we've cried together in past Olympics. It just brought tears to my eyes, & I'm more than thrilled. This will be forever." -LOGAN MAILE LEI TOM (Silver Medallist - 2008 Beijing & 2012 London Olympic Games, 2011 World Cup runner up, 2003 & 2007 World Cup 3rd place, 2002 World Champs runner up, 4-time World GrandPrix Champs)



  • World Grand Prix is now just 1 month away.


    Will USA send their A-team to Grand Prix? :?:



  • It's touching how close she is to her old teammates. Good luck to Stacy! :thumbup:

  • World Grand Prix is now just 1 month away.


    Will USA send their A-team to Grand Prix? :?:



    Yes, of course!

    .

    Prediction Game :
    5th place - Olympic Games 2012
    Bronze - World Grand Prix 2012
    Gold - Liga Femenina de Baloncesto de España 2011-2012 (as "LV")
    Silver - EuroBasket Women 2011 (as "LAT")
    Gold - FIBA EuroLeague Women 2011 (as "LAT")

  • Lindsey Berg's official facebook fan page


    http://www.facebook.com/messag…312#!/lindseybergofficial

    It's possible, you just have to believe in yourself and really not care what other people say, because I've heard it all.
    If you let someone else dictate what you're going to do in life, then you won't get there.


    Non so neanche come onestamente: in due mesi ero di nuovo in campo.