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Russia's howling bear Karpol's old-school methods still work
SYDNEY, Australia -- Jeri Estes, the assistant coach of the U.S. women's Olympic volleyball team, is marrying Nadia Karpol next month in California. No doubt a happy union for all concerned -- even the lucky man who will give the bride away. There might be more professionally demanding fathers-in-law in the world than Nikolai Karpol, but none come immediately to mind. Karpol has been the coach of the Soviet Union -- and since 1993, Russian -- women's volleyball team for more than two decades, winning Olympic gold medals in 1980 and 1988. Undeniably he gets results, usually at the top of his lungs. Karpol is a bear. In fact, his nickname is The Howling Bear. His timeouts are the best show in the Olympics. When he took a timeout on Thursday against an incredibly gutsy American team --- and he had to take them more often than expected as the Russians managed to escape 15-10 in the fifth set -- he would unload on his players with a vengeance not seen since Goodfellas. His mane of neatly coifed gray would shake. The veins in his neck would stand out like a topical map. His face would turn to orange and then assume a reddish glow and then finally go back to a sallow gray as he resumed his place on the Russian bench. Karpol quickly became the target of the crowd at the Olympic Entertainment Centre, which hooted at him at least three times following his rants.
Good question. I mean, why not? (Besides the testosterone test and all.) So I tried to ask Karpol's players about what it's like to play for Bob Knight of the Volga. "I want to ask about your coach. Do you speak English?" I asked Elena Godina, the outside hitter who feasted on high sets of Elena Vassilevskaia. "Yes, a little," she said. "But I can't speak without the coach's permission." I tried a little more direct approach. In the press conference after the loss that relegated the U.S. to the bronze-medal game against Brazil on Saturday, I asked Vassilevskaia, the Russian captain, if it were difficult to play for a coach who was so, er, demonstrative. "No," she said through the interpreter. "Not difficult at all." Karpol was sitting to her right, which obviously had no influence on her answer. "The funny thing is that if you know Nikolai, he's a great guy," said Bob Gambardella, national team director for USA volleyball. "He's an old-school guy who really loves his players. He's just always been that way. He's had a lot of success. I wouldn't want to have to justify his methods. Maybe it's a cultural thing, but it works. We were in Moscow a little while ago and he was an absolutely charming host. His persona away from the game is entirely different than it is when he's coaching. About an hour before the match tonight, he and I were watching a little TV together -- some track and field. We talked a little bit about tennis. He put his arm on my shoulder. We were kidding around. I said that maybe Dad could give USA Volleyball a little early wedding present by letting us get into the gold-medal game." A victory was not in the bridal registry although the Russians did, in fact, nervously blow the fourth set after leading 20-15, squandering two match points. They slipped behind in the final set, 7-6, but won seven straight points, three off blocks by their Redwood front line of Godina and Lioubov Chachkova. The Americans were giving away several inches across the front to the Russians, who use their size to jump serve, block like crazy and set the highest balls in the women's tournament. Of course you can't coach height, but in his paint-blistering, high-decibel pep talks, The Howling Bear probably tries. Sports Illustrated senior writer Michael Farber is in Sydney covering the
Games for the magazine and CNNSI.com. Check back daily to read Farber's
behind-the-scene reports from Down Under.
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