By Lindsey Besecker
Assistant Sports Editor
Behind every great play, there is usually someone there to make it happen.
As setter for the Pepperdine men’s volleyball team, junior John Mayer does not get to rack up the kills like his teammates do during matches. Instead, he sets them up for the memorable plays of the night.
“I get my share in the summers playing beach volleyball,” Mayer said. “I always liked, even in basketball, not so much scoring, but passing the ball. Making a good decision and making a deceptive set is just as much fun as putting the ball away.”
And so, that is where Mayer’s expertise lies. Mayer had 1,427 set assists last season and looks to improve on that number this season.
It’s fairly easy to spot Mayer on the volleyball court — he is the shortest player on the court, although many people would not say that 6-foot-2 qualifies as short.
“People will come up to me after games and think I am 5-foot-8,” Mayer said. “It’s just how it is for me, it’s just how it has always been.”
However, Mayer did not always start out at setter, let alone playing volleyball. He played basketball and baseball as a child, and continued with basketball through high school just over the hill in Thousand Oaks. He picked up volleyball halfway through at the suggestion of the volleyball and basketball coaches and has been going ever since.
“I had some good coaches who really pushed it,” Mayer said. “I guess they saw a little bit of potential. More of my friends were into volleyball — it just happened.”
Mayer took a long road to get to Pepperdine. He comes from a strong Catholic family and wanted to go to Notre Dame out of high school. Mayer also looked at Holy Cross, but instead wound up at Los Angeles Pierce for two years before transferring to Pepperdine.
“I decided the cold wasn’t really for me,” Mayer said of his decision to stay in California. “At Pierce was where I really improved. It was a great experience there.”
Mayer is now in his second season at Pepperdine, and has tallied up 559 set assists for an average of 13.98 per game at this point in season, just slightly over last season’s average of 13.46 per game.
“He’s kind of the volleyball rat,” Head Coach Marv Dunphy said, referring to the large amounts of time Mayer spends playing volleyball. “He just likes to play all the time. He loves the game – it’s great to have an athlete like that in our program.”
Mayer still has the rest of this season and then next to play for the Waves, but he is focused on this season before he thinks about the next.
“My main concern is obviously this season, but I am glad I get to have another one,” Mayer said. “I think we have a good core team and I want to see where we can go. I want to focus on the journey rather than the result. I think we can go far, and I hope we do.”
Once the summer rolls around, Mayer will head out to the sand courts to play some beach volleyball, another one of his passions. Mayer plays on courts anywhere from Santa Monica to Hermosa Beach.
“He works real hard,” Dunphy said. “(His teammates) just get a real solid person, a solid teammate. He’s always playing to win. I think he’s a real plus for our program.”
To throw even more volleyball into the mix, Mayer coaches club teams during the off seasons. He has coached the Southern California Volleyball Club under-17 club, the Thousand Oaks High School volleyball team, and the Zuma Bay girls’ volleyball under-14 club. Through these jobs, he has found his passion as a coach.
Mayer, a liberal arts major, hopes to earn his teaching credentials next year to be able to teach school and coach volleyball at the same time.
But don’t think of seeing Mayer running through the halls of his high school – yes, that is a reference to the musician John Mayer.
Pepperdine’s Mayer said he hears about his famous namesake every day and during matches from the hecklers in the crowd, and he just wants to make one point clear – he is not the John Mayer seen on MTV.
“I kind of joke around with it now,” Mayer said. “Hecklers are so unoriginal. It just goes in one ear and out the other.”
Music, however, is important to Mayer. A fan of punk rock, Mayer even plays drums in a garage band at home with some friends in Thousand Oaks. Pop-rock acoustic music (such as the other John Mayer) isn’t this Mayer’s preference, but rock band Fugazi appeals more to his taste.
“I definitely go to as many shows as I can,” Mayer said, adding that he once drove to Arizona to seer Fugazi play live.
Volleyball extends to other areas of Mayer’s life. Former Pepperdine women’s volleyball team setter Paola Rodriguez is Mayer’s girlfriend. Rodriguez is playing for a Puerto Rican team in San Juan, but is applying to medical schools in the United States. Most recently, they met up when she had an interview at University of California. Mayer said they talk daily and send each other mail every once in awhile.
It seems that coming to Pepperdine has helped him in aspects other than volleyball. And so, he knows he made the right choice.
“I realize more and more that it was a great decision to come here,” Mayer said. “I never counted on (volleyball) as a career, it’s definitely an enjoyment, that’s why I play.”
February 26, 2004
