Lindsey Besecker
Sports Editor
The eyes of many Americans have been glued to television sets the past few weeks, many watching the glory and competition of the 2004 Summer Olympic Games in Athens, Greece.
There are the big names: Michael Phelps, Paul Hamm, Carly Patterson. But for any person associated with Pepperdine University, there are five names that have another important meaning: Jesse Smith, Dain Blanton, Nicole Sanderson, Kevin Barrnett and Marv Dunphy.
Those five are Pepperdine’s representatives at the Olympic Games. Smith, a senior at Pepperdine and the only current student from Pepperdine in the Olympics, played for the USA water polo team, while the other players participated in volleyball, either as players or, in Dunphy’s case, as a coach.
“Obviously it’s exciting for the campus,” Athletic Director John Watson said. “Naturally, having their participation in the Olympic Games adds visibility to our program.”
Women’s volleyball Head Coach Nina Matthies said having Pepperdine athletes in the Olympics is an honor.
“It’s a great honor in any sport to have kids go on and play at that level,” Matthies said. “It’s not an easy life that they go and choose. They’re not doing it for the money; they’re doing it for the love of the sport.”
Smith started for the men’s water polo team and scored four goals throughout Team USA’s Olympic run. He scored two goals in a win against Croatia and one goal in a loss to reigning Olympic and World champion Hungary.
Unfortunately for the American team, they were not able to advance past the preliminaries.
In beach volleyball, Blanton and Sanderson represented the American and Australian teams, but they were also former Waves standouts in men’s and women’s volleyball.
Blanton, who was competing in his third Olympics, won the gold medal in Sydney at the 2000 Olympics but came up short this year with his new teammate, Jeff Nygaard.
Switzerland’s Patrick Heuscher and Stefan Kobel defeated the Blanton/Nygaard team, as well as teams from Australia and Canada to win the pool and take the Americans out of competition.
The 2004 Olympics marked only the third time that beach volleyball appeared in the Games. The sport debuted in Atlanta in 1996.
“We’ve had a good representative each time,” said Matthies, who was on the U.S. national team from 1969 to 1973 and played in the Pan-American Games in 1971. “I think it’s taken an incredible leap around the world.”
Sanderson had more success than Blanton in the beach volleyball scene. Sanderson, who played for Pepperdine from 1994 to 1997, and her teammate Natalie Cook finished fourth for the Australians.
The No. 5-seeded Australian team battled the American team of Holly McPeak and Elaine Youngs for the bronze medal, but the U.S. team came out on top in the end. Nevertheless, it was a good Olympic performance for Sanderson.
“Nic has really been a wonderful alumni and friend,” Matthies said. “Nicole was just unbelievable. And we got a little pub in there for the Waves.”
In indoor volleyball, Barnett, a 1997 Pepperdine graduate, helped Team USA into a match for the bronze medal against Russia.
He traveled there with Dunphy, his coach at Pepperdine and, according to his profile on the official Olympics Web site, Barnett’s hero and idol.
Dunphy first got involved in the Olympics in 1976 as an assistant coach, but that team did not qualify for the Olympics.
Twenty-eight years later, Dunphy said before the games that he will most likely serve the U.S. team as a spy of sorts, scouting out the other teams to see the competition.
“They currently have their (coaching) staff intact,” Dunphy said before he left for Athens. “I left (the job part of the application) blank because I’ll let the U.S. volleyball people figure that out. It’ll probably be as a consultant.”
Watson said Dunphy was told to bring a suit and tie shortly before the Olympic Games began because one of the floor coaches had an emergency.
However, the coach was able to make the trip so Dunphy supported the team from the stands.
The consulting position worked for the team during the World Cup games, which is why Dunphy said he will do the job again.
“I’ll be with them, and I’ll assist them,” he said. “I’ll do whatever the current staff needs. I’ll be a spy and maybe a consultant.”
Dunphy has had a lot of experience with the Olympic Games. In 1984, he worked for ABC as a researcher for the announcers, but his big year came in 1988. Dunphy was head coach of the U.S. team that went on to win the gold medal.
Then in the 1996 Atlanta games, Dunphy worked as a scout — the same job he is looking to get for this year’s Olympics. In 2000, Dunphy worked with the Olympic team in Colorado Springs for 18 months before the actual games started.
“My time with the USA team has been pretty special because it’s volleyball and it’s with our country,” Dunphy said. “It’s an honor and I hope we do whatever we can to do as well as we can.”
08-30-2004