Volleyball
Volleyball is a sport played by two teams each consisting
of six players with a net separating the two. Each team’s target is to ground
the ball on the other team’s court under a set of organized rules. The game was
founded on February 9, 1895 by William G. Morgan in Holyoke, Massachusetts U.S.
Morgan was a physical education director at the time and created the game as a
pastime for his business students. This is after he had noted with concern that
basketball, which had just been created was a too physical; he wanted something
that was less exhausting for his students. As a result, he borrowed some of
handball, basketball and tennis features to found the sport for older people as
it required a little athletic effort and named it Mintonette. Morgan wrote down
the first rules of the game: that is, the height of the net from the ground and
the size of the field. Initially, the number of players was not restricted as
long as they were equal in each team. The name of the game later changed to
‘volleyball’ after Alfred Halsted observed the nature of the game during its
first display match in 1896, which was held at the International Training
School. The International Training School modified the rules slightly and the
game rapidly spread across institutions in the U.S
The United States men’s national volleyball team, which
is the national team for the country is one of the teams that have made
remarkable achievements in volleyball over the years. The U.S. Volleyball
governs the team. The team represents the country in international competitions
such as the Summer Olympics and FIVB World League. The team won its first World
Champions in 1986. Since then, the team has participated in many tournaments around
the world, representing the U.S. competitively on many occasions. It has
participated in the Olympics for ten times with its most notable achievement
being the 2008 Beijing Olympics, where the team under the head coach Hugh
McCutcheon, won a gold medal.
Over the years, the United States team has produced some
of the greatest talents of volleyball in the world. Charles Fredrick ‘Karch’
Kiraly is a remarkable player who developed his career in this team. Kiraly was
born in 1960, and raised in Santa Barbara, California. He first featured in a volleyball
tournament at the age of 11 years; at this time he paired alongside his father.
He later joined Santa Barbara High School, where he joined their varsity
volleyball team, the ‘Dons’. During the high school days, the team made it to
the champions game two times, only reaching the finals once in 1976, but they
lost to San Clemente High School. In his senior years, his team went on
undefeated to win the champions game in 1978, with Kiraly voted as the best
sectional player of the year.
Kiraly enrolled at UCLA College in 1978 to study
biochemistry. In his first year, he played for the Bruins’ volleyball team under
coach Al Scates. He led the team to the Championship in the 1979 season. In his
last sophomore year, the team made it again to the finals but unfortunately,
they lost to USC, their crosstown rivals. However, in his four years, the team
had 123-5 match record winning titles from 1972 to 1982, which earned Kiraly an
All-American honor for the four consecutive years and the NCAA Most Outstanding
Volleyball Player of the Tournament of the season ending 1982. He graduated in
1983 but it was not until 1992 that the school retired his jersey and wrote his
name onto the school’s Hall of Fame.
Kiraly
in 1981 joined the national team. He was the youngest player in the 1984 team
that overcame a loss to Brazil, beating them in the finals to earn the 1984
Summer Olympics gold medal. By winning both the 1985 FIVB World Cup and the
1986 World Championship, the United States National team forged their place in
history as the best team. The team won its second gold medal in the 1988 Summer
Olympics after defeating the USSR in the final match. Kiraly was appointed the
team captain in 1988. In the same year, FIVB named Kiraly the world’s best
player.
Kiraly also participated in the beach volleyball since
his early years. He started competing in beach volleyball at the tender age of
11 years, but went on a break after joining the American National Team. After
the 1988 Olympics, Kiraly retired from the American National Team and went back
to beach volleyball where he eventually found his way back to the Olympics in 1996,
winning the first ever-gold medal awarded in the men’s beach volleyball.
He had a short time as a sports broadcaster on NBC after
he retired in 2007 from competitive volleyball. In a career spanning four
decades, Kiraly won 148 professional titles, making him the player with the
most number of wins. FAVB have crowned him the “Greatest Volleyball Player of
the Century.” Currently, Kiraly is coaching the U.S Women’s Volleyball team
campaign to recapture the Olympic gold medal in the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro,
Brazil. With such an outstanding record, it is in order to conclude that Kiraly
is one of the greatest volleyball players since its creation.
