A Tribute To Legendary UCLA Volleyball Coach Al Scates

Unless you’re a member of the volleyball community, you most likely would not have known that the greatest coach in that sports’ history saw his career come to an end this past Saturday.

But that was the case as Al Scates, whose career coaching volleyball at UCLA was every bit as successful, iconic, and legendary as John Wooden’s in basketball, ended a 50-year tenure as head coach of the Bruins when his team lost to UC Irvine in the first round of the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation playoffs, 25-14, 23-25, 25-16 and 25-23.

The four set loss at the Bren Center on UC Irvine’s campus left UCLA with a 22-8 record in Scates’ final turn at the helm; unlike Wooden’s last year as the Bruins’ basketball coach when his team won their 10th national championship in 1975, there would be no such Hollywood ending for Scates as his last few teams were rather disappointing, finishing barely over .500 from 2007-2011, including a 14-16 record in 2009, which marked the only losing season that Scates ever had.

Which is proof positive that nothing lasts forever.

That, however, definitely should not subtract or tarnish what this man did not only for UCLA and for collegiate volleyball, but for the sport of volleyball in general as not only was he a significant factor in getting volleyball recognized as an NCAA sport, his teams dominated in Westwood and, in all essence, did for the sport what the New York Yankees did for baseball, establish a dominance that put volleyball on the map and make it known.

Among Al Scates’ many, many accomplishments at UCLA were:

*  A final record of 1,239 – 290 in fifty years (1962-2012), the 1,239 wins being the most in history.

*  21 national championships, including 19 NCAA titles; again, the most in history.

*  Three undefeated seasons: 1979, 1982 and 1984, with the ’84 team being his best ever as they went 38-0.

*  52 All-Americans coached.

*  27 Olympians coached.

*  Seven National Players of the Year coached.

*  Six-time National Coach of the Year.

*  Inducted into the Volleyball Hall of Fame in 1993, the first active coach to accomplish that feat, and…

* A mentor to countless volleyball players, including Michael Sealy, Scates’ women’s volleyball counterpart at UCLA whose team won the NCAA championship this past season.

After the loss to UC Irvine’s Anteaters, Scates commented:

“I enjoyed coaching this team and watching it improve. We improved a lot from last year. I’m upset by the loss, but happy to take and spend time with my family. I’m proud of the players that I coached and the people that I impacted.”

Which runs into the thousands – at least – if not millions.

I feel sorry for whoever takes the Bruins’ coaching job, to be quite honest, because that next coach will be going against a rule of coaching that’s considered to be the most important one:

NEVER FOLLOW A LEGEND.

Hopefully whoever UCLA hires to fill Scates’ huge shoes will see success right away, else he may feel a similar wrath from fans that Gene Bartow and Gary Cunningham felt when they replaced John Wooden and didn’t win NCAA titles; Bartow and Cunningham felt so much pressure, they lasted only two years each.

As such, it should obviously go without saying that Scates will be dearly missed; I think that’s an appropriate thing to say for the greatest volleyball coach that ever lived.