SOURCE: USA Volleyball

Head Coach: Terry Liskevych

Like a kid looking forward to Christmas Day, USA women's volleyball team head coach Taras (Terry) Liskevych is counting the days until July 20, 1996, when the Olympic volleyball competition begins in Atlanta.

And for good reason. The only coach to lead two USA volleyball teams into Olympic competition (198R and 1992-bronze) will add to his unprecedented string with a team that is already considered among the world's elite. Given his penchant for coaching winning programs, both at the intercollegiate and international levels, a return to the Olympic medal stand might Just be on the horizon for his USA women's squad.

"We had some setbacks and it was a difficult year," Liskevych said after his 10th year at Team USA's helm, a 1994 campaign that was highlighted by a 7-2 record (and a $110,000 payday) in the $15-million World Grand Prix, and a sixth-place finish in the World Championship. Yet, because he knew Team USA was so close to improving its result in both competitions, Liskevych considered the season a disappointment.

This team will be good in 1995, and very good in 1996," he vowed, reflecting the high level of confidence he has in his team and in himself.

Liskevych has more wins, a longer tenure, and has been on the bench in more international matches than any coach USA women's volleyball annals. Among his most important accomplishments, however, is that he has developed a foundation for the program that will ensure consistency and continuity for years to come.

Liskevych, 46, arrived in early 1985 as the 13th USA women's head coach overall (succeeding Arie Selinger), but the first of the unified USA National Teams Training Center in San Diego. Team USA was coming off a silver medal-winning performance at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles. Selinger, his entire staff and team had retired.

During the decade since he took the reins and rebuilt the USA women's national team program from scratch following the 1984 Olympic Games, Liskevych returned the program to the forefront of the volleyball world. He directed the USA to its second ever Olympic medal (bronze) at the 1992 Olympics and the Americans also placed third at the lucrative FIVB Super Four Tournament to conclude the '92 campaign. A bronze medal at the 1990 World Championship is another USA women's volleyball benchmark under the Liskevych regime.

In 1991, Liskevych's distaff spikers earned their Olympic qualification with a fourth-place finish at the World Cup to cap a 38-22 season. Team USA recorded top-three finishes in five of six '91 tournaments and recorded three wins over defending-world champion Soviet Union and runner-up China. Later that year, Liskevych served as coach of the World All-Stars at the World Gala, where he guided his squad to a 2-0 mark against the USSR.

Entering the '90s, the United States concluded an impressive season with the aforementioned third-place finish at the World Championship in Rio de Janeiro. The bronze medal performance equated that of the 1982 USA team, ranking as the second-highest finish by an American women's squad in World Championship history (the 1966 USA women won the silver medal. Among the key victories of 1990 were the win over Cuba in the third-place match at the World Championship, and a triumph over the Soviet Union at the Super Challenge Cup. Overall, the USA women posted a 41-32 record.

A period of difficult, post-Olympic transition took place in 1989, but Liskevych and his coaching staff guided the team to a victory at the Canada Cup, and strategy was being developed for the future.

While the '84 team had been spared the trouble of qualifying for the Olympics, by virtue of its host country status, getting to Seoul in 1988 was another matter. Considered a longshot, the USA women nonetheless qualified for the eight-team field of the '88 Olympics with a second-place finish at the NORCECA Zone Championship. During the 1988 campaign, the USA women's team posted its best seasonal record under Liskevych's tutelage (3215), which included a seventh-place finish at the Olympic Games. During the year, the USA twice defeated top-ranked Cuba and amassed winning records over Japan, East Germany and Brazil; the fourth-through-sixth-place finishers in Seoul.

In 1987, Liskevych's team achieved the first of its four-year goats by finishing second at the NORCECA Zone Championship in Cuba. Additionally, the USA women placed second at the Chinilin Tournament in the Soviet Union, won a bronze medal at the Pan American Games and twice defeated defending-Olympic and world champion China.

An inexperienced squad responded with a victory at the Canada Cup and third-place honors at the Goodwill Games in 1986. In addition, the USA women finished second at the Samaranch Cup in Switzerland. Though there was also a disappointing 10th-place showing at the World Championship in Czechoslovakia, the future looked bright for the United States team.

During his inaugural season as head coach (1985), Liskevych quickly assembled his squad and recorded a 25-20 mark after capturing just two of the first dozen matches. The USA women collected first place at the Taurus Cup in Hungary, finished second at the NORCECA Zone Championship and beat Japan, the 1984 Olympic bronze medalist, four times.

Before undertaking his present responsibilities, Liskevych spent nine seasons (1976-84) as the head women's volleyball coach at the University of the Pacific in Stockton, Calif. He built the Tigers' program from the intramural level to that of a national championship contender.

His teams won six NorCal Conference crowns, finished among the top five during each of his last half dozen seasons and posted an overall mark of 168 85 (.759). He earned conference coach of the year honors on five occasions and was named the 1983 Collegiate Volleyball Coaches Association (CVCA) National Division I Coach of the Year.

Liskevych also served as assistant athletic director at UOP (1983-84), and built volleyball into a popular

spectator sport in the Stockton community. As a result, Pacific's annual attendance figures were consistently ranked among the top schools in the nation.

Born Oct. 14, 1948 in Munich, Germany, Liskevych was raised in Chicago from the age of three. He got a relatively late start in the sport of volleyball, as he picked up the fundamentals of the game at the age of 18, as a resident of Chicago's Ukrainian community. In 1970, he was a member of the Kenneth Allen Cub in Chicago, annually one of the top teams at the U.S. Open Championships.

Though a late arrival to volleyball as a player, Liskevych got into coaching early. After earning his bachelor of science degree in biology from Loyola of Chicago in 1970, he became the assistant coach at George Williams (m.) College under Jim Coleman, a member of the U.S. Volleyball Hall of Fame and the current director of the USA National Teams Training Center in San Diego. In Liskevych's two seasons at George Williams, the team finished second and first, respectively, at the NAIA Championships. Also while at George Williams, Liskevych earned his master's degree in physical education in 1972.

Liskevych and Coleman co-authored "A Pictorial Analysis of Power Volleyball" (1972) and, in 1973, Liskevych became the head coach of the Chicago Volleyball Cub women's program. He later served as an assistant coach for the USA women's 1975 Pan American team.

In 1975, Liskevych landed his first collegiate head coaching job, taking over as the men's coach at Ohio State University for Doug Beat, who would go on to coach the USA men's team to the 1984 Olympic gold medal. Liskevych was concurrently working on his Ph.D. in physical education (with an emphasis in sports psychology and international sport, which he received in 1976. He guided the Buckeyes to a pair of Midwest Intercollegiate Volleyball Association (MIVA) titles, their initial NCAA Tournament appearance and two third-place NCAA finishes. Twice, Liskevych was selected MIVA Coach of the Year (1975, 1976).

He was one of the co-founders of the Collegiate Volleyball Coaches Association (now AVCA) in 1981, and was the Board of Directors. Liskevych has produced a series of instructional videotapes and written a book for spectators, Volleyball is a Hit. Another book, Championship Skills, published by Masters Press, will be available in spring-1995.

Liskevych and his wife, Nancy, reside in Leucadia, Calif. with their two children, Mark (Born 11-13 84) and Krista (Born 11-25-87).

TERRY LISKEVYCH'S HEAD COACHING RECORD

INTERNATIONAL

Team Year Record Pct. Top Finishes

USA (W) 1994 25-20 .556 6th World Championship

USA (W) 1993 15-27 .357 2nd NORCECA

USA (W) 1992 15-22 .405 3rd Olympics/3rd Super Four

USA (W) 1991 38-22 .633 2nd NORCECA/4th World Cup

USA (W) 1990 41-32 .562 3rd World Championship/

5th Goodwill Games

USA (W) 1989 16-20 .444 3rd NORCECA

USA (W) 1988 32-15 .681 7th Olympics

USA (W) 1987 26-34 .433 2nd NORCECA/

3rd Pan American Games

USA (W) 1986 24-33 .421 3rd Goodwill Games/

10th World Championship

USA (W) 1985 25-20 .556 2nd NORCECA

TOTAL(10 years) 257-245 .512

COLLEGIATE

Team Year Record Pct. Conference National

Pacific (W) 1984 31-8 .795 2nd (PCAA) 3rd (NCAA)

Pacific (W) 1983 37-4 .903 1st (NorCal) 4th (NCAA)

Pacific (W) 1982 32-8 .800 1st (NorCal) 5th (NCAA)

Pacific (W) 1981 27-13 .675 1st (NorCal) 4th (NCAA)

Pacific (W) 1980 48-8 .857 1st (NorCal) 2nd (AIAW)

Pacific (W) 1979 40-11 .784 1st (NorCal) 4th (AIAW)

Pacific (W) 1978 23-15 .605 3rd (NorCal)

Pacific (W) 1977 12-10 .535 3rd (NorCal)

Pacific (W.) 1976 17-8 .680 1st (NCAC)

Ohio State (M) 1976 24-4 .857 1st (MIVA) 3rd (NCAA)

Ohio State (M) 1975 21-3 .875 1st (MlVA) 3rd (NCAA)

TOTAL(11 years) 312-92 .772