Speraw, USA Volleyball men ready for Paris: “I want them to finish on top”

Rested and ready.

“This year the focus has been to be at our best when we step on the court in Paris,” USA men’s Olympic volleyball coach John Speraw said. “This is a veteran team and they need to be feeling rested and strong and healthy. And it has been a challenge for us. It hasn’t been the smoothest of summers in that regard, but we’re starting to get healthy and have had some good training.” 

Accordingly the USA men’ took advantage of a less-than-steller Volleyball Nations League performance that allowed for downtime, practice and healing.

Which is why Speraw didn’t mind that his team did not make the final eight and qualify for the VNL quarterfinals.

For that matter, had the USA even made it, the Olympic team was not going to Łódź, Poland. Speraw, as he did in the first round of VNL, would have sent a squad that did not include any of the players headed to Paris for next week’s Olympics.

“We had made a decision even when were in the Philippines (for the third round) that even if we qualified for the finals we were going to send the top guys home and send a second group to the finals,” Speraw said. “We knew what we needed to do, which was get home, get healthy and train.

“And I think that was a unanimous feeling across the board.”

So as he waited to board a plane last week, first to train in Poland and then head on to Paris, Speraw oozed of optimism.

“I’m ready to go. I can’t tell you how excited I am to get to Poland, ready to lock in, I’m ready to get past some of the Olympic prep distractions that are inevitable as part of the process. I need to get into a hotel and just watch a ton of video and get ready for these matches and be locked in with our guys.

“I’m excited to do that and I know this group of guys has been together for a long time. In many ways, it’s the end of an era. I know a bunch of these guys who will return, but this group of this iteration of USA Volleyball have had a great decade.

“And I want them to finish on top.” 

Three years later

In a nutshell, here we are three years after Tokyo, when the USA men opened Olympics play in 2021 by sweeping France. France went on to win the gold medal; the USA failed to get out of pool play. 

In 2022, the USA took silver in VNL, losing in five to that same France team. Later that summer, the Americans got bronze in the NORCECA Pan American Cup…