July 29, 2005
Story taken from USA Volleyball Web site (www.usavolleyball.org)
USA Men's Junior National Team Announces World Championship Roster
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (July 27, 2005) - The USA Men's Junior National Volleyball Team will make its first appearance in 24 years at the FIVB Men's U-21 World Volleyball Championship in Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh, India, from Aug. 6-14.
The last two times a USA MJNT has competed in this event were 1977 and 1981, where it finished seventh both times.
The tournament is broken up into two pools. Pool A is made up of host India, Serbia and Montenegro, Russia, Cuba, Korea and Morocco. Pool B is composed of the Netherlands, Brazil, Germany, USA, Iran and Tunisia.
The Americans hope to improve upon their silver medal finish at the NORCECA Zone Championships last year. As a result of finishing second, the team was offered, for the first time ever, a World Championship bid through the NORCECA zonal qualification process.
"Obviously any coach wants to get to the medal round and then see what we can do from there," said Team USA head coach John Speraw, head coach at UC Irvine.
However, with limited training time and a tough pool, the team faces many challenges before reaching that gold medal goal.
"We have just eight days to train. Last year Cuba trained eight months prior to NORCECA," said Speraw. "I still think we can be really successful, because we didn't have that long with our team last year and look at what we did."
Eighteen athletes from across the country, including nine returning players from last year's team, have been training since July 20 at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Lake Placid, N.Y.
On July 27, the squad was trimmed down to a final travel team of 12 athletes who will attend the World Championships.
The roster for this year's team includes: Paul Beckwith (Palisades, Calif.); Theodore Brunner (Ridgefield, Conn.); Jayson Jablonsky (Yorba Linda, Calif.); Tony Ker (Valencia, Calif.); Paul Lotman (Lakewood, Calif.); Daniel Mathews (Milwaukee, Wis.); Matthew McCarthy (Wheaton, Ill.); Jacob Schkud (Santa Monica, Calif.); David Smith (Saugus, Calif.); Matthew Webber (Brentwood, Calif.); Jake Wiens (Clovis, Calif.); and Jonathan Winder (Irvine, Calif.).
If the U.S. team hopes to advance they will first have to get past a very large Netherlands team. The Americans then face powerhouse Brazil in the second match, a team boasting three players 6-foot-9' and taller.
Besides making it out of pool play, one of the goals for coach Speraw is to get another shot at Cuba, who beat Team USA in the NORCECA Zone Championship match last year.
Somehow I'd like to play Cuba again. If we could meet them in the gold medal match that would be the sweetest thing and it
would accomplish all of our goals," he said.
Team USA will face the Netherlands in their first match on Aug. 6.
USA Men's Junior National Volleyball Team Roster
Name, Position (Hometown)
Paul Beckwith, S (Pacific Palisades, Calif.)
Theodore Brunner, MB (Ridgefield, Conn.)
Jayson Jablonsky, OH (Yorba Linda, Calif.)
Tony Ker, L (Valencia, Calif.)
Paul Lotman, OH (Lakewood, Calif.)
Daniel Mathews, S (Milwaukee, Wis.)
Matthew McCarthy, MB (Wheaton, Ill.)
Jacob Schkud, OH/RS (Santa Monica, Calif.)
David Smith, MB (Saugus, Calif.)
Matthew Webber, RS (Brentwood, Calif.)
Jake Wiens, OH (Clovis, Calif.)
Jonathan Winder, S (Irvine, Calif.)
Head Coach: John Speraw
Assistant Coach: Fred Chao
Assistant Coach: Shane Davis
Team Manager: Tom Tait
Trainer: David Dyck
USA Pool Play Schedule
Saturday, Aug. 6
USA vs. Netherlands
Sunday, Aug. 7
USA vs. Brazil
Monday, Aug. 8
USA vs. Iran
Wednesday, Aug. 10
USA vs. Tunisia
Thursday, Aug. 11
USA vs. Germany
