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Liu helps USA Volleyball chase Olympic gold
7/16/2021 10:30:00 AM | Volleyball, Paul Coro
GCU assistant coach heads to Tokyo on Women's National Team staff
It keeps happening to Grand Canyon assistant coach Jeff Liu. The first experience came when Liu joined the USA Volleyball Women's National Team staff for the 2017 Pan American Cup in Peru. The most recent one occurred at the U.S. team's most recent competition in Italy last month.
Those stars and stripes shining on his shirt. That Star-Spangled Banner playing in the venue. Those gold medals hanging off the U.S. players.
The national pride has swelled into goosebumps many times over Liu's four-year tenure on the USA Volleyball staff, but nothing could compare to what Liu and the Americans could experience at the delayed 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
Starting with its first pool match on July 25, the U.S. Women's National Team figures to be one of the world's top five contenders as it vies for its first gold medal. And Liu, the second-year Lopes assistant, is essential to it all as the team's performance analyst.
"If we happen to win gold, the first gold in USA women's volleyball history, I can't even begin to imagine what that would feel like," Liu said. "Watching our group, our anthem, our flag, I have goosebumps right now thinking about it. It's a surreal thought."
It was a job offer that Liu initially declined more than four years ago, even with it coming from volleyball legend and head coach Karch Kiraly. He was concerned the role would take him away from his career goal to coach, but the job wound up being the best thing for that aspiration.
Not only did it lead to Liu joining the GCU women's volleyball staff with head coach Tim Nollan, it also allowed him to do more than the data analysis and technical coordination that Liu had done at USC.
"With the national team, I'm on the court," Liu said. "I'm giving feedback. I'm running drills. I'm running scout sessions. I'm putting scouting reports together too. I'm just an extension of our coaching staff. It's just, on game days, I'm more focused on relaying information from the baseline to get a different view."
GCU and USA Volleyball have accommodated each other's schedules to mutually benefit from Liu. It has led to what could be a wild 2021 for Liu.
Like the Olympics, the Lopes' 2020 fall season was postponed to send Liu from a postponed GCU spring season to USA Volleyball training and competition and back to a conventional GCU fall season with barely a break in between events.
"Having Jeff on the USA staff going to Tokyo is incredible," GCU women's volleyball head coach Tim Nollan said. "What an experience for him and for our program. He trains with and competes with the best in the world and brings all of those experiences back to our program. It gives our program some added national recognition, which is nice too. Having the University support of him taking on this challenge goes to show how committed GCU is to volleyball and our program."
After an abbreviated 11-4 season at GCU, Liu rolled to Anaheim, California, three days later to being work with USA Volleyball training. That built into the team's appearance at the Volleyball Nations League in Italy, where the U.S. took gold last month. The team returned to the U.S. for a three-week blur before heading to Tokyo for the Olympics.
The rare opportunity for Liu to be embedded in the highest level of volleyball and coaching benefits GCU.
The staff includes great volleyball coaching minds for Liu to draw from Tama Miyashiro's passing and defensive techniques, Erin Virtue's strategical and scouting approaches and Luka Slabe's motor learning principles and blocking work. The roster provides examples for Liu to relay to Lopes, who Liu arranged for them to hear from U.S. players directly during the COVID-19 quarantine.
"It is getting to see how focused on learning these athletes are and how hard they work in between lines, in the weight room, in rehab, in recovery," Liu said. "It's a lot of things that college kids aren't hyperfocused on. That's what it takes as an athlete. So to be able to take those experiences of what I see and what I learn from them and relay it our athletes at Grand Canyon is pretty big. I think our players have a level of respect for these stories I tell and how it relates to them."
And then there are moments when Liu breaks from his businesslike approach to realize he is working alongside Kiraly, a three-time gold medalist who remains the most famous volleyball player in American history.
"There are times when we're sitting there in the office and Karch finally gets a breather later in the day," Liu said. "He walks in the assistant coaches' office and we start shooting the breeze. We have to look around and pinch ourselves and go, 'That's right. He was there. He experienced it. In fact, he is the subject of the story.' We're listing to the man himself, the GOAT, tell us this story."
This Olympic arc makes Liu harken back to 2017, when he was a new USA Volleyball staffer overwhelmed by the experiences and emotions. That Pan American Cup gold-medal moment jolted him that he was on a world stage and representing the U.S.
This world stage is bigger and this U.S. moment could be grander.
A dream sequence would have Liu assisting the U.S. to a the gold-medal match victory on Aug. 8 and doing the same for GCU in the WAC Tournament championship match in November.
"That would be amazing," Liu said. "First-ever gold for USA women. First-ever NCAA tournament bid for GCU women's volleyball. You can't ask for anything more than that. That's a career year."
Those stars and stripes shining on his shirt. That Star-Spangled Banner playing in the venue. Those gold medals hanging off the U.S. players.
The national pride has swelled into goosebumps many times over Liu's four-year tenure on the USA Volleyball staff, but nothing could compare to what Liu and the Americans could experience at the delayed 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
Starting with its first pool match on July 25, the U.S. Women's National Team figures to be one of the world's top five contenders as it vies for its first gold medal. And Liu, the second-year Lopes assistant, is essential to it all as the team's performance analyst.
"If we happen to win gold, the first gold in USA women's volleyball history, I can't even begin to imagine what that would feel like," Liu said. "Watching our group, our anthem, our flag, I have goosebumps right now thinking about it. It's a surreal thought."It was a job offer that Liu initially declined more than four years ago, even with it coming from volleyball legend and head coach Karch Kiraly. He was concerned the role would take him away from his career goal to coach, but the job wound up being the best thing for that aspiration.
Not only did it lead to Liu joining the GCU women's volleyball staff with head coach Tim Nollan, it also allowed him to do more than the data analysis and technical coordination that Liu had done at USC.
"With the national team, I'm on the court," Liu said. "I'm giving feedback. I'm running drills. I'm running scout sessions. I'm putting scouting reports together too. I'm just an extension of our coaching staff. It's just, on game days, I'm more focused on relaying information from the baseline to get a different view."
GCU and USA Volleyball have accommodated each other's schedules to mutually benefit from Liu. It has led to what could be a wild 2021 for Liu.
Like the Olympics, the Lopes' 2020 fall season was postponed to send Liu from a postponed GCU spring season to USA Volleyball training and competition and back to a conventional GCU fall season with barely a break in between events.
"Having Jeff on the USA staff going to Tokyo is incredible," GCU women's volleyball head coach Tim Nollan said. "What an experience for him and for our program. He trains with and competes with the best in the world and brings all of those experiences back to our program. It gives our program some added national recognition, which is nice too. Having the University support of him taking on this challenge goes to show how committed GCU is to volleyball and our program."
After an abbreviated 11-4 season at GCU, Liu rolled to Anaheim, California, three days later to being work with USA Volleyball training. That built into the team's appearance at the Volleyball Nations League in Italy, where the U.S. took gold last month. The team returned to the U.S. for a three-week blur before heading to Tokyo for the Olympics.
The rare opportunity for Liu to be embedded in the highest level of volleyball and coaching benefits GCU.
The staff includes great volleyball coaching minds for Liu to draw from Tama Miyashiro's passing and defensive techniques, Erin Virtue's strategical and scouting approaches and Luka Slabe's motor learning principles and blocking work. The roster provides examples for Liu to relay to Lopes, who Liu arranged for them to hear from U.S. players directly during the COVID-19 quarantine.
"It is getting to see how focused on learning these athletes are and how hard they work in between lines, in the weight room, in rehab, in recovery," Liu said. "It's a lot of things that college kids aren't hyperfocused on. That's what it takes as an athlete. So to be able to take those experiences of what I see and what I learn from them and relay it our athletes at Grand Canyon is pretty big. I think our players have a level of respect for these stories I tell and how it relates to them."
And then there are moments when Liu breaks from his businesslike approach to realize he is working alongside Kiraly, a three-time gold medalist who remains the most famous volleyball player in American history."There are times when we're sitting there in the office and Karch finally gets a breather later in the day," Liu said. "He walks in the assistant coaches' office and we start shooting the breeze. We have to look around and pinch ourselves and go, 'That's right. He was there. He experienced it. In fact, he is the subject of the story.' We're listing to the man himself, the GOAT, tell us this story."
This Olympic arc makes Liu harken back to 2017, when he was a new USA Volleyball staffer overwhelmed by the experiences and emotions. That Pan American Cup gold-medal moment jolted him that he was on a world stage and representing the U.S.
This world stage is bigger and this U.S. moment could be grander.
A dream sequence would have Liu assisting the U.S. to a the gold-medal match victory on Aug. 8 and doing the same for GCU in the WAC Tournament championship match in November.
"That would be amazing," Liu said. "First-ever gold for USA women. First-ever NCAA tournament bid for GCU women's volleyball. You can't ask for anything more than that. That's a career year."
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