2008 Woodie Awards
Improvement the goal for Suberu
RYAN ATKINSON
Issue date: 4/26/07 Section: Sports
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Pittsburg State head coach Ibraheem Suberu sat quietly on the bench for much of Wednesday night's volleyball action at John Lance Arena. Rarely did he bark orders to his Gorillas on the court and even more rare were the instances in which he left his seat to talk to a player. Such is the approach in spring volleyball. "We want to be sure that the players on the court can solve problems by themselves," Suberu said. "We have two timeouts and during the regular season we will use those if we need to change something or if we have a big problem. But the focus in spring is on problem solving, both individually and as a team. We want to get to the point where, if there is a problem on the court, it can be solved on the fly by the players out there." It's an approach that seemed to play out fairly well for the Gorillas. After wrapping up a spring schedule that included foes such as Arkansas, Memphis, Oral Roberts and Creighton, the Gorillas had won 18 matches while dropping just seven. "We wanted to improve all around," Suberu said. "We wanted to improve our strength, our coordination, our balance, our speed ... and I felt that, by and large, we did that." The Gorillas finished their spring training by facing Missouri-West Plains and Neosho County Community College on Wednesday night. "The goal for us was to be tested," Suberu said, "and I felt that the two teams that we brought in tonight were very, very helpful. West Plains and Neosho were very good teams. They played, they competed and they gave us an opportunity to problem solve on our own." The Gorillas are coming off of their third NCAA Division II National Tournament in four years after posting a 22-12 overall record. Just one senior, defensive specialist Lindsay Shineman, is gone from that squad. "Having a lot of members back is definitely a plus because the relationship and the familiarity is there," Suberu said. "Then you just have to work at becoming cohesive ... and figuring out how we can harness team strength collectively." The Gorillas will now prepare for the fall season, which gets under way in August. "I think we have a great opportunity this fall," Suberu said. "Hopefully everything goes well and we can prepare and be ready for the season to get here because we have a great opportunity." |
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