Scorching scorer
An opposite hitter who hails from a family of volleyball stars, Clay Stanley will make his second Olympic appearance in Beijing. He was the team's leading scorer at the 2004 Athens Games, where he finished fifth overall with 110 points, and his 17 aces ranked second overall. Stanley recorded 39 aces in 2007 to tie Reid Priddy for the team lead, but Stanley was the team's top server and fifth overall at the 2007 World Cup, where the U.S. finished fourth. He also was named the top server at the 2008 NORCECA Olympic Qualifier, which the U.S. won to qualify for the Beijing Games. Head coach Hugh McCutcheon says Stanley has one of the best arms in the world, jumps high and has the ability to take over a match.
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Stanley's father and step-grandfather played on the 1968 U.S. Olympic volleyball team. Surrender, you're surrounded...by volleyball
With his appearance in the Athens Games, Clay and his father, Jon Stanley, became the first father and son to play Olympic volleyball for the United States. A volleyball Hall of Famer, Jon was a starter on the 1968 Olympic team, which finished seventh. And Clay's mother, Sandra Haine, was a member of the Canadian national team and Hall of Fame, and played for the Denver Comets of the International Volleyball Association, a co-ed professional league. The connections continued when Sandra remarried. Her second husband and Clay's stepfather, Marc Haine, was an all-American at San Diego State. Marc's father and Clay's step-grandfather, Tom Haine, captained that '68 Olympic team in Mexico City and also is a Hall of Famer.
Bigger and hits harder
Former national team head coach and current CEO of USA Volleyball Doug Beal, who knows both father and son, says, "Clay is a special guy. His dad was one of the great players in the 60s and early 70s. Clay is very different from his dad. His dad was a 6-6 middle blocker -- which was big at the time. Clay is 6-9 and heavier by about 40 pounds. He hits as hard and high, is a very good jumper, and has one of the best jump serves. Is a threat to score a point every time he serves. Men tend to serve in the low 60 mph range. We've clocked Clay at low 80 mph range. And he can keep it in bounds in a range of places." Jon assesses their respective games by saying, "I was a finesse/skill player as opposed to a power player. I couldn't hit that hard so I had to make sure the ball went where the opposing team wasn't. I had to develop other parts of the game...passing, defense, and blocking. I was a little more skill oriented than Clay but he has continued to improve."
Destiny Calling
Seemingly destined for the sport, Clay originally didn't want anything to do with it. He was never really pressured to play, but he even rejected offers from his dad that they play when at the beach. Clay instead preferred skateboarding and surfing -- until his junior year in high school, when he went to the USA Volleyball Boys Junior Olympics and realized the sport truly was fun. He also decided what others long before would have guessed -- that he could be good at volleyball. But he couldn't play in high school because Kaiser High had no boys' volleyball program. So Stanley played basketball and water polo, lettering his senior year.
Riding on a Rainbow
In college, though, Stanley quickly became a stellar player at Hawaii, where his father served as an assistant coach. Clay finished his career 10th on Hawaii's all-time kill list. He started part-time as a freshman in 1997, but red-shirted in 1998 to concentrate on his studies. Stanley returned the next year and broke Hawaii's single-match kill record with 50 against UCLA. In 2000, he tied the school record for aces (54), then gave up his final year of eligibility to play professionally. He joined the U.S. national team in November 2000, then went to Europe, playing in Greece, where he continues to play when not with the U.S. team. Stanley's nickname is "The Bird."
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