I’ve got a thing against using exclamation marks in newspaper stories. Today is an exception.
Say it ain’t so, Jonas!
The word is that Jonas Umlauft, the star attraction of the University of Hawaii men’s volleyball team, is leaning his angular 6 feet and 9 inches away from Manoa. After two years at UH, he will remain in his native Germany for the upcoming fall semester.
No problem, you say. Men’s volleyball is played in the spring. Umlauft will be back in plenty of time for the start of his junior season in early 2012. Well, it’s not that simple. The audible murmur around volleyball circles is that the most exciting Warriors orb pounder in nearly a decade won’t be back.
I can sum this up in one word.
Bummer.
Perhaps he’s not as charismatic as Yuval Katz and the rest of the rock stars disguised as volleyball players from the 1990s, when the Warriors playing at the Stan Sheriff Center wasn’t just a game, it was an Event.
Still, Umlauft is the key ingredient to UH’s attempt at resurgence. You only have to see him play once to know that.
Passing is usually the key to successful volleyball these days, largely because of rally scoring.
But the thing with a player like Umlauft (and I hesitate to say it that way, because there are so few like him) is that his most important skill — which is, basically, finding the opposition’s side of the floor with his hitting — is at once the most fundamental and exciting aspect of the men’s game. And you can’t coach a volleyball player to be 6-9, and you can’t coach him to hit the ball the way Umlauft does.
I am a big fan of defensive play, and it is why I prefer the women’s game — there are many more rallies with great digs. For most of us, the biggest source of excitement in men’s volleyball is the big hitters like Umlauft. And, yes, defense wins. But I’ve seen Umlauft grab sets and entire matches by the throat, bringing the Warriors back from what looked like sure losses with one blast after another.
I was looking forward to two more years of that, with coach Charlie Wade building a powerhouse around him.
Plus, this is a young person who is a total credit to the university … a brilliant student who seems destined to great things beyond volleyball. The only thing more impressive than his kills per game is his grade-point average.
The door hasn’t been shut on a return to UH for Jonas Umlauft. And dreams of him leading the Warriors to a national championship aren’t completely dashed. But, sadly, it looks like the player nicknamed the Germanator has terminated his stay two seasons early.
Reach Dave Reardon at dreardon@staradvertiser.com
