Ping and Brassey pioneered female athletics

Pioneer. Trailblazer. Test case. Guinea pig.

By whatever term, the volleyball fates have conspired to reunite several remarkable women at the Stan Sheriff Center for this week’s USA Volleyball Cup between the U.S. and China.

The lives of Chinese head coach "Jenny" Lang Ping and former U.S. national team setter Laurel Brassey Iversen have been intertwined since their international playing days in the 1970s. Lang was the first female to coach a national volleyball team — both China and the U.S. — and Brassey Iversen broke down major barriers when playing for the San Diego State men’s team in 1974.

Bridging the decades — with its shift in acceptance of female athletes — is Megan Hodge Easy, the starting outside hitter for Team USA who played for Lang at Guangdong Evergrande, a pro club team in China.

USA Volleyball’s pilot "motherhood program" landed Wednesday at Honolulu International with Hodge, her 7-month-old son Easton and Easy’s mother-in-law whose caregiving expenses will be covered during the team’s stay here.

"USA (women’s) Soccer has done a really good job with this, supporting their players with children," U.S. coach Karch Kiraly said. "We’ve learned a lot from them and we’re learning as we go.

"Megan is our inaugural case for the motherhood program. We think it should be a really important part of the women’s program because for the longest time our players have had this binary thinking, either to play or be a mom, that they can’t do both. We don’t think it needs to be that way.

"It started (Wednesday), with a whole different vibe on the bus. We love having baby sounds on the bus. A big part of what we’re trying to do is becoming a volleyball family. It’s a really cool thing."

The Cup is Easy’s return to international competition after getting married in 2013 and having her son last year. The four-time All-American at Penn State and Best Spiker at the 2013 Pan-American Cup said she is grateful for the opportunity.

"I’m very thankful that Karch wanted to incorporate this into our program," the 26-year-old Easy said. "A lot of people have either had to stop or change gears when they have kids. And that’s unfortunate.

"Just because you become a mom, which is the best and most important job in the world, it doesn’t mean you can’t still play. This means I can extend my career and I’m grateful."

It’s literally a world of difference from the experiences that both Brassey Iversen and Lang had when playing in the ’70s. Brassey Iversen was the national team setter while still in high school and played her freshman year at San Diego State in 1973.

But when playing in the world championships meant she would miss the beginning matches of her sophomore season, "the coach told me that they wanted more cohesiveness so I was no longer on the team," said Brassey Iversen, who has been living and working on Kauai for more than 10 years. "After getting back from the championships, (then Aztec men’s coach) Jack Henn said he wanted me to play for his team.

"They had won the (NCAA) championship the year before and were pretty young. At first, the school wasn’t going to let me play and banned me from practice. Finally they said OK and I played back row and set. It was a crazy time."

Brassey Iversen eventually began coaching at New Mexico where Lang, the most decorated player in Chinese volleyball history, decided she wanted to get into coaching. She knew Brassey Iversen from international competition and twice served as an assistant coach for the Lobos (1987-89 and 1992-93).

"I think it was there that she started developing her coaching philosophy," Brassey Iversen said. "She began to understand the balance in college between academics and athletics. She’s been revolutionary in China where it wasn’t just training eight hours a day and gym-hotel-airport when traveling to some pretty culturally phenomenal places in the world.

"It is about the competition but there has to be a balance. She’s really in tune with her players, relates to them, and I think she’s become one of the best coaches in the world."

As a player, Lang won an Olympic gold medal in 1984 when the Chinese defeated the U.S. in Los Angeles. She coached the Chinese to a silver medal at the 1996 Atlanta Games and, as the U.S. coach, won silver at the 2008 Beijing Games.

Her resume includes a successful coaching career in Italy and in China. Lang was coaxed into returning — "for one last time," she said — to head the Chinese team, where she has them No. 3 heading into Olympic qualification.

Lang said that Hawaii has long been one of her favorite places to visit. She remembers coaching in Klum Gym when New Mexico played the Rainbow Wahine and again in Honolulu during the 1995 Women’s World Grand Prix.

"I love Hawaii, we are so excited to be here, especially with this young team to experience this," Lang said. "I remember the times I have been here and how tough (the Rainbow Wahine) was to play.

"What I remember is how beautiful it is, the beaches, the sunshine but also the people. The people in Hawaii love volleyball and it is beautiful to play here. We are young but we have our best players here, pretty close to what our (Olympic) team will be."