Director John Speraw Is Building USA Volleyball Heading Into LA28

BEVERLY HILLS, CA - MARCH 08: Head coach John Speraw of the men's US Olympic indoor volleyball squad poses for a image astatine the 2016 Team USA Media Summit astatine The Beverly Hilton Hotel connected March 8, 2016 successful Beverly Hills, California. (Photo by Sean M. Haffey/Getty Images)

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USA Volleyball's Director of National Teams reflects connected Olympic heartbreak, legendary UCLA coach Al Skates and the activity accuracy shaping America's pursuit of golden astatine LA28.

(This is portion 1 of a two-part communicative is based connected a Forbes exclusive question and reply pinch John Speraw connected July 10, 2026. All quotes are taken straight from a transcript of the interview. Part 2 will beryllium published Thursday August 6, 2026)

As Los Angeles prepares to invited the world for the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games, fewer leaders are much intimately connected to Southern California's volleyball bequest than John Speraw.

Raised successful the West San Gabriel Valley earlier starring astatine UCLA, Speraw has spent much than 3 decades helping style American volleyball—from NCAA championships to Olympic podiums. After starring the U.S. Men's National Team to bronze medals astatine the Rio 2016 and Paris 2024 Olympic Games, he now oversees each of USA Volleyball's nationalist squad programs arsenic Director of National Teams, helping position the athletics for what could go its defining infinitesimal erstwhile the Olympic spotlight returns to Los Angeles.

In an exclusive question and reply pinch Forbes, Speraw said astir the mentors who influenced and shaped his career, the civilization that fueled Team USA's success, and the Olympic moments that still inhabit his thoughts years later.

Great Coaches Have Mentors

Throughout the conversation, 1 sanction would aboveground repeatedly.

Al Scates.

For volleyball fans, Scates is synonymous pinch different UCLA coaching legend: John Wooden. Scates coached astatine UCLA for 50 years (1963-2012) and won 19 NCAA men’s volleyball championships. Yet Speraw believes the broader sports world still doesn’t afloat admit Scates’ influence—not only connected volleyball, but connected generations of leaders who learned nether him.

"He's 1 of the awesome coaches successful American sports history," Speraw said. "So galore of america are still successful this athletics because of the affirmative power he had connected our lives."

An Education Beyond Volleyball

Speraw’s acquisition astatine UCLA extended good beyond the volleyball court. He describes arriving successful Westwood astatine a unsocial infinitesimal successful Bruins history, wherever the philosophies of hoops icon John Wooden still resonated, while Scates would proceed to build what became the winningest coaching résumé successful UCLA athletics.

"The Wooden power was specified a halfway accuracy of what we did astatine UCLA," Speraw explained. "Then location was Al Scates, the winningest coach successful UCLA history. I had the opportunity to sorb from some of them."

While Wooden became known worldwide for the Pyramid of Success, Speraw says Scates possessed a different genius—one built astir relentless innovation. Long earlier analytics became fashionable crossed master sports, Scates was charting each serve, onslaught and rotation by hand. Each evening aft matches, assistants painstakingly recorded individual statistic earlier Scates spent hours calculating patterns himself.

The process bordered connected obsession.

Speraw laughed while recalling the nighttime he accidentally near 1 of those stat sheets successful his backpack. At astir 3 o’clock successful the morning, his telephone rang. Scates couldn't decorativeness his nightly study because 1 page was missing.

"I had to thrust to a 24-hour Kinko's and fax it to him," Speraw recalled. "He virtually couldn't spell to slumber until he vanished each the statistics."

Today, each elite volleyball programme relies connected blase analytics. Three decades ago, Scates was doing the aforesaid activity pinch paper, pencils and determination.

Sicily Changed Everything

Ironically, coaching wasn't portion of Speraw's original profession plan. Unlike galore early coaches, he wasn't drafting up lineups arsenic a teen aliases dreaming astir opinionated connected a sideline. After graduating from UCLA, he expected medicine—not volleyball—to specify his future. He worked astatine UCLA Medical Center while considering aesculapian schoolhouse and preparing for the MCAT. Volleyball appeared to beryllium ending.

Instead, it softly began again. When Doug Beal asked Scates to coach Team USA astatine the 1997 World University Games successful Sicily, Skates invited his erstwhile subordinate to go his assistant. That determination permanently altered Speraw's career. His first coaching duty besides came pinch an unexpected bonus. He shared a edifice room pinch 1 of the top coaches successful American sports.

There, dispersed crossed 2 beds wrong a humble room successful Sicily, Scates walked his young adjunct done force tendencies, statistical matchups and strategical readying earlier matches. Looking backmost astir 3 decades later, Speraw still speaks astir that acquisition pinch visible gratitude.

"I was getting one-on-one tutoring pinch 1 of the all-time greats successful American sports history," he said. "It was incredible."

For Speraw, Sicily wasn't simply a coaching assignment. It became his postgraduate school.

Building Leaders, Not Just Teams

Perhaps Skates' top bequest isn't measured by championships. It's measured by the group he developed. Speraw points toward an bonzer coaching character that includes Olympic legends, collegiate coaches and master leaders who proceed shaping the athletics (and beyond) decades aft wearing UCLA uniforms. He describes yearly gatherings wherever erstwhile Bruins from aggregate generations reunite astir the coach who connected them.

"It's for illustration a fraternity," Speraw said. "We're each the same."

The communal characteristics are striking. Competitiveness. Curiosity. Humility. Humor. Speraw laughs erstwhile discussing different broadside of Scates seldom seen publicly.

"Most group don't cognize he is perfectly hilarious," Speraw said. "He knew erstwhile it was clip to compete, but he besides knew erstwhile it was clip to bask yourself. We each learned that balance."

Those lessons would later go foundational arsenic Speraw assumed 1 of the astir demanding coaching jobs successful world sport.

Changing The Culture

When Speraw became caput coach of the U.S. Men's National Team, he inherited bonzer talent. He besides inherited beardown personalities. Olympic veterans brought years of master experience, beardown opinions, and competitory drive. Managing that situation required much than method expertise. It demanded affectional intelligence.

"My first attraction was trying to build a overmuch much cohesive squad culture," Speraw explained.

Rather than emphasizing strategies alone, Speraw concentrated connected psychology. His programme rested connected 2 words: Tough and Together

The accuracy became the affectional instauration of Team USA. How would players respond during Olympic pressure? How would they support 1 different aft mistakes? Could collaboration go a competitory advantage?

"I wanted to maximize our imaginable done collaboration," Speraw said. "The values we emphasized were reliable and together."

Over 12 years, that accuracy helped nutrient 1 of the astir consistently successful eras successful American men's volleyball. Yet the Olympic Games person a measurement of defining careers by the thinnest imaginable margins.

The Medal That Wasn’t Enough

Most Olympic coaches would observe 2 bronze medals. Speraw appreciates them. He besides remembers what almost happened. Rio 2016. Paris 2024. Two Olympic semifinals. Two heartbreaking five-set defeats that denied Team USA an opportunity to play for gold.

"My regrets are the semifinals," Speraw admitted. "We were location twice."

Even now, he replays moments from those matches. A substitution. A serve. One decision. One point. Elite athletics often compresses years of mentation into seconds.

"The margins are close," he said. "That's why athletics is great—and sometimes hard."

What gives Speraw the top satisfaction, however, wasn't simply the medals. It was really his teams responded aft devastating disappointment. Winning a bronze badge lucifer instantly pursuing an Olympic semifinal nonaccomplishment whitethorn beryllium 1 of the astir difficult affectional challenges successful sports. Twice, his players recovered the resilience to regroup. Looking back, Speraw believes that accomplishment reflected thing deeper than volleyball.

It reflected culture.

"It astir apt speaks to the squad portion much than anything," he said. "When you person the heartbreak of the semifinal, you've sewage to travel together."

Leading USA Volleyball Into LA28

As Los Angeles counts down to LA28, Speraw now finds himself starring American volleyball from an moreover broader perspective—not arsenic 1 nationalist squad coach, but arsenic the executive responsible for besides expanding the sport's scope crossed the country.

It is simply a situation each spot arsenic eager arsenic preparing a squad for the Olympics. It could go his astir important legacy.

In Part Two: John Speraw discusses why the years starring into LA28 correspond a once-in-a-generation opportunity arsenic volleyball successful America continues to surge done younker participation, commercialized finance and the continued emergence of women's sports.