First, a little story:

The first major sport I covered for the Daily Cal was volleyball. I went on calbears.com to do some research before my first interview with coach Rich Feller. Up in the top right corner of the volleyball page, there’s this picture of him, yelling, pointing and looking rather intense. It scared the shit out of me.

I went into the interview thinking I was about to get a chair thrown at me. Turns out, the guy was pretty damn nice. Now, a year later and covering Cal volleyball for the second season in a row, I can definitively say that people don’t come as nice and personable as Rich Feller. It’s been my pleasure to work with him. The man is a true class act.

So now I’m returning the favor. (Click here to read more…)

Earlier this week, Cal volleyball coach Rich Feller said the team was going to be watching more video of itself before practice each day. The idea was to get the squad to recognize more of its own tendencies and mistakes. Looks like it worked.

This weekend, the Bears ran all over Arizona and Arizona State, hitting an average of .379 while holding their opponents to a .132 mark. Not too shabby, especially in conference play.

“I feel like the video (session before practice) was 40 minutes long instead of 20,” setter Carli Lloyd said. “We’re doing podcasting so we get videos at home.”

The podcasting Lloyd speaks of involves iTunes. Assistant coach Matt McShane loads videos onto iTunes, so that the players can watch their game tape whenever they’re in front of a computer. Pretty handy.

But the learning from video didn’t end with practice for the Bears this week. The team added extra meetings and study sessions to get even more out of their video sessions.

“We meet as a team now without the coaches and do video. And that’s even bigger for all of us,” Lloyd added. “I send out to the setters questions and they have to send me answers. We discuss it and try to have a game plan as a team rather than having the coaches do all the work.”

Apparently, it pays to do your homework.

Baseball coach David Esquer’s got another quality class on his hands this year, the No. 24 in the nation according to Collegiate Baseball (magazine).

The 2009 baseball class includes seven pitchers, a catcher and seven infielders/outfielders. Pitching is definitely the high priority, considering last year the Bears had a frankly horrendous team ERA of . They grabbed a big name in Justin Jones, a big lefty from Oakdale High. Jones was drafted in the seventh round of the MLB Amateur Draft by the Chicago White Sox in June, and had 118 strikeouts and a 0.42 ERA as a senior. Not too bad.

The big name at the plate and in the infield is Tony Renda, a shortstop from Serra. Renda was an All-American his senior year and batted .486 his junior year. But the thing that Renda is most famous for is his association with infamous steroidy shady guy Greg Anderson. That could bring some fun and intrigue to Evans Diamond in the spring.

If you can’t wait for Cal baseball to start, check out the alumni game on Oct. 25 at 1 p.m.

Bad news for the Cal volleyball team. Sophomore middle hitter Shannon Hawari is officially out for the entirety of the 2009 season.

Hawari incurred a full tear to her left ACL in the first set of the match against Hawaii on Sept. 6 and was seen sporting a tight ace bandage around that knee in the last week. She’ll be having her season-ending surgery next Thursday.

In her stead, there are a few freshmen who will need to step up. Tia Gaffen has done nicely in Hawari’s spot. Gaffen had six kills and three assists against San Jose State last Saturday. After Kat Brown returns from her minor ankle injury, she should also see some time in Hawari’s vacant spot. Hawari will petition for a medical hardship waiver, which would give her another year of elibigility.

For Cal fans who are horribly disappointed by this unfortunate bit of news, take solace in the fact that Hawari was just a true freshman middle hitter herself last season. And she ended up being a freshman All-Pac-10 selection. Could Gaffen or Brown be the next? We shall see.

This is my second year on the volleyball beat, and at this point in the figural game, I consider myself pretty well acquainted with the team. And while I’ve written dozens of times about Hana Cutura and Carli Lloyd, there’s another fascinating personality that I haven’t spent much time discussing: coach Rich Feller.

I hope to someday write a health and wellness book with Coach Feller. Seriously. The guy is like a walking testament to the power of diet and exercise. I’ve long known about his prodigious exercise habits. He bikes to work every day and then hops on the treadmill while the team is in the weight room. But only last week did I find out about his eating habits.

I caught up with Feller and the team at training table, the official name for, well, lunch. As the team ate their delicious-looking assortment of pastas, proteins and mashed potatoes, Feller piled his plate with something else: eggs.

“Whenever eggs are here, that’s my dessert,” Feller said. “I just eat the whites.”

Feller had no fewer than three eggs which were all gone by the time I finished interviewing him. When I told him how healthy he was, he shrugged his shoulders and admitted he’d eaten a piece of bread. Based on the amount of mashed potatoes on Hana’s plate, I think Feller was doing well in the carbohydrate department.

Feller’s healthy ways don’t just extend to himself and his team though. Assistant coach Matt McShane lost over 20 pounds over the past few months. Looks like Feller’s taking the job of team nutritionist.

Just got word that true freshman Correy Johnson will get the starting nod for the Cal volleyball team tonight against UC Irvine.

Johnson is tapped as the starting opposite. She certainly looked good in last week’s scrimmage, so it’s not a huge surprise that coach Rich Feller is looking to her as another huge body on the front row.

The Bears face the Anteaters at 4:30 this afternoon.

If you’re a Cal student, welcome back! The joys (and pains) of school are again upon us, but the good news is that it also signals the beginning of fall sports. Yay!

There are lots of sports starting up again this week, and a few play in Berkeley in the next few days. For freshmen, it’s the perfect way to get introduced to Cal and school spirit, and for everyone else, it’s a nice warm-up to the Big Show — the first Game Day of the season against Maryland.

So until you can cast your gaze upon the football team on Sept. 5, keep your eyes on these other (equally enthralling) sports to whet your appetite:

Friday, Aug. 28

Field Hockey v. Towson at 4 p.m. at Maxwell Family Field

Volleyball v. UC Irvine at 4:30 p.m. in Reno, Nev. (three-day tournament)

Sunday, Aug. 30

Men’s Golf at the Golfweek Conference Challenge in Riverside, Iowa (three-day tournament)

Thursday, Sept. 3

Volleyball v. Texas at 8 p.m. in Honolulu, Hawaii

Friday, Sept. 4

Men’s Soccer v. Georgetown at 1 p.m. in Georgetown, Maryland

Women’s Soccer v. Texas A&M at 4:30 p.m. at Edwards Stadium

Pac-10 Football Media Day was held in Los Angeles earlier today, and there weren’t any huge surprises other than Stanford running back Toby Gerhart’s decision to forego a suit and rock a Stanford polo shirt casual Friday-style. Pretty standard coach-speak from all parties involved, but here are some of my preliminary reactions to Thursday afternoon’s goings-on:

Everyone is gunning for USC: For the first time in a while, the Trojans (although picked to finish first in the conference by the media) feel a little vulnerable. After junior Mark Sanchez jumped ship early for the NFL Draft, USC’s probable starter is Aaron Corp who only has 28 career passing yards. And although they bring back the beastly safety Taylor Mays, they also lost three of the best defensive players in the country to the Draft.

Several coaches were asked what it would take to beat the Trojan juggernaut. Arizona coach Mike Stoops gave a wildly roundabout answer that in no way addressed how to beat USC but only acknowledged how good the Trojans are and how it isn’t “easy.” (Click here to read more…)

Although he’s still listed on the official Cal athletics website, word around the net is that Cal baseball hitting coach Jon Zuber has been fired.

Considered one of the greatest players in Cal baseball history during his playing days, Zuber served as the Bears’ hitting coach for the past five seasons. This past year, the team under his direction batted .298, third-best in the Pac-10. At the end of the season, five Cal hitters were drafted in the MLB Amateur Draft, including three in the first two rounds.

The Bears finished the season with a 24-29 record overall and a 9-18 conference record, second-worst in the Pac-10.

But the question remains: Will Evans Diamond announcer Ed Zuber (father of Jon Zuber), resume duties next season even after his son got the axe? Stay tuned…

Yesterday the San Francisco Chronicle ran an article of interest for Cal football fans. What about?

The $225,000 tickets at Memorial Stadium.

“Whaaaaaaaat?!” you might ask. And you would be correct in your reaction.

In this economy, doesn’t it seem a bit … insane to ask that of any ticket-holders this side of Yankee Stadium? Granted, this is the very top of the ticket price scale. You get your seat for 50 years, (But it seems to me that for those who can afford this deal, it’s doubtful that they’ll live the 50 years to enjoy it. No recent alum is shelling out 200,000 big ones. Just the old, very, very rich ones.) and you get free food, parking, etc. (Click here to read more…)