Courtside
October 15, 2024
That is one in a sequence previewing the inductees going into the Worldwide Volleyball Corridor of Fame in Holyoke, Massachusetts, on Saturday.
This 12 months there are 9 inductees, two indoor gamers in Italian Andrea Zorzi and Cuba’s Regla Bell; two seashore gamers in American Tim Hovland and Brazilian Ana Paula Henkel; Brazilian coach Jose “Ze” Roberto and ParaVolley coach Hadi Rezaei of Iran; two officers in Argentinian Juan Angel Pereyra and American Sue Lemaire; and Italian Giuseppe Panini, who’s going in as a pacesetter.
There are additionally three particular honoree classes acknowledged this 12 months: John Kessel is receiving the Mintonette Medallion of Advantage Award; Invoice Kauffman and Ed Chan are being honored posthumously with the inaugural Award for Media Excellence; and Michael Kane, Mike Knapik, Aaron Vega and Don Humason are receiving the Mayoral Award of Excellence.
In fashionable tradition, there’s the cottage business recreation centered across the “Six levels of Kevin Bacon.” It rests on the idea that anybody concerned within the Hollywood movie business might be linked by way of their movie roles to Bacon inside six steps.
Then there’s the volleyball equal, and that one is the “Six levels of John Kessel.” The actual query, is, who within the volleyball WORLD, and I imply WORLD, isn’t linked indirectly, form or kind to John Kessel??
John’s profession has been one devoted to service of the game. From taking part in, to teaching, to teaching coaches, to main roles with the FIVB, and USAV, to being a pioneer in ParaVolley, to operating clinics in virtually 100 nations, Kessel is actually a volleyball treasure, who might not be cognizant of simply how a lot his contributions are valued by these within the sport.
“I used to be completely shocked,” he recalled when he acquired the induction name from IVHF. “I really feel like I selected path to influence the world as I hoped.”
Boy did he ever!
Utilizing the phrase “influence” as he did within the quote above is kind of apropos for Kessel. In 1988, Invoice Neville, Mike Fleming and John acquired collectively for a few days to strive to determine discover a approach the place good teaching wouldn’t merely be “an accident of delivery.” The consequence, a ebook entitled, “Elevated Mastery and Skilled Utility of Teaching Idea,” IMPACT for brief. And in 35 years since publication, it has certainly made an influence, a significant one. Over a half million copies have been offered, and yearly John updates with one other version that includes the newest in new scientific discoveries yearly.
Kessel is obsessive about the science of studying.
“The science of HOW you study remains to be my focus,” Kessel mentioned. “How can we study sooner?” The peripatetic thoughts of Kessel by no means actually slows down, though he’s in his mid-70’s, an age when most individuals are “browsing it in.”
Not John. His newest mission/obsession is working passionately with the “Let’s Maintain the Ball Flying Basis,” which is creating an app to show aspiring volleyball coaches in creating nations.
“John Kessel is certainly a residing legend within the volleyball group,” mentioned Jon Aharoni, Founder and President of ICN Athletics. “His tireless work in adaptive volleyball, seashore volleyball, and the indoor recreation has made a profound influence. By touring the globe, he has not solely nurtured grassroots improvement, but additionally mentored elite athletes, guaranteeing that the spirit of volleyball reaches all corners of the world.”
Kessel grew up in Camarillo, California, earlier than matriculating to Colorado Faculty in 1970. He acquired a really begin in teaching. At simply 18 he began the ladies’s membership workforce at Colorado Faculty, and earlier than lengthy he was teaching each the lads’s and ladies’s groups at his alma mater.
In 1975, John started to increase his repertoire, beginning summer time camps for youth gamers. After which, in line with Kessel, “I detoured out to educate coaches.” And, for, the next 50 years or so he has been doing simply that, all the time guided by the ideas of science. Should you actually wish to get right into a vigorous dialog with John simply spring the phrase “custom” on him. He rails towards that phrase, breaks out within the eponymous music from “Fiddler on the Roof,” the minute he hears the “T” phrase, and his philosophies are all the time geared in direction of difficult “established” norms.
Kessel has achieved so many issues in our sport that it could take a big tome to recount the accomplishments. Together with that he has many, many scrumptious tales which have gone together with a life devoted to volleyball. Nevertheless, one does stick out by way of ingenuity.
John was the game producer for indoor volleyball on the Olympic Summer time Video games in Atlanta in 1996. The gold-medal match was epic, Italy towards the Netherlands, and it was going to a fifth and deciding set (See our article on 2024 IHOF inductee Andrea Zorzi). The President of the IOC on the time, Juan Antonio Samaranch, was supposed handy out the awards to the gold, silver and bronze medalists. Ruben Acosta, the president of the FIVB on the time, got here to John initially of the fifth set in a panic.
“John you have to do one thing,” Acosta mentioned. “Juan Antonio should depart quickly to current the Olympic marathoners their medals,” on the Closing Ceremonies. John responded to this stress cooker of a state of affairs, by some means a way by commandeering a helicopter on the final minute, and saving the day. Each the volleyball AND the marathon medalists obtained their medals from El Presidente. It isn’t simple to get a helicopter actually on the final minute, on the final day of the Olympic Video games. However John did it. By no means guess towards this man!
In fact, there’s a postscript to this story. As a result of size of that Olympic gold-medal match, 2 hours, 31 minutes, Acosta was a person on a mission to get away from the unpredictable lengths of matches. For sure, Kessel, taking a scientific strategy, after all, advocated for the rally-scoring mannequin, and was in a position to provide you with the science to assist it. First 4 video games to 25 factors and the fifth to fifteen. By no means ought to a match take greater than two hours. Acosta was offered, and the sport was modified perpetually.
As soon as once more Kessel at the forefront of shifting the game ahead.
John was additionally a pioneer within the improvement of ParaVolley, and serving to it develop to its lofty present standing.
“His function with World ParaVolley has been instrumental in elevating sitting volleyball to a acknowledged and celebrated sport throughout the Paralympic motion,” Aharoni mentioned. “The optimistic results of his dedication are evident within the lives of each athlete who has participated in sitting volleyball, and his contributions have set a robust basis for future generations. John’s humility and dedication to serving underserved communities showcase his outstanding character.”
The love of volleyball can’t be contained in a single era of Kessel’s. John has a memento image of his father spiking the ball taking part in seashore doubles in 1947. And, within the “apple doesn’t fall too removed from the tree” class, John’s son, Cody, was on the 30-man USA Nationwide Crew roster for the 2024 VNL season. Cody, a 2015 Princeton graduate, was additionally the youngest participant to ever win the championship within the Open Division on the prestigious MotherLode seashore volleyball event in Aspen, the place he received the title in 2014.
On the Worldwide Volleyball Corridor of Fame ceremony Saturday, John is being offered with the “Mintonette Medallion of Advantage” award. “Mintonette” was the unique identify given for volleyball, when William G. Morgan based the game in 1895. No different award identify might match John fairly as properly as “Mintonette,” as a result of he actually is a, if not, THE, volleyball “authentic.”
For extra about Saturday’s induction celebration and/or to purchase tickets: https://www.volleyhall.org/induction-celebration.html
Should you can’t make it, watch reside: https://www.youtube.com/@ivhfofficial