Sunday, March 25, 2001

By Dave Ornauer
Stars and Stripes

Tim Flack / Stars and Stripes Linda Elliott, coach of the men's volleyball team from Iwakuni Marine Corps Air Station, Japan, applauds after her players scored a point and got the serve back during a recent match.

YOKOTA AIR BASE, Japan — Men have been coaching women’s sports teams for years. But it’s rare to find a woman running a men’s team.

Yet Linda Elliott feels comfortable at the helm of the men’s volleyball squad at Iwakuni Marine Corps Air Station in southwestern Japan.

And the former University of Arizona spiker has big plans for her team when she takes them to Okinawa for next month’s Marine Forces Pacific Regional Tournament.

"I asked them what their expectations were," Elliott said recently during a series of friendship matches with the Yokota Raiders.

"They said they want to win the regionals and go on to the All-Marine tryout camp. It’s my job to help meet those expectations."

Iwakuni won six of nine matches and placed third in last year’s regionals behind champion Marine Corps Base Hawaii and 3rd Force Service Support Group from Okinawa.

Elliott’s squad lost all four matches to the Raiders, but it was missing three of its nine players.

"It’s a great trip for us," Elliott said. "They needed exposure like this — playing against Yokota and against Japanese teams — to give us playing time for when we get to Okinawa."

Elliott would like to have a full lineup when Iwakuni travels to Okinawa.

"It’s essential that these active-duty Marines have command support," Elliott said. "In the past, Iwakuni has struggled with command support. This year we’re hoping, with continual support, that all these guys will get approval to go."

Elliott has a track record of innovation and turning losing teams into winners.

Before her arrival at Iwakuni in 1995, Elliott lived and worked in Panama with her husband, longtime Department of Defense Education Activity coach and teacher Richard Elliott.

She coached a men’s provincial team there that had finished last the previous nine years in the national tournament and guided it to a second-place finish.

She’s been a fixture on the volleyball court and in various Marine Corps Community Service jobs since arriving at Iwakuni.

Elliott took over the Matthew C. Perry High School girls team and brought them within an eyelash of their first top-10 finish in the Far East tournament.

While working in youth services, she was instrumental in bringing tackle football to the base. The Iwakuni Samurai team for 15- to 18-year-olds fielded a team in 1996 and came under the auspices of DODEA this year.

Richard, who played football at Southern California in the late 1960s, has coached the Samurai since their inception.

Linda has worked recently as an independent personal trainer. But a few months ago she got word that Iwakuni was seeking a coach for its men’s volleyball team.

"It’s my job to get the most out of them," she said. "The guys believe in themselves."

"She’s awesome," said setter Dan White, who coached the Samurai girls team last fall. "She’s gotten more out of me than any other coach. She has me doing things I’d resent other coaches for, and I’m doing it with a smile on my face."

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