| Article Title |
In the Spotlight Tom Peterson |
| Type |
article |
| Date |
1997-09-30 |
| Paper |
Salt Lake Community College Student Newspapers |
| Language |
eng |
| City |
Salt Lake City |
| County |
Salt Lake |
| Category |
School |
| Page |
11 |
| OCR Text |
f i t g IB E th h flight t Tom Tom Peterson i By Eric Bresee Sports Editor He helped build it from a club sport into a varsity sport at BYU He patrolled the sidelines at Penn State as they defeated UCLA for the National Championship in 1994 He is Tom Peterson and it is vol vol- Peterson is in his second year as the head coach of the Salt Lake Community College Bruins volleyball volley volley- ball team The team itself is also in its second season Last year under Peterson the Bruins finished 25 13 and were ranked seventh in the country Peterson has them on track again this year as the Bruins are ranked sixth in the country and are 17 To have the success and knowledge knowledge knowledge knowl knowl- edge Peterson has one may think he began playing volleyball at an n early age To the contrary Peterson never touched a volleyball throughout junior high and high school Peterson said he was more into racquet racquet racquet rac rac- sports such as tennis and rac- rac Peterson continued his schooling at BYU where his sister Brenda made the volleyball national team He decided he would take a volleyball volleyball volleyball volley volley- ball class while enrolled After a mission and a year of not doing anything Peterson decided ed to get involved He decided to try tryout tryout tryout out for the racquetball team While strolling around campus Peterson noticed a flyer about tryouts tryouts tryouts try- try outs for the volleyball club team The tryouts for volleyball happened to be the same day as the tryouts for racquetball I went to try tryout out and it said racquetball racquetball racquetball rac rac- tryouts to the right and volleyball volleyball volleyball vol vol- to the left said Peterson I went left Peterson played on very competitive competitive competitive club teams One year they finished finished finished fin fin- third in the nation and the next they finished fourth The team that finished third had five players who played for the US U.S. National team and one who played for the Iranian team Eventually Petersons Peterson's focus turned to coaching In 1981 he became an assistant coach at Utah under Jean one of Petersons Peterson's assistants with the Bruins Peterson made his way back to BYU where volleyball was still a club sport He helped build the sport to varsity status by inviting California teams to play his club team Peterson would pay for the teams to go to Provo They made the money back as fans would pack the arena to see the games Peterson remembers bringing in and being the only team to defeat them that season His team did the same with UCLA Ultimately Petersons Peterson's accomplishments accomplishments accomplishments were noticed In 1988 he became the head coach at Penn I y 1 c t te 1 e x i I v vy vr I r I y 5 a aY Y y l c. c C- C 1 hE IL I 44 f State University Peterson spent six years at Penn State In five of those six years his team made it to the Final Four In 1994 they beat UCLA for the National Championship However 1994 would be Petersons Peterson's last year at Penn State I decided before the season it would be my last Peterson said He said family reasons and the environment gave him the impression sion that it was time to move on For his efforts in 1994 Peterson earned national coach of the year awards from several organizations and publications Peterson served as an assistant coach at BYU while being time full-time on staff at Finally Salt Lakes Lake's first volleyball team took the court in 1996 and Peterson is helping helping helping help help- ing build it into a rate first-rate program While he built volleyball up at BYU and is building a program at from scratch Peterson does not feel building a program is a driving driving driving dri dri- dri- dri ving force I want to win he said Any good coach wants to win I hope our girls feel the same way j The Bruins are lucky to have Peterson as he has experience with r several winning programs and 1 knows how to build one t You need good people and good t coaches he said At this level we need to be teachers We need to be fundamentally good teachers Most coaches make the players fit the system We take whom we have and make a system that fits them That system has the Bruins competing competing competing com com- for a National Championship in only their second year iSi o i |
| Reference URL |
https://newspapers.lib.utah.edu/ark:/87278/s600169d/9856479 |
