The International Volleyball Hall of Fame will hold a ceremony to induct the 5-member class on Saturday, November 10th, at the Log Cabin in Holyoke.
The five members include University of Minnesota head coach Hugh McCutcheon; Brazilian star player Gilberto Amauri de Godoy Filho, better known as Giba; 6-time Soviet and Russian Olympian Evgeniya Artamonova Estes; 1964 Japanese Olympic volleyball coach Hiroshi Toyoda; and Dutch Olympic Champion Bas van de Goor. Notably, van de Goor joins his 1996 Olympic teammate Ron Zwerver, who was inducted last year.
Each year, the International Volleyball Hall of Fame selection committee, which includes every living inductee to the hall, votes on nominees (which can come from anyone). To be elected to the hall requires an individual to earn a 75% majority from the total votes received.
Nominees must be retired for no less than five years from active participation in the category for which they are nominated. They are also expected to achieve “significant national or international recognition for no less than ten years in the category for which they are nominated,” which includes national championships, national-level participation, international medal performances, and all-tournament/all-world selections.
Brief Bios of the 2018 Inductees
• Hugh McCutcheon, New Zealand/US – The former head coach of the U.S. Men’s National Volleyball Team, the former head coach of the U.S. Women’s National Volleyball Team, and the current head coach at New Zealand. As a player, he was an honorable-mention All-American at BYU as a senior and played professionally for 2 years, as well as briefly on New Zealand’s National Team. After serving as a top assistant at BYU from 1995-2001, where the team won 2 NCAA titles, he coached professional clubs in Austria for 2 seasons, where the Vienna Hotvolleys became the first Austrian team to ever beat an Italian top-flight opponent. McCutcheon led the U.S. men to gold at the 2008 Summer Olympic Games and the 2008 World League, and led the U.S. women to silver at the 2012 Olympic Games.
• Giba, Brazil – Was an outside hitter for the Brazilian National Team, where he became one of the most decorated internationals ever. He won 3 medals, including gold in 2004, at the Olympic Games, 3 World Championship gold medals, 3 World Grand Champions Cups, 8 World League titles, and 8 South American Championships. That includes Brazil’s first-ever World Championship in 2002, and 5-straight World League titles from 2003-2007. He was the MVP of the 2004 Olympic Games, 2006 World League, 2006 World Championship, 2007 Pan American Games, 2007 South American Championship, and the 2007 World Cup. In 2015 Fox Sports named him “the Best Men’s Volleyball Player of All-Time.” The 41-year old officially retired from professional volleyball in 2014 at the age of 37.
• Evgeniya Artamonova Estes, Russia – Playing for the Soviet, Unified, and Russian National Teams, Estes is one of only 2 volleyball players (the other is Sergey Tetyukhin) to have competed in 6 consecutive Olympic Games. She played in her first in 1992 at 17 years old for the Unified Team, and then played in the 1996, 2000, 2004, 2008, and 2012 Olympic Games with Russia. In that time, she earned 3 silver medals (1992, 2000, and 2004) along with 4 Eurropean Championships and 3 World Grand Prix titles. She was named the MVP of both the 1997 and 2002 World Grand Prixs. She played in the Russian League in the 2014-2015 season, after giving birth to her 2nd child.
• Hiroshi Toyoda, Japan/Canada – A pioneer of volleyball, Toyoda made his first mark on the sport at the 1964 Olympic Games, where as a specialist in exercise physiology, he introduced a weight training program. That program has been the foundation upon which the Japanese style of volleyball has been built, and the women’s team won gold in 1964 while the men took bronze. He would later, beginning in 1974, bring that style to Canada, where he served a huge role in developing the came across the nation. He also served as the President of the Technical Commission of the FIVB, and wrote a significant amount of literature on the sport.
• Bas van de Goor, Netherlands – Middle Blocker Bas van de Goor was a part of the Dutch team that won gold at both the 1996 Olympic Games and the 1997 European Championships. He also played on the Dutch team at the 2000 Olympic Games, where they finished 5th. He was named the MVP of both Olympic tournaments in which he played, making him one of the rare individuals to earn that honor when his team didn’t medal, let alone win gold. Van de Goor was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes in 2003, and was forced to retire by injury in 2003.
Source: volleymob
