Destinee Hooker Life in a Parallel Universe
As Rio 16 approaches one can only wonder at Karch Kiraly’s Kafkaesque imitation of Chip Kelly as he genuflects on the simple and universal elegance of his new fast system that requires not the greatest talent but so succeeds based upon the genius of its construction that the mere insertion of similar and happy players is all that is necessary to create golden results. He foresaw in the World Championships gold a clear example of this when the Cinderella story of Kim Hill helped usher in the first major championship success ever for the US Women's National Team.
Unfortunately this fell unceremoniously to the ground the following year when he broke apart his championship team which then led to the USA’s collapse against Russia in the World Cup and now there remains only the uncertain roles of who, in the starting seven, and the complete rebuilding of a cohesive group in the very short period of time before the August advent of the Olympics.
Meanwhile in Brazil, Olympic coach Z Robert, looking forward to Rio 16 noted that one of his top two setters, Fabiola, whose untimely pregnancy has created questions about whether she will be able to return to playing shape did not deter him from publically stating “We need her on this team. I will invite her and if she can compete and play she will be part of the team”. Thus giving her a guiding light to drive her personal challenge to achieve competitiveness.
Here in the US we have a similar situation. The star player from the 2012 US Olympic silver medalist team, Destinee Hooker, also surprisingly announced in late summer that she was again pregnant with what would be her second child in this Rio 16 quad. This following a most successful season in Korea with IBK in which she led her Korean team to a surprising gold medal whilst demonstrating a new maturity to both harmonize and lead. It was clear to anyone following her career that she was much loved as a teammate and a player and that all previous complaints about her caustic personality and ego driven 2013 spat with US Coach Kiraly were now relics of her youthful past.
So what is Coach Kiraly’s parallel response? Nada. Nothing but deadly silence. At a moment when a patriotic call to top US players should be extended as a courtesy and duty, especially to someone who has already made such a significant contribution previously to the national team, this Trumpish vision of leadership is not a worthy example for the US Olympic team.
Coach Kiraly's continued refusal to extend a public invitation to Destinee Hooker so that she can continue diligently her already intense workout program is not merely just a statement about his coaching maturity but also a reflection of his personal views as they relate to such intrinsically American values of forgiveness, redemption and opportunity for all those who are worthy.
It is time for Coach Kiraly’s inner circle to lean in and give counsel that he should publicly extend an invitation to Hooker stating she will one, be invited to this spring's US national team training camp and that she, as well as all the invitees, will have an equal opportunity to demonstrate their qualifications to be picked for the final 12.
And in this parallel universe it would behoove Destinee Hooker to most graciouly accept or reject this invitation so that in the end all of us who love and follow US women's volleyball will know that there was no arbitrary exclusion of one of the top US players in the prime of her career.
The only question that remains is what Universe does Coach Kiraly live in?