Tampa Prep's Krusen Gym bristles with energy as the junior varsity volleyball game against rival Berkeley enters the closing moments.
Meanwhile, Tampa Prep's varsity team enters the gym, wearing formidable game faces. They're ready for The Match.
The Match is the twice-yearly showdown between Tampa Prep and Berkeley Prep, a fierce volleyball competition that ranks tops among high school events in the area. And, yes, we're talking girls here. They prove the level of performance attainable by female athletes when given the right instruction and opportunity.
Their storied rivalry takes place in an atmosphere of caviar and champagne. Outside the games, the parking lot is loaded with Beamers, Benzes and even Rolls Royces, a polo match kind of crowd. Not surprising since both schools are private and earmarked for the wealthy. Inside, the atmosphere is more like a basketball game on Tobacco Road.
Once the crowd notices the arrival of Tampa Prep's varsity team, raucous cheers erupt. Most vocal are a group of guys in T-shirts proclaiming "I Dig TP VB Because They Bang Hard." On the backs of their shirts are nicknames like Fisch, Puck Monkey, VB Pimp, Wilfredo and Yo Quiero Z.
VB Pimp stands in front of the crowd with a cowbell and begins a cheer:
"I say Tampa, you say Prep, Tampa! …"
Meanwhile, the teams warm up on court. Volleyballs whistle through the air and thwack against the wooden floor.
Berkeley won this first match of the season, rallying from a two-game deficit to take the best-of-five contest with a sweep of the final three games. The match had been scheduled for earlier in the season but was postponed after the events of Sept. 11.
"Everyone knows about the rivalry," says Berkeley's senior mid-hitter Caitlin Reiner, noting her parents used to go to The Match long before she played for the team.
"It's really scary the first time you get to play in a Tampa Prep-Berkeley match. I get nervous the whole week before the match just thinking about it. Your adrenaline is pumping. But once the games start, you don't think about it. You just play."
By the time the warm-ups are complete, the stands are filled. Peter Shepley takes the microphone for pregame introductions. Shepley is part of the Tampa Prep administration and a beloved man, who looks like the unlikely cross between George Costanza and Dick Cheney. But when Shepley begins a tribute that includes Berkeley coach Randy Dagostino, several Tampa Prep voices question why Dagostino is getting props in their house.
Fact is Dagostino and his ex-wife Carol Chalu, the current Tampa Prep athletic director and former varsity volleyball coach, laid the foundation for the excitement around girls' volleyball today.
Girls sports were barely a blip on the radar when launched at local high schools in the mid-1970s.
Chalu moved to Tampa from Chicago in 1976 with Dagostino. Back then the only thing separating any teams in the area was the blind draw of athletes from each individual school. If you had a taller, more athletic team, chances were you would win. The level playing field would change with the arrival of the Chalu and Dagostino.
George Wolfenden, Tampa Prep's first headmaster, found Chalu and Dagostino through Chalu's sister, Loren, who taught physical education at Tampa Prep. Wolfenden told the couple he wanted Tampa Prep to open an athletic program.
Tampa Prep had "opened two years before we got here," Chalu says. "But it didn't have athletics. It was just a little private school that started because quite a few influential people in Tampa wanted more options (in private schools).
"It was a great opportunity. We were young. We didn't have much experience ourselves. It turned out to be a good fit. Both of us were willing to coach long hours."
Dagostino was the school's athletic director, but the threesome of Dagostino, Chalu and her sister coached all of the school's sports. A list that included volleyball, basketball and softball for the girls and soccer, basketball and baseball for the boys.
"It was basically just a family thing," Chalu says. "It was good for us and good for the school."
The coaching troika knew little about volleyball and the first-year team, coached by Chalu, went 1-10 in 1976. That changed quickly and dramatically.
"We've never had a losing season since," Chalu says.
However, during her first year at Tampa Prep, Chalu did manage to guide the Terrapins' girls' basketball team to a state championship.
"We happened to have a couple of really good players (on the basketball team)," Chalu says. "No seniors. We were a Cinderella story. Everybody wondered where we came from."
The feat was accomplished under Spartan conditions.
"We had no gym, no land, we borrowed where we could," Chalu says. "Our practices were outside. We won our state championship in basketball and never practiced indoors. All the little puzzle pieces just fell into place."
Basketball success helped trigger volleyball success.
"None of those girls (on the basketball team) had played volleyball in the fall," Chalu says. "I learned not to take no for an answer. You can't let a girl tell you she didn't play that (sport). You just had to get them out. Make deals with them. I made bargains with parents, I told kids that they only had to do it for two weeks. I got every one of the girls on the basketball team to come out there (for volleyball). They loved it."
The fortified Terrapins' team reached the state semifinals that season.
"From that point on, the sport became popular at the school and the kids wanted to be a part of it," Chalu says.
By 1980 the school had its first state title and it was becoming clear something special was going on at the school tucked in next to the University of Tampa; they repeated as state champions through 1985.
Chalu and Dagostino learned as the team grew.
"We had a harmony growing with the team," Chalu says. "It required a lot of energy. I went to every single coaching clinic I could go to. I went to college games. I went to college coaching clinics. Randy was doing the same thing. We were constantly educating ourselves."
Along the way, Chalu and Dagostino divorced and Dagostino moved on to coach at Berkeley in 1983.
"I had been helping (Chalu), but I had never been the head coach until then," Dagostino says.
Much of the credit for the highly developed skill level of the local volleyball players today comes from a blueprint for success that includes club volleyball, where the athletes can play volleyball even when their sport is out of season, providing a place to develop to their maximum potential.
After Dagostino's first year as coach at Berkeley, he organized club volleyball in the spring of 1984. He began the Tampa Bay Juniors, which became the first year-round volleyball club in Florida.
"I just decided, wouldn't it be a neat idea to put a team together," Dagostino says. "I heard of a national championship that they played for. The idea was formulated during the regular season. I didn't contact the girls until after (the school season in the fall)."
Dagostino had nine players on his first team, which was composed of one girl from Sarasota and Dunedin high schools; the rest came from Berkeley, Tampa Prep and Brandon. Chalu also helped coach the team.
"There weren't any other clubs around, so we played that first year against college teams," Dagostino says. "The college teams welcomed us into their spring season play. We traveled to UCF, Florida Southern, the University of Tampa. We got beat most of the time, but we held our own."
In late June of 1984, the team traveled to Chicago to compete in a national tournament with 68 teams and finished 13th.
Club volleyball in the Tampa Bay area began with a bang and has continued to gain momentum ever since.
While the talent level of the girls progressed, the expertise of coaches like Dagostino and Chalu increased from their participation.
"I hadn't seen the sport played like I had at that national event," Dagostino says. "Their talent level was exceptional and they probably had a lot better coaching.
"I can remember in subsequent years going to different national events, USA Volleyball events. My teams were not yet ready to compete at the highest level. Often the case was we'd get knocked out early and we'd have a day and a half to go before we headed home. I'd sit there watching with a legal pad and pencil in hand taking note after note of other teams' drills or techniques. Anything I saw."
Quality girl athletes honed their game through the club system. The fruits of their work could be seen in the countless state titles won by teams fueled by club players. Some years the schools were in different classifications and each brought home state championships. Other years the two schools would meet in the finals of regional play and the winner of that game essentially won the state championship, even though the state tournament had yet to be played. Since Dagostino moved to Berkeley, they have won 11 state titles in volleyball; Tampa Prep has won 13.
Dagostino and Chalu both exhibited intensity and a desire for excellence in their programs. "Coach Dag" as he's called by both girls and boys teams he's coached, said he's been able to relate "coaching wise" more with the girls.
"I don't know what chemistry is there; it's just that way," Dagostino says. "I think I'm a good coach with the guys, but I have to actually be more careful about what I say around the young guys than I do the girls. The girls, I'm just totally honest with them. If I don't think they're working hard enough, I let them know about it. They also know I don't mince words. And that all I'm trying to do is bring out their best at each practice. I'll mince words with the guys. Because I think the initial reaction is an attack on their ego."
Reiner smiled when asked about Dagostino's intensity.
"He's intense, very intense," Reiner says. "But he's the kind of coach I want to play for. … You know when you've done something wrong. It could be a scream. It could be a look. He also has a characteristic whistle. If he wants your attention, you hear a whistle. You know it's Coach Dag."
Dagostino and Chalu have remained friends throughout the rivalry and in the aftermath of the divorce, which, at times, was peripheral to The Match.
"At the very beginning, (the divorce) sort of added to the mystique of the rivalry," Dagostino says. "But it got old after a while. And really, I wanted more attention on the players and the competition at hand. What went on between the students, certainly, than what when on between she and I.
"We're still big supporters of each other. … I know that I have her full support and she has mine. We have a lot of respect for each other."
Success has had its rewards for the athletes who have worn Berkeley and Tampa Prep volleyball uniforms. Major athletic scholarships were awarded these talented athletes to colleges such as UCLA, Stanford, Illinois, Duke, North Carolina, North Carolina State and Georgia Tech.
Coaches pay attention to success stories the way investors do thriving businesses, so the value of club volleyball and its effect on winning were noted. Clubs popped up in other areas of the state. Currently the biggest volleyball clubs in the state besides the Tampa Bay Juniors are Club Orlando and Orlando Volleyball Academy in Orlando; Gold Coast Volleyball in Boca Raton; Gulf Coast Club in St. Petersburg and White Sands Volleyball Club in Sarasota. There are 10 clubs in the area extending from Hillsborough County south to Sarasota, and these clubs feed quality players to their nearby high schools.
Berkeley and Tampa Prep remain at the top of the list when it comes to quality programs, but other schools and clubs are catching up to them. Take the White Sands Volleyball Club, which feeds Sarasota, Riverview, Manatee and Cardinal Mooney high schools, to name a few. Cardinal Mooney eliminated Berkeley during the 2000 regionals, keeping the school from attaining yet another state volleyball championship.
Dagostino's Tampa Bay Juniors offer two levels of play. There are the travel teams, which travel all over the state of Florida to compete, then compete at the national level if they qualify for the tournament. They also have non-traveling teams. This past season, the Tampa Bay Juniors had nine teams of which six were traveling teams. Five of those qualified for the national tournament.
The cost for playing on one of the travel teams is $2,000, which includes all expenses for the season traveling throughout Florida. If the team qualifies for nationals, there are extra costs.
Playing on one of the teams that does not travel costs $1,400.
The Tampa Bay Juniors have finished as high as second in the nation, which they did in 1996.
Club volleyball no longer is exclusive to a handful of schools.
"It's not just Berkeley and Tampa Prep anymore," Dagostino says. "Durant (High), Plant (High), girls all over the place are involved. They are working as hard as any athlete works for their sport. They're doing everything they possibly can.
"I think we're doing just about everything we can do to play at the optimum level in high school. The girls virtually are playing year round, even though they don't give up other things. I'd say 95 percent of the girls are doing weight training, plyometrics, year-round volleyball, while keeping their grades up and essentially traveling all over the country to do it."
The clubs not only develop a player's skills to a higher level; they also establish true "friendly" rivalries.
"For a player (the Berkeley-Tampa Prep game) is really nerve racking, but it's really fun," says Berkeley's senior outside-hitter Kayla Mora. "They're our friends over there. Half of them play on the club with us. So we have to talk to each other about it. Little jokes."
Mora says she has known Tampa Prep's Samantha Fleat since they were in middle school together, which leads to some friendly smack talking before, during and after games.
"I've known her forever," Mora says. "We're always like "you're going down,' stuff like that. During the games we laugh at each other. Or it will be like "that's a nice hit' and she'll be like "I know.'"
Dagostino, who has 500-plus coaching victories, says simply: "I love the Tampa Prep matches."
"It's funny; I think the rivalry is always the same," he says. "As long as I can remember it's something I thoroughly look forward to. The only thing that is different are the kids because some graduate and some are new. Sort of a strange phenomenon, and I don't know how it happens in all rivalries, they just learn that it's supposed to be like this. And it's not just the volleyball team. It's the same thing with the student body. People that have never watched another volleyball match come out of the woodwork to watch that match."
Postscript
Tampa Prep and Berkeley Prep split their four meetings this season. The last of these meetings came Saturday when Tampa Prep took a 15-6, 15-12 victory in the Class 2A-Region 3 championship.
Tampa Prep's victory earned the Terra-pins a spot in the 2A state semifinals Friday at Disney's Wide World of Sports, where they will face Gainesville P.K. Yonge.
In addition to Tampa Prep's success, Plant, Durant and East Lake all earned trips to the state tournament.
Plant will play in the 4A state semifinals against Gainesville while Durant and East Lake face off in the 5A state semifinals.
Bill Chastain is a Tampa-based freelance writer.
This article appears in Nov 8-14, 2001.