Six other Pepperdine former athletes and current coaches are competing in the Paris Olympics
Pepperdine Waves volleyball legend Marv Dunphy is representing the red, white, and blue in the Summer Olympics for the ninth time in his Hall of Fame career.
Dunphy, who coached the USA men’s volleyball team to a gold medal in 1988, is a consultant coach for the U.S. women’s volleyball team for this summer’s Olympics in Paris.
Dunphy said participating in the quadrennial sports spectacle is wonderful.
“I don’t think there are too many things like this in the world today,” he said. “You know it’s the best of the best in sport. It’s an honor.”
Dunphy, the Waves men’s volleyball head coach for 34 seasons and the current head coach emeritus, has been a consultant coach for the American women’s team for four straight Olympics. The squad won the gold medal three years ago at the games in Tokyo.
In his role, Dunphy scouts Team USA’s upcoming opponents. Also, during matches, he sits high above the playing court, dons a headset, and offers insights about the contest to his fellow coaches on the bench including USA head coach Karch Kiraly, whom Dunphy coached when Kiraly was one of the best players in the world and he was the U.S. men’s national team’s head coach.
The women’s national team had their first match on Monday against China. The Americans are also competing against Serbia and France in their pool.
Dunphy said the U.S. is a balanced crew with good depth and experience.
“We are going to have to out-team some teams,” he said. “We are going to have to outsmart them and out-team them.”
Six other Pepperdine former athletes and current coaches are competing in the Paris Olympics, which began on July 26 and lasts until Aug. 11. The others are soccer player Lynn Williams, tennis players Mayar Sherif and Luisa Stefani, beach volleyball coach Marcio Sicoli, and basketball coach Bria Goorjian.
Williams, a 2015 Pepperdine graduate, is a forward on the U.S. women’s soccer team. Sheriff, a 2018 Pepperdine graduate, is the first Egyptian to play in women’s tennis in multiple Olympics. Stefini, who played at Pepperdine from 2016-18, is part of the Brazilian contingent and has took the court in her second Olympics. She and her doubles partner Laura Pigossi won the bronze medal in 2021.
Sicoli, the Waves women’s beach volleyball coach, is participating in his third Olympics — this time as the coach of Canadians Melissa Humana-Parades and Brandi Wilkerson. He coached Americans Kerri Walsh Jennings and April Ross to a bronze medal in 2016 and Walsh Jennings and Misty May-Treanor to a gold medal four years earlier. He was an assistant coach with the Brazilian women’s beach volleyball team that had a duo win the silver medal in 2004.
Goojiian, a 1976 Pepperdine graduate, is the head coach of the Australian men’s basketball team in the Olympics for the fourth time.
In addition to coaching the men’s team to a gold medal, the legendary coach has served as an assistant coach, consultant coach, or scouting coach in more Olympics since the 1980s for either the U.S. women’s or men’s teams. Those teams have collected one bronze, one silver, and two gold medals.
Dunphy noted that the competition is stiff for the U.S. women’s volleyball team.
“The rest of the world has gotten better,” he said. “We won it in Tokyo, and we are still pretty good. It is going to be a challenge. We’ll see what they are made of.”
Dunphy said his love for the Olympics began when he was a player at Pepperdine in the 1960s.
“The best athletes in each sport are getting together on the world stage,” he said. “Everything about it, I still enjoy. It is still the same for me. I get goosebumps during the opening ceremony and when they play the anthem. Its pretty neat.”