Al Scates sets record straight regarding Hawai’i comment
By Daily Bruin Staff
April 9, 2002 9:00 p.m.
 UCLA Sports Info Al Scates, head coach
for the UCLA men’s volleyball team, responded to complaints against
comments he made,Tuesday.
By Diamond Leung
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
UCLA men’s volleyball head coach Al Scates wants to make
things clear.
“I’m not going to apologize to Hawai’i,”
he said. “I was just having a little fun.”
Scates was referring to his remarks to the Daily Bruin after his
team had dropped two road matches to Hawai’i on Friday and
Saturday. Scates said after the matches that the Bruins could have
beaten the Warriors if UCLA starters Jonathan Acosta and Scott
Morrow had not been sidelined due to injuries.
Hawai’i wasn’t hanging loose with the
statements.
“If wishes were candy and nuts, we’d all have a
great Christmas,” Hawai’i head coach Mike Wilton told
the Honolulu Advertiser.
“Stop whining,” middle blocker Dejan Miladinovic
added. “UCLA is arrogant as usual. … My reply is, even with
a full squad, that won’t help them.”
Scates did offer to clear up exactly what he said.
“I said we could have beaten them,” he said.
“Sure we could have. It would have taken a great effort
because they were playing as good as they could play. At full
strength, we can beat them because we have before. It’s the
truth. But I didn’t say we would have beaten them.”
“I’m just being myself,” he continued.
“If they think that’s being arrogant, well…I’m
just telling it like it is.”
Scates did offer an apology to five Hawaiian entertainers, whom
he referred to as “five Samoan warriors with spears running
around.”
Vili Fehoko is Tongan, and his four sons are Tongan-Fijian.
“We are not Samoan,” Fehoko said. “We’re
original warriors. And we don’t carry spears. We have drum
sticks.”
“I like the guy,” Scates said with a laugh.
“He really revvs the crowd. I wish we had somebody like that
running around here. But I apologize to Mr. Fehoko because I
assumed he was Samoan.”
As a result of its two-match sweep, Hawai’i currently sits
a game ahead of UCLA in the MPSF race.
