Former volleyball stars return

Standing at a crossroads after two illustrious volleyball
careers for the blue and gold, recently graduated alumni Paul
Johnson and Kris Kraushaar have headed off in opposite
directions.

One road led down the California coast while the other circled
back to Westwood after a pit stop in Izmir, Turkey.

Johnson, a first-team All-American his senior year, hung up his
sneakers after the 2004-2005 season to raise a family. Now in
Newport Beach, the UCLA star has gotten married, had his first
child, and started working at an accounting firm.

The annual UCLA alumni volleyball game Sunday at Pauley Pavilion
was his first time back on the court since the Bruins finished
second to Pepperdine at the NCAA championships last year.

“I hadn’t done anything athletic since the finals so
(I was) pretty out of shape,” Johnson joked. “It was
almost painful, but after a while, I got back into it.”

Coach Al Scates remembers the middle blocker from Mission Viejo
with a lot of admiration.

“He had real bad shin splints,” Scates said,
“but as a senior, he learned to play through it, and
that’s when he had his greatest year.”

Johnson was one of the team’s big impact players. At
6-foot-8 inches, he was ranked second in the Mountain Pacific
Sports Federation last season in hitting percentage, sixth in
points and blocking, and fifth in aces. Scates attributed
Johnson’s impressive year to his dedicated training
regimen.

The stats appear to have been no accident as Johnson did not
miss a single practice or workout during his senior year.

“I saw a new P.J. (Johnson) that last year,” Scates
said. “Everything that affected him in the past, he put it
aside, and you saw the results.”

Having Johnson back on the court for the alumni game put his
career at the forefront of everyone’s minds and spurred a few
speculations from his old coach.

“He could be playing in Europe if he wanted to,”
Scates said. “The decision to stop playing was definitely his
own choice.”

On the other side of the coin is Kraushaar, who still lives and
dies by the game. The outside hitter represented the U.S. at the
World University Games in Turkey this August, playing in four out
of the team’s five games.

As a first year alum, Kraushaar was new to the alumni side of
the net, and enjoyed the new vantage point.

“This was my first year so it was fun to play with some of
the older guys I had played against in the past few years,”
Kraushaar said.

Kraushaar enjoyed one of his best seasons last year, but he
suffered from fatigue and illness down the stretch of the
season.

During the last six weeks, Kraushaar barely practiced and had
only limited playing time in the Bruins’ critical matches.
During the final championship match, however, Kraushaar had one of
his best career matches, recording 16 kills, and a 0.394 hitting
percentage.

“Those years as a student-athlete were not easy on
him,” Scates said. “We didn’t let people know
about him, but he has some type of illness that just saps his
strength. Some days we wouldn’t even have him
practice.”

As typical of his Bruin career, however, Kraushaar didn’t
even get nominated to the NCAA All-Tournament team despite his
performance.

“He was always one of those overlooked guys,” Scates
said. “He never got the attention that he deserved, but he
was always humble about it and took it the right away.”

The young alum is now back with the Bruin program, and will
spend a lot more practice time as the team’s undergraduate
assistant coach this season. During the Bruins’ recent trip
to Italy in August, Kraushaar spent a lot of time schooling the
Bruins’ younger hitters, including heralded freshman Sean
O’Malley and middle blocker Jamie Diefenbach.

“He has spent a lot of time with the younger guys and
(has) been a big help to them,” Scates said. “He will
be a great guy to have around this season.”

Following in his older brother’s footsteps and upholding
the family name is Kraushaar’s younger brother, Kent
Kraushaar, who recently committed to UCLA.

The younger Kraushaar, at 6-foot-6 inches, is an outside hitter
for Woodbridge High in Irvine and was considered one of the top
prospects in Orange County. He also was recruited by Stanford and
Pepperdine.

“He’s been a UCLA fan all his life,” Kris
Kraushaar said. “There was really no other choice for
him.”

But on Sunday, the attention was placed on Kris Kraushaar and
Johnson. They played together for eight years and got to wear their
uniforms at least one last time and rekindled some favorable
memories.

“I had the greatest time of my life here,” Johnson
said. “I’ll never forget it, it’s so
wonderful.”

With reports from Sagar Parikh, Bruin Sports senior
staff