| h2P ALIGN="center">Caren
Kemner (USA) The gutsiest USAmerican player ever |
Caren Kemner once said something on TV that I'll never forget, something that is very true. Interviewed prior to the Atlanta Olympics, she told the reporter that she lives with a curse, and one that she doesn't know how to get rid of. She said that most people will remember her poor semifinal performance against Cuba at the Barcelona Olympics, and yet they won't remember the other 200 and something matches in which she played well. Unfortunately, that is true of many athletes in many sports, not just volleyball. Czech tennis player Jana Novotna will always be remembered for crying on the shoulder of the Dutchess of Kent after handing Steffi Graf the Wimbledon title. Italian football player Roberto Baggio will never erase the missed penalty kick that gave Brazil its fourth World Cup title in 1994. And gymnasts have it worse off, for one fall from the balance beam and they're done for. So yes, Caren was right, people will probably never forget that she couldn't hit a ball past Magaly Carvajal and that will eclipse everything else that she did right. It is precisely the purpose of this website to objectively bring forth those things that people should remember about these talented volleyball players. I don't seek to flower their careers, but surely I want to remind the world that the path that these players took to get to this All-Star list is what nobody should forget. Kemner's face, like that of a movie star, adorning a Kaepa advertisement. Tough, isn't she? My greatest admiration for Caren Kemner was her fiery personality. In Seoul '88 I saw her for the first time (she had played at the '86 World's, I think, but I never saw her) and even though she was a bit tentative in her first Olympic Games, she sure showed that she had talent for many more years to come. She was a big girl, strong arms, broad shoulders, and legs that sent her high into the air. She wasn't slow for her size, which is another remarkable aspect about her; her teammates Deitre Collins and Elaina Oden were big but not as quick as Kemner. The USA's post-Los Angeles generation had centered around players like Kemner, Liz Masakayan, Angela Rock, and Kimberly Oden. Keba Phipps was supposed to be the next best thing, but then she moved to Italy (I heard something about a doping test she didn't clear, but anyway...) and the setting position was in desperate need of another Debbie Green. So gradually coach Terry Liskevych assembled a team that evolved with each graduating class from the NCAA Division I schools, adding Tara Battle (later Cross-Battle), Tonya Sanders (later Williams), Tammy Webb (later Liley), and two more Oden sisters. But all these great hitters couldn't come into their own without a good setter, and even with Laurel Kessel or Kim Ruddins taking turns setting, they didn't really overpower anybody at the '87 Japan Cup or the '88 Seoul Olympics.And then came Lori. This former outside hitter from Nebraska was not tall for international standards, but she was a fast learner, and when she heard that the USA needed a good setter badly, she taught herself the secrets of the trade, tried out for the National Team, and made it. In 1990, she impressed the world by setting for a team full of eager attackers that had been waiting for someone like her to appear. The USA won the bronze medal, though I'm sure most of the USAmerican public didn't even hear about it. I saw the USA play again at the '91 World Cup in Japan, and this time, they were determined as much as my home country team to win the last remaining berth to the Barcelona Olympics. After a tumultuous tournament, the match came down to a tie-breaker between Peru and the USA. And it was then that Caren Kemner showed that she was meant to be taken seriously. From tentative in '88, Kemner had grown confident in '91. She was digging, hitting from the back row, stuff blocking on the right side, serving problems for the Peruvians, and in one play I'll never forget, she set Endicott a free ball, and then ran the "X" with teammate Tammy Liley (who provided the fake). Absolutely incredible. Eventually, the USA earned their ticket to Barcelona and felt very relieved because they had been struggling to qualify for quite a long time. Not qualifying would have been disastrous, for Liskevych, the programme, the public perception of USA Volleyball (which still isn't much in the land of the NFL, NBA, and MLB), and for the players. So with her ticket to Spain earned, Kemner was delirious. Not only that, she went home as the '91 World Cup MVP. And if I'm not mistaken, not much after that the FIVB named her Player of the Year! |
| Barcelona was
quite a ride for Kemner and Company. Liskevych had brough veteran and '84
Olympic finalist Paula
Weishoff back from obscurity to add experience to the team.
Weishoff eventually landed Kemner's job as opposite, while Kemner was
switched to outside hitter displacing Tara
Battle. It was a good move, for Kemner was one of those
complete players who could do almost anything. But the USA's problem
wasn't the setting (Endicott eventually was named the tournament's Best
Setter), it wasn't the blocking (Weishoff, the Odens, Sanders, and Kemner
were all good blockers), but the passing. A bad serve reception
meant that the middle hitters were out of the play and Sanders and Kemner
were going to get the set on the outside. Cuba didn't need a century's
worth of experience to figure this out. And that's when they camped around
Kemner during their semifinal match, and well, the rest is history.
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 At the '91 World Cup against Peru, Kemner led her team to a 5-set thriller to clinch the last remaining spot for the Barcelona Olympics. With her participation assured, Kemner could finally concentrate on the Olympics. After Barcelona, Kemner went to play professionally in Italy and then in Japan. She didn't go to the '94 World Championships in Brazil, where the USA finished a disastrous sixth. But the year after that, with the Atlanta Olympics in sight, Kemner and Weishoff were invited back onto the National Team, and they took the world by surprise by winning the annual Grand Prix. It was the first major international victory for the USA, and they had reason to be proud because they defeated both Cuba and Brazil to win the tournament. Though Kemner and Weishoff weren't starters, Liskevych subbed them in whenever he needed some experience to pull the team together. With contrasting styles, Kemner and Weishoff managed to get this job done. Kemner is a vocal player, and her body language speaks for itself. She's like Ana Moser, cocky, and almost manly, but in a good way. Weishoff, on the other hand, is not a volcano of energy. She comes in, puts the ball down, and waits for the next set. But going into Atlanta, winning the '95 Grand Prix was an enormous confidence booster. What happened in Atlanta, however, would discourage anybody from even thinking to put Kemner in a top-7 list of all time greats. Surely there are other players who would deserve to make that group, but for me, what Kemner showed in Atlanta, was nothing short of admirable. The USA started by winning easy matches against the Ukraine and The Netherlands, but then they faced China and lost 3-1. However, whenever Kemner was subbed in she did her job well, which made one think, "Well, why doesn't she just stay on the court? Earth to Terry! Earth to Terry!" After winning the third set and seeming to be on a comeback trail, Kemner came into the fourth set with a (very) adverse score and with a dig here, a stuff block there, fist pumps, cheers, and arms raised that made the public get on its feet, Kemner moved a mountain. The team was dead before she came in, the public was hardly into the match, but when she stepped in it became a whole different ballgame. The USA managed to TIE the set and seemed to be on the verge of forcing a tie-break, when suddenly... out went Kemner. Liskevych subbed her out for captain Tammy Liley and China won the set and the match. I'm not saying that Liley was the deciding factor, that is hardly the case, but the mistake here was Liskevych's because he literally unplugged the heart out of the team! Can someone please explain that to the fans? |
| The USA then went
to defeat Japan and Korea, and then faced Cuba in the quarterfinals.
Anyone who had looked at the draw would never had thought that Cuba could
come in third in its pool, but after two losses to Brazil and Russia that
was precisely the case. So bad luck swayed against the USA, and they had
to beat the reigning Olympic Champions to keep their hopes alive. But
since the very beginning, Cuba was in control. Nothing seemed to be
working for the USA, every Cuban point was celebrated by the Caribbeans
like a street fair, boisterously, heavily, almost in-your-face. Kemner
came in sets two and three to liven up the team and fire up the crowd, and
once again, with a fierce dig and some spectacular ball control, she took
the momentum away from the Cubans. For Kemner, this was no ordinary
quarterfinal match, this was also a chance to re-vindicate herself from
the loss four years earlier. Carvajal—her nemesis from Barcelona—was
still on the Cuban team, as were most of the other starters from '92, so
for Kemner it was a second chance. But Cuba, oh Cuba, had been re-awakened
in the first set after drubbing the USAmericans with seven blocks for a
score of 15-1. From there on, and despite Kemner's efforts to cover the
holes in the dam, the Cubans were just too much too handle, and they went
past the USA, past Brazil in a violent match, and past China to win its
second consecutive gold medal. Though Kemner failed in her second chance,
she sure showed the world that she had her fighting spirits on and the
desire to lose with dignity.
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| I won't forget what happened in the match
against Cuba, when Raisa O'Farrill stuffed Kemner on the outside and with
a fist in the air, looked at Kemner and shrieked something to the
equivalent of "eat that!" Kemner immediately went up to Mireya
(whom she knew from playing in the Japanese league) and said something
like, "Hey, tell your teammate that she's pushing it!" to which
Mireya went up to the young and arrogant O'Farrill and told her to show
some respect. That was the thing with Kemner—she was ready to fight, she
was overbrimming with desire to erase the past, and even if it was a
personal matter that she was seeking to re-solve, it was still working in
favour of the team. But Kemner didn't get to see the end of the match from
the court, and when she was subbed out she knew that her Olympic
experience was going to end in another defeat.
For these reasons, I have put Kemner on my list of 7 best players of the '80s and '90s. She had guts to rival Ana Moser, and she had taught herself through the years how to face different types of adversaries—short ones, tall ones, smart ones, dumb ones, loud ones, quiet ones, etc. Kemner was a very complete player, and when she worked the crowd, she was an instant hit. She might not have won a silver medal like Weishoff, but she sure as hell proved to the world that there was more to Kemner than just winning. Everything she did, from diving to save a ball, to pumping her teammates up with words of encouragement, was done with pure heart. Her look of concentration (eyes wide open and breathing through her mouth) showed a whole-hearted approach to the sport, and THAT, my dear friends, is precisely what should be remembered about Caren Kemner and her career.
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