Lindsey Berg

While sitting at a table in a bar, during a cold April morning, a thought comes to my mind: Lindsey Berg is sitting right in front of me. Yes, she herself who brought the US Women’s National Volleyball Team to victory against Italy during the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games; she herself who I have always admired since I saw her playing in Pesaro some years ago; she herself who I am happy to see playing again in the Italian Volleyball Championship.

Watching her play strikes me with a sort of emotion, even though Lindsey is not one of those players that volleyball fans consider a “myth”. But she is a myth for me; and that is enough to feel a sense of admiration. But I can’t let this emotion get the best of me: I am here to listen to what this fanciful player has to tell. Yes “fanciful” is the right term to describe Lindsey’s style and way of playing: pure instinct, rapidity and originality, both on and off the court. Just take a look at her personal blog (www.lindseyberg.blogspot.com) where, between a comment on her last match and a dinner at her favorite restaurant, you may also spot the cape she is wearing in pictures that underlines her unique taste in fashion and her willingness to follow it.

Original article published on Pallavoliamo, May 2010 @ http://www.pallavoliamo.it/publishedpage.aspx?issueid=256314f9-7eb4-4be9-ab43-2df2a6aa3615&pageid=5a070216-e6e4-48ca-ab35-a546cff8648e

Lindsey arrives at our meeting with this aura of originality, so genuine and simple to wipe away any sense of embarrassment and to arouse a great curiosity. Beginning with her origins, Lindsey is Hawaiian, from Honolulu. However, as she explains to us, there is nothing weird about this. ‘In Hawaii, volleyball is the most popular sport. I started playing beach volleyball when I was only six years old, as in the bay where we lived there was a beach volleyball club. It was easy to start. Moreover, my father was a player too, and I used to follow him during the US Nationals. When I was still a child, I surfed too, mainly long boarding. It was a quiet and beautiful life: living in Honolulu is like living in a little paradise. You don’t pay so much attention to the terrible things that happen in the world and it is a fantastic place to live your early years and youth. However, nowadays I couldn’t go back and live there anymore as too many things have come into my life. Honolulu remains a marvelous place though”.

Lindsey bears an enduring mark of her native land in her second name: Napela. She is so proud of her Hawaiian heritage that her closest friends call her “Napela”. “My Hawaiian name reflects my exotic side…but this is not the only reason I like it so much; it is a name that has its roots in my family’s ancestors: my aunt had it and so did my grandmother’s sister. It derives its origins from the traditions of my land and recalls the peace of those places, where one can live in complete quietness. Actually at home my family calls me in other different names: Lin, Lou or Lindsey Lou. This last name derives from an old song, I think”.

A shadow of nostalgia is recognizable in Lindsey’s words. It has been a year and a half since she went home last, after the 2008 Olympic Games. I look out of the window and I wonder how such a solar person can endure living in such a cold and grey climate like this, in the north of Italy. Maybe, I think, the very reason is that she has her own sun shining inside her heart, and thus, she does not need another sun in the sky to feel happy. But how can she deal with the cold? In fact, cold seems to be a constant in Lindsey’s life. In her college years, she enrolled at the University of Minnesota; and as you know, Minnesota is not so famous for its temperate climate. “Everybody asked me how I could survive there. Actually I knew that I wouldn’t stay for a long time. In Minnesota, I was offered the chance to study and play volleyball, thanks to a scholarship. Doing both is never easy for athletes, and I was no exception, as I don’t like school very much. However, as I was so eager to be done with my studies as soon as possible, I graduated in a record time: I was twenty-one and I was finally free to apply myself full-time to volleyball”.

The player’s next step was finding the right occasion to boost her career. Lindsey found it soon after graduation, when she signed for Minnesota’s first volleyball team and met Kevin Hambly, the second coach of the US National Volleyball Team. Coach Hambly was quite impressed by the Hawaiian’s qualities and convinced his staff to audition her. “I had already had some auditioning with the national team when I was sixteen, but I wasn’t the right setter they were looking for: I was not tall enough to play with the national representative! On the contrary, Hambly trusted me, regardless of my physical qualities and thus, soon after the 2002 World League, I left Minnesota for a training camp in Colorado Spring with the national team. We were preparing for the Olympic Games of Athens”. In fact, Beijing was not Lindsay’s first experience at the Olympic Games. “In Athens, I was the second setter and no doubt that the Olympic atmosphere is something special, in particular the first time you live it. I can’t say it was a good experience though. The team was not competitive and thus, I felt so discouraged that I wanted to quit”. Luckily, Marcello Abbondanza saw Lindsey playing at the World Grand Prix in 2004 and wanted her at Pesaro: “Well, Italy…How could I refuse such a great opportunity? In Italy, they play the best volleyball tournament, with the best players. The Italian Volleyball League is like NBA or NFL here in the US, both for the quality of the game and for the players preceding from all over the world. It was too important and so I accepted Marcello’s offer”. Then, once in Pesaro, I started living in this beautiful country and understood that there was no other place I could possible stay. Now Italy has become a third home to me!”.

Pesaro has not been Lindsey’s only experience in Italy. She also spent one season in Novara. “That was a difficult year! I can’t say what my team was missing specifically: simply, we lacked something”. But, with her innate positivity, the Hawaiian setter tells us that despite all the difficulties, the experience was good: “I played my part to the end and despite everything I was looking forward to playing again in Italy. During my first season in Pesaro, I measured myself with a new and more complex game; I played a lot of matches and practice forged both my temper and my game. I definitely grew up a lot from my college times and I must confess that Pesaro had a crucial part in my volleyball career. However, after three years, I felt that it was time to go”.

After one year in the US, Lindsey was then ready to go back to Italy. On Villa Cortese’s team, the setter found a little part of her past by rejoining past teammates (the libero, Paola Cardullo, and the middle blocker, Sara Anzanello) and her former coach at Scavolini Pesaro, Marcello Abbondanza. “When there’s a good feeling between the setter and the coach, that’s perfect for the team. By bringing me to Villa with him, Marcello gave his team a solid stability. Moreover, time has passed for both of us: he has become a better coach and I improved a lot, al least I believe. The team can count on great players, and Marcello and I put our experience at their disposal”. Villa Cortese has already won the Coppa Italia (Italian Cup) and is about to start the play-off finals. “I can’t say whether this is my best season s3Acity>. However, as she expabout is that here I feel at ease. I’m the setter of a very strong team that could easily compete with the US National Team; I have a good relationship with all of my teammates, both in and outside the court. Tai Aguero makes wonders every time she touches the ball ; Cardu is perfect in defense and I feel comfortable playing with Anza in attack.: I often set the ball to Sara trying to push the quick hit as much as possible. Our society gives us the right support without too much pressure and our coach has done a great job in creating a close group. Last but not least, we have great supporters. Before arriving at Villa, I had already heard about the warmth and great organization of the local supporters here. But nothing could prepare me for the reality: they follow us everywhere, even when we play far away from their town. Sometimes, when I enter our stadium I have gooseflesh! And I’m nearly 30 years old! Everybody says that we are going to win the finals, but I wouldn’t say it out loud. We are aware of our strength and if we play the way we know, beating us is really tough. However, in the Italian League, there are many other strong teams and often we are not able to play at our best”. The weaker point of this team is in fact its inconsistent mentality: “when we are two sets above, we tend to relax: it is not a matter of arrogance; simply we are not able to stay focused on our game all the time. This is an aspect of our game we must work on”.

When Lindsey plays, in fact, sometimes passion and adrenaline get the better of her. “Together with my name, I have another tattoo: they are Chinese characters meaning “fire” and “strength”. I wrote them in Chinese because Chinese blood flows in my veins, together with Portuguese and Lithuanian influences from my father’s side. I chose those words as they mean a lot to me: when I play I have a fire in my heart and strength in my mind. I’m not good in technique. I can cover nearly every role in a team, because I have been playing as a hitter since I was eighteen years old. But this isn’t the only reason. I learned how to play volleyball when I was a child, without dividing tactic elements from technique. For me they were one thing. I try to overcome my physical limits with my rapidity, my instinct, my creativity and my knowledge of the game. That is why, I consider the heart and the mind the two most important things both in life and sport: they are what makes the difference between a player and an athlete”.

In particular, it was precisely her heart and her mind that allowed the US to win against Italy at the Olympic Games in Beijing: “In that moment I didn’t even watch who was standing at the other side of the net. From the bench, the only thing I could see was that my team was in difficulty and I was thinking how to change things and how we could reach our goal – winning a medal after Athens’ disillusion. I was so focused on the match that when I entered the court I changed the sorts of the match. After the match, I felt sorry for all my Italian friends…but only later! Actually, I am lucky as I had many people who were equally happy for our victory and for my performance”.

Peering into Lindsey’s blog, you can find several pictures with another Villa Cortese’s player, Manuela Secolo. “When I arrived here in August I got in contact with people and players I already knew from past seasons, such as Tom Logan and Valeria Rosso who play in Novara, a town not far away from Villa Cortese. Little by little, then, I also got closer to my new teammates, and among them Manu is the person I spend more time with outside the volleyball courts. Actually, we are two very different individuals: maybe this is the very secret of our friendship. Just think that when we were opponents, I could barely stand her! She disclosed her world to me; she introduced me to her friends and I found myself at ease here in Villa all thanks to her! I don’t need anything special to be happy in a place: I’m a very quiet person and I can spend a whole evening in complete silence and enjoy the company anyway. Outside and inside the volleyball courts I’m a very different person: when I play, I’m very plucky and sometimes I might be even mean. This year, however, I haven’t gone out so much: time is passing, and my body needs more rest! But I love shopping! Fashion is my passion and when I stop playing, I’d like to open a boutique or be a personal shopper. I’d also like to study as a stylist: I believe that wearing clothes is not only a matter of aesthetic, but a lifestyle. Fashion is a way of being, more than presenting oneself. Having Milan so close is a perfect match for this passion of mine, and that’s also why you’re going to find a lot of fashion details in my blog”.

The time hasn’t come yet to become a stylist. The Olympic Games in London are getting closer, and there are still two seasons left to get ready for this important event. And the Hawaiian setter wants to be there: you can sense it, you can feel it from they way she talks, from the way she is telling us about her dreams, from her eyes, her smile and from the tone of her voice. When Lindsey speaks, her voice is always calm: she does not need to scream to make herself heard or noticed, and she does not need to speak to make herself understood. In fact, the third tattoo on her forefinger reads “Ssshhhh!”. The player tells us that is an admonition both for herself and her opponents. “It reminds me that before speaking you have to know what you are talking about and that you can’t judge someone only by the appearances. This is a fundamental teaching in everyday life and a fundamental in my way of being. I want to be free to express myself for who I am and I hate when someone speaks about me without even knowing me. So do I, I try not judging others. In the end, our actions tell who we are: no gossip, no judge…actions speak louder than words”. We agree, especially when this refers to Lindsey’s game: nothing is more convincing than her way of living the match.

After this interview, my impression of standing in front of a myth has vanished. What I feel now is a desire to listen more, and to meet her again, and again. It’s a sort of inexhaustible and enjoyable sensation; something I would call respect.