Rita Buck-Crockett on the Olympic experience


Rita Buck-Crockett was inducted into the Volleyball Hall of Fame in October 2011, two months before she joined FIU as head coach of the university’s new sand volleyball team and assistant athletic director of volleyball operations. A new NCAA sport, FIU’s sand volleyball team will begin competition in the spring of 2013.

Buck-Crockett was a member of the USA indoor women’s volleyball team that won a silver medal at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. With the 2012 Summer Olympics only two weeks away, FIU News sat down with Buck-Crockett and talked about the Olympics, what it takes to get there, and what it’s like competing on the world’s biggest stage. Portions of the interview have been edited for brevity and/or clarity.

FIU News: At what age did you make the Olympics your goal?

Buck-Crockett: “I never dreamt as a little girl of wanting to be an Olympian. Living in San Antonio, we were a very poor family. I didn’t know that there was an Olympic volleyball team. We didn’t really know all that stuff. I did what my older brother did. He ran track, I ran track. He played baseball, I was his catcher so that he’d have somebody to throw the ball to. In high school I played basketball, was a cheerleader, ran track, played volleyball, was on the dance team, and played softball. Normally in a situation like ours, in that era, you finished high school and then you got a job and then you got married and had kids.

I finished high school and I got a job. I had an apartment with my best friend. [One day] a junior college volleyball coach and her husband, who was a junior college basketball coach, knocked on my door. They told me I needed to go to college because I was good academically, and I was the best athlete around.

I said, ‘What do you have to do to do that?’ My mother passed away when I was 9, so my father was raising both of us. I wound up being a double-sport athlete on scholarship at San Antonio Junior College. We won the national championship for volleyball, and I was named All American. That got me thinking, wow, this is fun.

From there I went to the University of Houston. We were playing in a tournament and the national coach noticed me. He asked me to join his USA team and help them qualify for the Olympics. That was 1978, and it just snowballed from there.”

FIU News: Tell us about your first Olympic experience.

Buck-Crockett: “Team USA boycotted the 1980 Olympics, so we didn’t get the opportunity to compete in Moscow. Fortunately, I was one of the younger players which allowed me to continue training for 1984. Some of my teammates didn’t get that same opportunity. They did a nice tour for all of us Olympians. We went to the White House and everybody got a medal, but the medal that counts for me is the ’84 medal.”

FIU News: Were you at the University of Houston during that time?

Buck-Crockett: “When I was asked to join the 1980 team, I left college. I stayed out of college and trained and competed with the ’84 team. I went back to college when I was 40 years old and got my degree.”

FIU News: What’s it like being an elite athlete?

Buck-Crockett: “I’ve been an Olympian and I’ve been a professional volleyball player, and they’re two different things. As a professional you’re representing your person and your team. As an Olympian you’re representing your country. I took that seriously and did so with a lot of pride. I don’t know if all Olympians do, but I did because of where I came from. For me to be able to wear the letters USA on my back and represent my entire country, I took it to heart.

As an elite athlete, the most important thing is the sport and your training. Then, if you have time, you have your private life. At least that’s how I did it. My first priority was my team. That meant I needed to make sure that I had my mind together and that I was physically fit and ready to go. I remember, I would run hills – and I didn’t like to run. But I doubted that these other people on their time off were running hills backwards. I did that on my own, gave something extra to get where I wanted to go.”

FIU News: You were one of the best players on one of the best teams in the world during the 1984 Olympics. What was that like?

Buck-Crockett: “You realize it’s not just about you. If I got injured I felt bad because it hurt everybody.”

FIU News: What does it take to medal in a team sport at the Olympics?

Buck-Crockett: “We trained three to four times a day. Everyone ate the same, drank the same, had the same sleep schedule. We had to be one. And we won a silver medal. It took all of that to get a silver medal. It’s not easy. I’m proud to say I’m one of 12 people that have this medal. We worked very hard for it. It binds you together as a team, makes you a family. I may not speak to these guys for 10 years, but if one of them phones and needs something, I’m there because we’re sisters forever.”

FIU News: Opening ceremonies. You’re in Los Angeles, you’ve finally made it. What’s running through your mind?

Buck-Crockett: “When you talk about that, I can literally visualize when we were sitting in the stadium waiting for it to be our turn. It was a long wait. When it was finally our turn to get up and go down, it was just a rush. You have everybody in the arena, all the countries are there, you know some of the athletes from the other countries. It was just the most awesome rush when you go out there wearing the red, white and blue. I can’t even describe the feeling. It was pretty intense.”

FIU News: What’s the actual competition like?

Buck-Crockett: “There’s a lot going on. I don’t know how else to say it. You don’t just go out there and play volleyball. We had security. We had people on our bench who looked like coaches but they were security, and they had guns. But in today’s world, you have to think about that. When we would go to our matches, everything was mapped out in advance. They had decoy vans filled with people pretending to be athletes. They went over what to do if something happened. You say to yourself, ‘We’re in America. Is this really happening?’ And it is. We actually had to abort a match because someone saw a gun on someone’s seat. Whether it was meant for us or not, it did happen. But we were very safe. Once you get that out of the way, you compete.

You’re playing against the best teams in the world and everyone is a mirror of you if not better. Anyone can win. If you go in with that mindset, you understand that it is not going to be easy – and it wasn’t. Nothing was easy for us. We lost to China in our pool play and we ended up playing them in the finals [and losing]. We were the top two teams in the world.”

FIU News: What went through your mind as you were up on the medal stand?

Buck-Crockett: “There’s a photo that ran in the L.A. Times, a picture of me and two of my teammates, one of whom is still my best friend. We had gotten our medals, and we were just hugging each other. That image conveys exactly how I felt. I’m here, doing what I do, getting this achievement award with my best friends and my sisters. At that point there’s also a sense of elation that this is over. It was so intense, every minute, every year building up to that. And we got a prize. Not everyone walked away with a medal. We were very fortunate to win the silver medal. Some of my teammates were crying because we didn’t win the gold. That can be looked at as a disappointment, but for me, it was an honor. It was like, okay, we did this and we went through to the end, and we made it. That’s how I looked at it.”

FIU News: What did you do after the Olympics?

Buck-Crockett: “I turned professional and decided to go play overseas. That was a lot of fun. I signed a contract to play in Italy. I had played in Japan before that. I finished my career in Switzerland as a player-coach. I played until I was 40. I got the most out of my career and loved it. I still get out there and play with the indoor team every now and then. Gotta keep ‘em in check. I love the sport.

My coaches were all good, all pleasant. They were hard, but they made me who I am. I’ve just been one very lucky person.”