With the Games of the XXX Olympiad just days away, several former UH-Manoa student-athletes will be competing for their respective nations. The series begins today with Clay Stanley who will be leading the U.S. men's volleyball team.
 
Clay Stanley, a UH Sports Circle of Honor inductees, is among the most celebrated players in U.S. men's volleyball history, and brought his talents collegiately to the University of Hawai'i. Stanley will be captaining the men's team at the 2012 Olympic Games in London.
 
Stanley, regarded as one of the best men's volleyball players in the world, is aiming for his second straight gold medal. The left-side hitter and Kaiser High School graduate guided the 2008 squad to a first place finish at the Beijing Olympics four years ago where he was named tournament Most Valuable Player. Stanley was a three-year letterwinner for the Warriors before taking his talents to the U.S. national team in 2000. He competed in his first of three Olympics in 2004, where the team narrowly failed to medal and finished fourth.
 
As one of the top teams in the world, Stanley and the Americans breezed through the qualifying round at the NORCECA Olympic Games Qualifying Tournament. The U.S. won its three pool play matches before turning back Cuba and Canada, and are the favorite to win the gold medal.
 
Stanley's exploits with the national team are well documented. He has captained the team since 2011, and last year was named the USA Male Indoor Athlete of the Year for the second time. He was among the team's leading scorers during qualifying and since 2004, the U.S. has finished first in each of its three Olympic qualifying tournaments.
 
Stanley finished his UH career among the program's leaders in kills and aces. He set the school-record of 50 kills in a league playoff match against UCLA in 1999. As a senior, he ranked among the nation's leaders in kills and set a school single-season record for aces while earning third-team all-MPSF honors. 
 
All-time Rainbow Wahine volleyball great, Heather Bown, was left off the 12-player olympic roster which was recently announced by the U.S. Olympic Committee, but the three-time Olympian was a key cog in the team's run through the qualifying rounds, and in 2008 helped the U.S. to a silver medal. Bown was a two-time all-American and conference player of the year at UH ('98, '99)

The men's volleyball competition runs from Sunday, July 29 through Sunday, August 12.




                                                                                
                                                                                            -UH-