May 19, 2010
COLLEGE STATION, Texas - The 1980 U.S. Olympic Women's Volleyball Team, including Texas A&M head volleyball coach Laurie Corbelli, will be inducted into the Colorado Springs Sports hall of Fame as part of the Class of 2010, the Colorado Springs Sports Commission announced Tuesday.
The induction ceremony will be held Oct. 27 at the Colorado Springs World Arena.
The former Laurie Flachmeier was on the 12-member 1980 U.S. Olympic Women's Volleyball Team that was considered the favorite to win the gold medal at the 1980 Olympic Games in Moscow. After a fifth-place finish at the 1978 FIVB World Championship, the team stepped up its preparation for the Games, moving to Colorado Springs to live and train full-time at the U.S. Olympic Training Center and thus becoming the first "national team in resident" experiment in Olympic sport history in the United States.
Coached by Dr. Arie Selinger, the 1980 U.S. Olympic Women's Volleyball Team of Corbelli, Janet Baier, Carolyn Becker, Rita Crockett, Patty Dowdell, Debbie Green, Flo Hyman, Laurel Brassey Iversen, Debbie Landreth Brown, Diane McCormick French, Terry Place and Sue Woodstra had its dreams of winning Olympic gold shattered when the U.S. Olympic Committee's House of Delegates, at the urging of then-President Jimmy Carter, voted to boycott the Moscow Games to protest the Soviet Union's invasion of Afghanistan in 1979.
Corbelli, along with Becker, Crockett, Green, Hyman and Woodstra, remained with the program in Colorado Springs, and with Selinger staying on as head coach, the 1984 squad went on to capture the first medal by a U.S. Olympic women's volleyball team, winning silver at the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles.
"This is a tremendous honor for the 1980 U.S. Women's Olympic Team to be recognized by the Colorado Springs Sports Hall of Fame," USA Volleyball Chief Executive Officer Doug Beal stated in a press release. "Not only was the team favored to win the gold in Moscow, it became a trendsetter for the then-recently established U.S. Olympic Training Center (USOTC) in Colorado Springs as other sports saw the benefit of year-round training in a single location. This team played a key role in providing the new training center credibility for future team sports to train in Colorado Springs. Unfortunately, the team's ultimate mark on history was denied with the 1980 boycott. Yet, this team forged the USA into being medal contenders in each of the subsequent Olympic Games. Many of these players have given back to the sport through the coaching ranks - on the National Team level and in the collegiate ranks - and other volleyball leadership positions."
Corbelli, who is beginning her 18th season as head coach of the Aggies, will join four other members of the 1980 U.S. Olympic Volleyball Team in Kauai, Hawaii, later this month as part of the team's 30-year reunion celebration.
The other 2010 Colorado Springs Sports Hall of Fame inductees are Andy Gambucci (Colorado College ice hockey), Sherrice King (Rampart High School and University of Colorado basketball), Ken Brown (Wasson High School and Cornell University World Championship rower), Ken Hatfield (Air Force Academy football), Fred Whitacre (The Father of Baseball in Colorado Springs), David G. Elmore (Colorado Springs Skysox Owner and Founder, Sports Entrepreneur) and the 1981 Mitchell High School state football championship team.
King also has Aggie ties, as she was the athletic academic supervisor for the Texas A&M volleyball team from 2001-03 and is currently an associate director for the Department of General Academic Programs at A&M.