OC Metro Article on Coach Speraw

Great article on Coach Speraw!

Steve Churm is loyal supporter of UC Irvine volleyball and is a great friend to many of us in the UC Irvine community. Trust me all-- this is a great read!

Robonthemic
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A winner on the volleyball court, UC Irvine’s John Speraw would be equally successful in the boardroom because he is a born leader.
BY STEVE CHURM

Listen to John Speraw long enough and you are convinced he is a CEO of an emerging company. He is direct; a deep thinker with a steely focus. He rarely displays emotion, a trait that is often confused with not caring. On the contrary, the tall, super-fit Speraw is passionate about his product and how it is marketed. He has a genuine concern about his employees and their advancement. He understands the burden and responsibility of meeting customer needs. There is an air of precision to almost everything this 35-year-old bachelor does. He lives to learn from the best, and competes to beat them at their own game. He is a natural in a conference room. He has a charisma that commands the room and moves agendas forward. He is a young executive in his prime, and his industry knows it. He has the look of success, but never leads with his ego. It’s about his company and improving performance year over year.

Speraw, however, doesn’t have a plush corner office in Newport Center or South Coast Metro. His working space has hardwood floors and a net. His primary tool is a whistle. He is the head coach of the UCI men’s volleyball team, one of the elite programs in America. He arrived on campus in 2002 with a five-year business plan to turn the Anteater program into a national power. Mission accomplished. He set the bar high and he exceeded it with UCI reaching the NCAA national championship semi-finals in 2006 and the championship game this year. He knows the game, having won two national championships as a player and assistant coach at tradition-rich UCLA. He can match Xs and Os with anyone in the sport. But where Speraw excels is the head game. From his preparation to his demeanor to his sense of time and place, he rarely is out- coached. He doesn’t believe he is smarter than the next guy; he just prepares harder – on and off the court. He requires his players and those involved with the team to adhere to his four fundamental “pillars” of behavior: effort, family, responsibility and respect for each other and your competitors.

“As the leader, you need to know you are not doing this for personal glory,” says the microbiology and molecular genetics graduate. “To succeed takes self-sacrifice.” It also requires risk-taking. “You have to assume the risk of responsibility. Sometimes, during the national anthem, I look down the bench at our team, then my coaches and finally the 3,500 people in the stands and think about the responsibility that I have to do my job and do it well. To be a leader, you have to accept the risk that comes with it.”

Curiously, Speraw doesn’t concern himself much with failure. He has never considered it a real option. That may explain why he is one of the best young leaders Orange County has to offer. OCM