Times-Advocate from Escondido, California • 53

Thursday. Dac. 1. 1983 North County Magazine msisk Film to show the long road to Olympic gold he storytellers are hoping this fairy tale has a happy ending. It could be a Cinderella story much like the 1980 Winter Olympics.

That's when the U.S. hockey team f5 captured the gold medal after defeating the heavily favored Soviet Union in the semifinals and Finland in the finals. The wave of excitement and patriotism that hit the United States was said to be unprecedented in the history the Games. For the U.S. Men's Olympic Volleyball Team, which makes San Diego its training camp, all the ingredients seem to be there in the drive toward the gold next summer in Long Beach.

There are enough storybook aspects to the volleyball team to convince filmmaker Roger Tilton to make it the subject of the first feature-length motion picture he has produced and directed. For the past two decades, his specialty has been producing television commercials. Consider: This summer will mark the first time a U.S. volleyball team has qualified for the Olympics since 1M8. This volleyball team is for real, considered a strong contender to win it all.

There is a good chance that the Soviet Union or another Iron Curtain team will be the only team standing in the Americans' way for the gold medal. The largest crowd in American volleyball history is expected to attend. The San Diegan has named his first feature film "Spiker." He characterized it as "sort of a 'Chariots of There will be ample footage of the real team members mixed in with the actors. Four of the team's members have bit parts. It is a low-budget film, said to be costing between 1 million and $1.5 million, but Tilton has managed to get a veteran screen actor, Michael Parks, to star, and a stable of young actors who could very well be on their way to stardom.

Parks, outspoken on most subjects, said he is reserving judgment on Tilton's project until it is finished. Parks, whose major claim to fame was his 1969-70 television series, "Then Came Bronson," is a sports lover, and seemed to enjoy rubbing shoulders with the athletes during filming. Much of the action took Michael Parks Portrays volleyball coach jr- "'r-t place inside the Federal Building, a Balboa Park gymnasium, where the team practiced in earnest while the actors were being filmed right next to them. Occasionally, a few of the team members would be called over to be in a shot. Parks, dressed in a red, white and blue USA sweatsuit, said "I don't think the movie will have much to do with patriotism, but rather dedication to the sport What these boys do to attain Olympic status is admirable." In Tilton's movie, Parks portrays the coach, whom the actor characterized as "aloof, with no personal involvements, a strict disciplinarian." How closely the movie's coach reflects Coach Doug Beal is hard to say, but the real coach said Parks "is a good choice." Team member Chris Marlowe said that Beal, who has coached the volleyball team since 1977, resembles Attila the Hun in the way he drives them during workouts.

Stories by John lunes Photos by Jim Baird Please see -sniker', page.