THE COLLEGES / FERNANDO DOMINGUEZ : Fortunately, Pierce Found a Big Winner in Stanley

Big Daddy swears he has been lucky: lucky that so many fine athletes heard about him, that they knocked on his door, that they stayed.

All those powerful men’s volleyball teams at Pierce College, Big Daddy would have you believe, have come together by grace.

That he sculpted them into champions, one precise chip after another, is something Big Daddy is too modest to mention.

But to those who know what Pierce has achieved under Coach Ken Stanley, the patriarch of the program affectionately called Big Daddy by Brahma players, the luck theory doesn’t wash. That is, unless luck is a synonym for hard work, preparation and determination. Otherwise, Stanley is the rabbit’s foot of junior college volleyball.

Over the past nine seasons, Stanley, 56, has taken Pierce to three state championships, winning in 1986, ’88 and ’92 before losing to Orange Coast in the title match last season. And Pierce could be in line for another one this year.

The Brahmas, who play April 21 against Santa Monica at Taft High, are 11-2 and tied for first place with Long Beach City in the South Coast Conference. They would qualify for the state Final Four May 5-6 at Irvine Valley by winning the conference title.

Even if they finish second in the SCC, the Brahmas would probably advance by surviving a one-day Southern California regional May 1.

To get to the Final Four would be no small feat under normal circumstances, but even more impressive for the nomadic Brahmas, who are still without an on-campus gym. The Northridge earthquake caused heavy damage to the two Pierce gyms and the team has been training at Valley at daybreak and playing home matches at Taft.

If they win it all this season, and Stanley thinks they can, the Brahmas will add another chapter to their rich volleyball chronicle. They have risen steadily to their place among the elite since Stanley, a longtime Pierce basketball coach and assistant, took over the program in 1976.

“This year’s team has a lot of quality kids,” Stanley said recently, in the trailer that has been his office since the earthquake. “This team has some exceptionally nice people.”

It also has a coach with international experience, including Stanley’s stint as an assistant with the U.S. men’s team at the 1991 Pan American Games in Cuba.

The way Stanley sees it, however, the volleyball gods have smiled on him, whispered his name in the ears of talented players and prodded and persuaded these young men to go see Big Daddy.

“Kids have walked in here from all kinds of places,” Stanley said. “We have been very fortunate.”

Funny, but the players are the ones who feel that way.

“People want to go there and play for him,” said Jason Ring, a sophomore outside hitter from Bend, Ore.

“I don’t think he does a lot of recruiting. People know he’s a good coach. It’s just his name and reputation that attracts players. I haven’t talked to anyone who doesn’t like him and respect him.”

The players say there are many reasons for that. They talk about his interest in them as more than athletes. They point to his open-door policy, and they say how much they learn about volleyball and life from him.

“He helps out everybody,” said Felipe Placencia, a sophomore outside hitter from Ventura High. “He always tells us to come to his office and talk to him if we have any questions.”

That’s why they call him Big Daddy. And why they certainly don’t call him Lucky.