Stanford women's volleyball coach John Dunning conducted a clinic recently for California high school coaches and 25 from China. It is part of an athletic, educational and cultural exchange program that's in its early stages. Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott sees a huge opportunity.
"To try to build the Pac-12 brand and our schools' brands overseas with a particular emphasis on China first, given the size of the market and the priority which it represents for our schools," said Scott.
Chris Chen is a former player on the Chinese national volleyball team.
"This is great. To be able to have this exchange trip that really brings a lot of understanding between both countries," said Chen.
"I think that's great. These are the best setters in the world doing it," said Dunning.
A women's pro volleyball team will be visiting and playing against Pac-12 teams this August. Those games and clinics, like the one with Dunning, will help everybody in a sport which is evolving with bigger, stronger and faster players.
"For me as a coach, it's one of the most exciting things of talking to people about the evolution and how to stay up with it and how to be able to coach exactly what's going on in the world that now comes to college or comes to high schools or juniors in the area," said Dunning.
Eventually, they'll play Pac-12 games in China.
