GLIMPSING PLAY ON TAPE SPARKS EX-HIGHLANDER'S TURNAROUND.

Byline: Bryan Winchell Special to the Daily News

After years of coaches, friends and family urging him to adjust his attitude, it took a videotape to show Cal State Northridge volleyball player Jason Hughes they were right.

Hughes, a 6-foot-7 junior opposite hitter for Volleyball Magazine's No. 6 ranked team in the nation, has been labeled with "potential" since he was a star for Royal High School in 1992-93. Yet Hughes' seemingly limitless talent has been hindered by a team-clown attitude.

And it wasn't until Matador coach John Price had Hughes watch himself in action on team videotapes that Hughes started to see what he was doing wrong.

"I remember watching the UCLA game from last year," Hughes recalled. "I came off the bench, made a few good plays and started pointing to the bench. The next two plays I made errors. It made me realize how my attitude was affecting my play and my teammates."

One of the main reasons Hughes has had a change of heart is that he is a co-captain and has become one of the players the team looks up to.

Much of their respect comes from the fact that Hughes is such a physically gifted player. Hughes leads the team in kills per game (4.1) and is the team's best server, Price said. And his 6-foot-7 frame and leaping ability makes him a dominant force at the net - when he wants to be.

"He's got the national team-type potential if he decides to go that route," said Price, in his third year at CSUN, which is 4-4, 3-2 in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation. "It's just a matter of how hard he works."

Part of Hughes' problem has been that he hasn't had to work hard at volleyball to excel. When he was at Royal, all he had to do was jump with half of his strength and he would be over the top of his blockers. And when he came to CSUN, he started as a freshman.

"His first two years he didn't work that hard at getting better but he was so talented he was still pretty good," Price said.

Hughes said he was often trying to show off for his friends instead of focusing on the game.

"I was trying to impress the crowd, basically I was being an idiot," Hughes said.

It's strange to hear him say it now because when his coaches used to tell him he'd have a change in perspective as he got older but he didn't believe it.

"I think he finally realized what kind of potential he has on the court, where before he just liked playing and wasn't that interested in being great at it," Price said.

Nothing comes easily, though, and Hughes found that out in the middle of January when the Matadors were playing Pepperdine in the third-place game of the Santa Barbara tournament. Hughes went up at the net and landed on a Pepperdine player's foot, twisting his ankle.

It wasn't a serious twist so he played sparingly in the team's next two matches but did have to sit out at practice for two weeks.

While the ankle is healing, it still swells some after practice. And when he jumps on it, he's been trying to land on both feet at once. That's a difficult challenge for someone who has been landing on one foot his whole life.

"He's struggled offensively since (the injury) by his standards," Price said. "Attacking is the skill that gets most affected by a sprained ankle because you lose your explosiveness."

While Hughes must overcome the injury and continue to work on his attitude, he also has the added responsibility of being a team leader. That's another area that doesn't come naturally to him.

"I really don't like to see myself as a leader. I just like to play the game," Hughes said.

Said Price: "You need a guy that plays real hard. He's trying real hard. He's just got to realize that his body language affects everyone else. It's never really been an issue for him and now all of the sudden we're saying it matters for him."

While Hughes' mental approach has improved, there are still areas he feels he needs to work on. Often last season he would get distracted by hecklers in the crowd or bad calls by the referees, and while he doesn't let those things get to him as much anymore, he still loses his cool occasionally.

"I've gotten a few yellow cards for stupid things like pulling on the net," Hughes said. "I've been trying to control it. Everyone on the team is emotional; it's one of our problems because we'll dwell on things. We're getting better, though."

Hughes' difficult maturation process isn't made any easier by the "potential" everyone is always telling him he has. While Price talks about the national team being a possibility for Hughes, the junior is more concerned about his play for Northridge.

"I'd love to go as far as I can in volleyball but I don't think about the national team when I'm on the court," Hughes said. "There's just so much talent out there and I don't consider myself that talented. It would take a lot of

work."

The one area he will need to improve is his backcourt defense. While Hughes loves the challenges of blocking and spiking, he isn't too comfortable going to his knees and digging the ball.

"I need a lot of practice on my defense," Hughes said. "It's definitely my weakness."

For Hughes, the change from fun-loving volleyball player to serious volleyball student is surely not done, but his coach is seeing significant progress.

"He just wants to win," Price said. "He realized that if he worked harder it would have a big impact on the team and it has."

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Photo Jason Hughes Leads team in kills per game