Viktor Filiptchenko is looking for sunflower seeds.

The coach of the Moscow volleyball team, in town for the Moscow-Utah Youth Games, is a lifelong smoker. He has been looking for an excuse to quit.

Ask and ye shall receive: Upon arriving in Utah last week with 300 other athletes and coaches, Filiptchenko found his motivation.

"Nobody smokes here," he said through an interpreter. "I felt uncomfortable."

Thus, sunflower seeds have taken the place of cigarettes, but Filiptchenko has run out. Utah volunteers are scrambling to find him some. Nevertheless, the coach is probably sufficiently distracted from smoking right now. He, fellow coach Nadia Chelikhova and their team are spending time at Highland High School — while his athletes work out on the gym floor to show Highland P.E. students how volleyball is really played, Filiptchenko is sitting in the middle of the Highland High pep squad — a bunch of vivacious juniors. All girls.

"Ask him why he's smiling so much," Skyline High School volleyball coach Jami Hutchins tells an interpreter.

When the interpreter asks Filiptchenko the question, the 66-year-old coach answers by putting an arm around each of the giggling girls next to him.

Meanwhile, several students on their lunch recess have filtered in through the gym doors to watch the 12 tall Russian girls set, block, dig and hit. A murmur runs through the crowd after a particularly vigorous kill.

"Ooh, did you see that?" says Highland student Arman Ahmadzadeh.

"Better than anything I've ever seen," says another.

"They're good," says student Abouk Deng. "They're tall. I bet they could dunk."

"No, they couldn't," says another.

"Yeah, they could."

A mob of Highland students challenge the Muscovites to a match. Two — just two — of the athletes stride onto the court. First point goes to the Russian pair. Second point — Russia. Third and fourth points — Russia. Finally the Highland multitude manages to score one.

The place goes nuts.

Highland students mix with the Russians for a multinational scrimmage. Teammates communicate with each other by gestures.

"This is great," Hutchins says, looking on at the mingling students, laughter and good-natured ribbing going on in two languages. "For both sides. Look at it. I love it. It's so cool."

Organizers of the Moscow-Utah Youth Games say the athletic competitions during the weeklong event, while important, are primarily a means to an end: cultural exchange and understanding among the rising generation.

"I think our country in general needs to learn about different cultures, different views," says Highland counselor Jan Adams, observing the proceedings with a smile.

The Highland pep squad cheers the Russians while Filiptchenko and Chelikhova put the team through its paces. Not satisfied, pep squad members ask an interpreter to help them cheer the team in Russian. ("If I were over there I think it would be great if they cheered for me in English," one girl says.) After a brief linguistics lesson, the squad begins a chant incomprehensible to most people in the room. But several of the Russian players turn and smile.

The cheer: "Moscow rules."

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E-mail: aedwards@desnews.com