Summer on the sand – beach volleyball
Former U.C. Berkeley star Morgan Beck, 26, of Hermosa Beach is among the upcoming players the U.S. is resting its future international competition hopes on. Photo
From the Olympics to the Saikley 6-man tournament, beach volleyball will be under watchful eyes this summer
The summer of 2012 will be a special one for beach volleyball. Every aspect, from the upcoming Olympics to the assortment of domestic tours and the moving of the legendary Charlie Saikley 6-man tournament to mid-week, will be closely watched in a year that foretell beach volleyball’s future.
Beach volleyball is one of the nation’s fastest growing sports in terms of popularity, peeking every fourth year during the Summer Olympics. Millions of viewers across America will watch their television and computer screens for footage from London in hopes that Misty May-Treanor, Kerri Walsh, Phil Dalhausser and Todd Rogers can defend their gold medals in the XXX Olympiad.
First introduced to the Olympics in Atlanta in 1996, beach volleyball returns for the fifth time at London, where 24 two-person teams in the men’s and women’s divisions will compete from July 28 through August 9 in Horse Guards Parade in the shadows of the House of Parliament.
The U.S. will select two men and two women teams, based on their standings on the Federation Internationale De Volleyball (FIVB) Swatch World Tour.
“Golden Girls,” May-Treanor and Walsh (Hermosa Beach) will be the USA’s No. 1 team and are seeking their third consecutive Olympic gold medal, but it won’t come easy. Both players took 2011 off to recover from injuries and entered the season ranked No. 2 in the world, behind Brazil’s Larissa Franca and Juliana Felisberta Da Silva.
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Last month at the Brasilia Open, the first tournament of the season, Larissa/Juliana defeated May-Treanor and Walsh 21-13, 24-26, 15-13.
Ranked fourth in the world, Jennifer Kessy and April Ross are the frontrunners for America’s No. 2 team. They are being chased by eighth-ranked Lauren Fendrick (Redondo Beach)/Brooke Hanson and No. 14 Angie Akers (Redondo Beach)/Nicole Branagh (Torrance).
“Brooke and I need to pass them in points. We have four Grand Slam tournaments in which to do that,” Fendrick explained. “There is a pretty big gap between us, so we would pretty much have to win or at least medal in all four events. Brooke and I are just focused on playing good volleyball and we know if we do that good things will happen.”
On the men’s side, there is dogfight for the second spot between Matt Fuerbringer (Hermosa Beach)/Nick Lucena and Jake Gibb/Sean Rosenthal (Manhattan Beach). The two teams entered the season with Fuerbringer/Lucena ahead by only 60 points.
In the Brasilia Open Fuerbringer/Lucena defeated Gibb/Rosenthal 13-21, 21-19, 16-14.
“It was a huge win for us,” Fuerbringer said. “Just like every time we play those guys, it was an absolute battle. Both teams played some great volleyball and both teams played some sloppy ball during the match and we were able to make a couple of big plays to win it.
“I’m confident that Nick and I are going to play great ball this summer and make Jake and Rosie earn it if they are going to qualify over us. I believe they will do the same, so it is going to come down to which team can step up and win those matches when you are tired or off your game. It is going to be a lot of fun and I think it is great for the sport. I know that both teams will be better for it. It is just unfortunate that we could both be ranked in the top 6 (in the world) and one of us not go.”
Beach Volleyball players from the nine countries training this spring in Hermosa Beach gathered recently for a lunch at USA Beach Volleyballs’ 200 Pier Avenue office. Photo
Domestic competition
While the elite teams are competing internationally, professional and up-and-coming players will have a variety of U.S. tournaments to choose from, including four in the South Bay.
“Domestically, the National Volleyball League (NVL), Wide Open, and Cuervo Series have done a good job coordinating schedules, which will maximize the player’s opportunity to compete for prize money,” said Dave Williams, USA Volleyball (USAV) Managing Director of Beach Volleyball. “The cooperation between the tours reflects the direction of USA Volleyball (USAV) as the sport organizes under the national governing body. The newly formed Beach Assembly can directly elect two seats on the USAV Board of Directors.”
The Beach Assembly is the final piece of the reorganization of USA Volleyball, which began in October, 2008.
Fans in the South Bay will have the opportunity to watch the best talent in the U.S. when three tours come to Southern California, including two tournaments held in both Hermosa Beach and Manhattan Beach.
Sanctioned by USAV, the Jose Cuervo Pro Beach Volleyball Series has added three events this season, beginning with the Florida Open at Fort Lauderdale, Fla. May 25-27. All events are free to the public and each Sunday finals will be featured on NBC Sports Network television.
“Fans and players can expect the 2012 Cuervo Series to be just as good, and in some cases even better, than last year’s inaugural tour, featuring world-class competition and offering more tour dates, total prize money and overall entertainment than any tour in the U.S.,” said Brian Radics, Diageo Brand Director, Jose Cuervo. “When we returned to professional beach volleyball last year, we made sure to deliver a top domestic tour and came back in a huge way that fans and players have expected since the ‘70s when Jose Cuervo became the sport’s first corporate sponsor.”
The tour comes to Hermosa Beach July 20-22 and the Manhattan Beach Open will be held Aug. 24-26. Purses at both events will be $100,000. The tour concludes with the National Championships at Huntington Beach Sept. 21-23, where players will compete for $150,000 in prize money.
Hermosa Beach’s Casey Jennings teamed with Brazilian Pedro Salgado to win the 2011 Hermosa Beach Open while Kessy and Ross won the women’s 2011 crown.
Redondo Beach resident Sean Scott and partner John Hyden will join Jenny Kropp (Hawthorne) and Whitney Pavlik in defending their Manhattan Beach Open titles.
“The Jose Cuervo Pro Beach Volleyball Series delivers intense competition between some of the best players in the world and an energetic atmosphere where fans are up close to the action,” Scott said. “From the opening serve to match point, the experience Jose Cuervo and IMG provide is that of a world-class tournament. My partner, John Hyden, and I are excited to get back competing on the Cuervo Series’ stadium court again.”
With the Olympians returning from London, winning a second straight Manhattan Beach Open will be difficult.
“Nick and I will be playing in the Cuervo Manhattan Beach Open in August,” Fuerbringer said. “We are honored and humbled to be making this Olympic run internationally but we can’t wait to come home and play in front of our hometown friends, family and fans once it is over.”
The Wide Open Beach Volleyball Tour will hold eight events this year, including Hermosa Beach July 6-8 where Scott/Hyden and Kristen Batt/Brooke Sweat will defend their titles. The tour returns to Manhattan Beach Sept. 14-16, following the U.S. Open of Beach Volleyball. That event will be held Aug. 31-Sept. 2 in Cincinnati, Ohio where Scott/Hyden and Fendrick/Hanson won the championship in 2011.
In only its second year of operation, the NVL has become sanctioned by USAV, allowing participating players to receive USAV national rankings.
Founded by 18-year professional beach volleyball player and Hermosa Beach resident Albert Hannemann, the NVL is scheduled to hold six events, beginning May 17-19 in Baltimore, Maryland, which will coincide with the Preakness Stakes horse racing event. The tour comes to Long Beach for the West Coast Championships Aug. 17-19. Braidy Halverson (Redondo Beach)/Adam Roberts and Kropp/Pavlik were the league point winners in 2011.
“The National Volleyball League provides a critical domestic platform for our experienced professional stars, and our elite development beach volleyball athletes,” said USAV’s Dave Williams.
Thrown into the mix is the Association of Volleyball Professionals (AVP) whose assets were purchased by AOS Group.
In a statement released April 2, AOS managing partner and owner Donald Sun, said, “I am very excited to become the new owner of the AVP. Anyone who knows me knows that I love the game of beach volleyball, especially the game of the ‘80s and ‘90s. I played it regularly growing up, watched it frequently, and look forward to protecting and promoting the brand as the pinnacle of the sport.
“I understand we’ve lost considerable time in trying to put together a 2012 tour schedule. I also respect the activities and accomplishments of the current leagues. My goal is to work together in some way to unify beach volleyball in America.”
This is not the first time the AVP has had to start over.
“When we re-launched the AVP in 2001 following the bankruptcy, I spent about the first two years mending fences with cities, vendors and sponsors,” said Williams, who held several senior management positions at AVP, where he produced over 150 tournaments. “It was not an easy thing to do. More people than just the players got hurt back then, and with the recent AVP bankruptcy. The damage of bankruptcy ripples for a while. At USAV we are encouraged by anyone willing to invest in our sport and we wish Mr. Sun success with his new venture.”
Only time will tell if the tours can coincide in harmony but many players hope to see one emerge as the top domestic tour.
”In a way, having different tours is great because there are a lot of options for players,” Fuerbringer said. “But I believe eventually we will need one of the tours to step up and give us the single entity that fans can follow, like the AVP used to be. I don’t think it has to be the AVP tour moving forward, but as of now they have a head start due to the notoriety of their brand.”
“Looking back, the AVP seems like the glory days,” Fendrick said. “I know that that system wasn’t perfect and obviously wasn’t sustainable and I’m no business woman, but it seems like having everything under one umbrella would be best. It would be easier for fans to follow, hopefully more money for the players, and less competition between tours. However, a promoter based model seems like it would work too. Go to the places that love beach volleyball and throw great events that fans, sponsors and players can get excited about.”
Spring training in Hermosa
No matter the tour, its success will be determined by the next generation of beach volleyball players. The top U.S. male and female players are 30 years or older. This year will probably mark the last Olympic appearance for U.S. gold medalists May-Treanor (35), Walsh (34) and Rogers (39). Rogers partner Dalhauser is 32.
Meanwhile, the Chinese team of Tian Jia and Wang Jie, which won the silver medal in Beijing are 32 and 29, respectively. China’s 2008 bronze medalists China’s Zhang Xi and 27 and 23, respectively.
“We have a great crop of young players,” said Ali Wood Lamberson, Director of International and High Performance Beach Programs. She oversees support and development for USAV’s Olympic, Pan Am, and Youth and Junior Beach athletes. “We need to get them international exposure at a much younger age, particularly on the male side. Other countries have players 23 or 24 years old. We have a strong group of (college) seniors this year, but they’ll need to work on their physical maturity in the beach game. They are probably looking more at the 2020 Olympics.”
The USAV Beach office is striving to make Hermosa Beach a beach volleyball Olympics training ground. It is partnering with local businesses to aid in the development of athletes. Jeremy “Troll” Subin’s The Yard gym in downtown Hermosa has been named the “Official Training Center of USA Beach Volleyball.”
Players from nine countries did their FIVB pre-season training in the deep sands of Hermosa Beach this year. USAV will be proposing to the City of Hermosa Beach a plan to formalize “Spring Training” in order to encourage more teams from more countries to train in the South Bay.
The international competition will undoubtedly benefit the U.S. program which, Wood said, will be taking a team of 15-year-olds to an FIVB tournament this summer and will host 20 Russian players the week prior to the Cuervo Hermosa Beach Open.
The USAV Beach High Performance Tryouts are held throughout the country for athletes ages 12-25 who are looking to compete on national teams. Selected athletes will comprise the Future Select-U15, Select-U17, Youth-U19, Junior-U21, and Senior A2-U26 beach national teams. They will represent the United States in various national and international competitions, including the Beach High Performance Championships on July 18-22 in Hermosa Beach, California.
A big boost for women with Olympic aspirations is the NCAA’s Sand Volleyball program, which just concluded its inaugural season with the individual and team championships held in Gulf Shores, Alabama.
Mira Costa High School had former players on three of the four teams vying for the championship, with senior Stevi Robinson playing for Pepperdine, freshman Jace Pardon competing for Florida State and freshman Andi Zbojniewicz helping College of Charleston in the tournament.
Surprisingly, Long Beach State did not have a single player from the South Bay on its roster. The 49ers handed Florida State its first loss of the season before defeating the Seminoles again in the double-elimination tournament to reach the finals where they fell to Pepperdine 3-0.
The women from Pepperdine defeated Long Beach State 3-0 to capture the first team title.
“I am very excited about this inaugural season and I hope more schools will add this sport next year,” Fendrick said. “I would have loved to play sand volleyball in college and I think this will help the U.S. develop younger players faster. Other countries are developing beach volleyball players from a younger age than here in the U.S. Thus, the U.S. has some of the oldest athletes on the world tour and there are no skilled younger players coming up to replace them. With a strong domestic tour and the addition of sand as a collegiate sport, the U.S. will begin developing quality players and continue to have an International presence as a beach volleyball powerhouse.”
Lamberson concurs and projects Pepperdine’s Summer Ross as one of the top up-and-coming players in the U.S. Along with leading Pepperdine to the team championship, Ross and teammate Caitlin Racich won the pairs individual national title.
Ross was a member of the University of Washington’s indoor volleyball team but when the school didn’t field a sand soccer squad, she transferred to Pepperdine so she could play sand volleyball. The Carlsbad native was one of the top junior beach volleyball players in 2010 when she became the first male or female athlete to win both the FIVB Youth World Championships and the FIVB Junior World Championship in the same year.
Along with hosting professional events, the NVL has formed a partnership with volleyball legend Sinjin Smith and his National Collegiate Sand Volleyball Association (NCSVA).
In its 6th year, the NCSVA is holding a 21-event national tour with seven regional championships where collegiate teams from over 300 colleges representing 20 states will compete. The Western Championships will be held May 19 in Long Beach.
The top seven men’s and women’s regional championship teams will play in the National Championship to be held Aug. 17-19 in Long Beach. The NVL will be covering travel expenses for the 14 winning teams and provide prizes for the championship squad who will also receive an automatic bid into the NVL’s main draw.
Learning the basics
Unlike indoor volleyball players, athletes in the beach game cannot be specialists. They have to serve, dig, set, pass and cover the entire court. Learning these skills takes time and the earlier start the better.
Manhattan Beach native John Featherstone is in his 18th year conducting beach volleyball clinic for kids 8-14 and Beachsports holds weekly camps in Manhattan Beach and Redondo Beach. The 12-year-old Beach Cities Volleyball offers training for beginning to advance players, including a program for prospective college players.
Players are able to gain valuable competition in many tournaments held by the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) and the California Beach Volleyball Association (CBVA).
The CBVA has approximately 8,000 players of all ages and skills levels that compete in 22 cities throughout the state. The association also holds more than 80 days of youth competition, including eight events in the South Bay, highlighted by the California Cup Youth Championships at the Manhattan Beach Pier Sept. 1-2.
The AAU Junior Beach Volleyball Program began in 1994 and has grown to 30 stops on its 2012 tour, including 13 in the South Bay where athletes in 10U-18U divisions compete for gold, silver and bronze medals.
Hermosa Beach will host the 19th AAU National Championships (July 14-15), the West Coast Junior Olympic Games Beach Volleyball Championships (July 28-30) and the AAU Tour Championships (Aug. 19).
Gino Grajeda is Commissioner of the AAU Beach Volleyball Tour and President of the Southern Pacific Volleyball Committee. He believes the inclusion of beach volleyball as an Olympic sport in 1996 legitimized the sport and spiked interest in the game at the youth level.
“When we began our youth program in the early 1990s with local programming, which included affiliations with the WPVA, then the AVP, our alliances created a bridge for a grass roots program from amateur to professional,” Grajeda said. “Although our entire mission was youth, at least a national organization was behind the sport and developed the activity at the national level. This created not only the goal of young athletes to play for an Olympic medal, but also a viable professional tour.”
Grajeda said 2012 is a milestone year with the advent of beach volleyball on the collegiate and high school level. The Southern Pacific Girls Interscholastic Beach Volleyball League (IBVL) is in the process of concluding its inaugural season with playoffs. Mira Costa finished in first place in the eight-school league.
“Although the beach cities have always turned out great players, and there are many great athletes out of the AAU ranks who have competed on the professional circuit, we are now seeing young athletes inland who are competing and doing well,” Grajeda said. “This year, with the beach volleyball event held as a part of the AAU West Coast Junior Olympic Games in Hermosa Beach, I am sure we will see increased attendance and collegiate coaches in attendance.
“The talent level will continue to rise and I know the current group of youth athletes who compete in our AAU open tournaments and the Southern Pacific IBVL can fill the necessary void of collegiate sand athletes at a competitive level. I believe we will see more athletes who want to be a beach (sand) athlete as their first choice, and only compete in beach volleyball as the colleges continue to expand their offerings. I see a bright future for young athletes who want to take up the game, and we have seen marked increase in AAU volleyball memberships over the past several years and higher number of athletes at our events. The athletes of the past have paved the way for the young athletes of today who now have such opportunities available.”