by Kevin Cody
Hermosa Beach in July is to youth beach volleyball what Williamsport, Pennsylvania, is to Little League baseball in September, Denny Lennon observed in an interview this week. Lennon is the AAU National Beach Volleyball Director.
Each July, for the past three decades, Lennon has run AAU Girls and Boys Junior National Beach Volleyball Championships on the courts stretching three blocks north of the Hermosa Beach pier. Upwards of 500 teams, and their families, from 40 states, participate in his tournaments, Lennon said.
Also in July, BVCA (Beach Volleyball Club Association) hosts its national championships in Hermosa, drawing an equal number of players and families. Next summer will be the BVCA tournament’s eighth year in Hermosa, BVCA director Jeff Smith said this week.
In recent years, AVP (Association of Volleyball Professionals) has added its own AVP Juniors National Championships, and US Beach Club Championships to the weeks prior to and following the AVP professional Hermosa Open in July.
As college beach volleyball has expanded across the nation, the three tournaments have become scouting grounds for college recruiters. Players from over 200 of the teams that received bids to play in the BVCA event last summer were “committed” to play college beach volleyball, Smith said.
July is the only month the youth tournaments can be held because club season ends in late June, and high schools in some states start in early August.
“You can have a local tournament before or after July, but a national tournament has to be in July,” Smith said.
Until this year, AAU, BVCA and AVP have worked together to coordinate their July tournament schedules. But the groups have yet to announce an agreement on the July 2024 schedule. As a result, the tournament dates are scheduled to be decided by the Hermosa Beach City Council at its Tuesday, November 14 meeting.
Community Resources Manager Lisa Nichols, in her report to the city council at its October 10 meeting, recommended only two of the three youth volleyball organizations be awarded July 2024 tournament dates. The third group would be rotated back in the following summer, and one of the 2024 groups rotated out. Nichols told the council a letter would be sent to the three organizations advising them of the proposed two permit limit, and inviting them to address the city council on the issue at its November 14 meeting.
All three groups held tournaments in July 2023. In 2024, the limit to two is a result of a quirk in the calendar, and changes to the city’s permitting policies,
The first week in July has been ruled out as a tournament date because July 4, 2024 is a Thursday, the day tournaments typically begin.
“We can’t have that level of intensity,” is how City Manager Suja Lowenthal explained the city’s reason for not having a national volleyball tournament over the Fourth of July weekend.
Additionally, Lowenthal told the council, “We want a [week’s] buffer between events.”
As a result, only two weekends in July are open for the three events.
“City staff has spent over 100 hours trying to get the three groups to reach an agreement… We value all the groups. They bring families that stay in hotels…But the city is not in a position to privilege one group over the other,” Lowenthal told the council.
Lennon said this week that AAU has been designated by the city as the “odd man out” in July 2024.
But according to multiple sources, AVP has signaled it may not hold its professional Hermosa Beach Open in July 2024. If the AVP Hermosa Beach Open is not held in July 2024, a weekend would become open, enabling AAU, as well as BVCA, and AVP’s junior tournaments to be scheduled for that month.
Neither AVP nor the city returned calls requesting comment for this story.
Lennon said he is hopeful AAU’s traditional July dates will be approved for 2024. But if not, he will ask the city to reverse its decision to deny him a 2024 permit.
“Why should AAU take the first hit? This would be our 32nd year. We made Hermosa the Mecca for juniors beach volleyball. I understand the city faces a complex problem. But it made a mistake allowing AVP to claim July dates. The AVP is a pro event. It doesn’t need a July date.”
BVCA’s Smith agreed with Lennon that AVP is the spoiler in the scheduling.
“The city staff did the best it could under the circumstances. But I don’t understand why AVP isn’t told to find a date before or after July. In 2017, the city instructed us to work with AAU on set up and tear down and we’ve done that.”
AAU and BVAC share court equipment at their Hermosa events.
Both Lennon and Smith characterized AVP’s youth tournaments as more predatory than productive in a segment of the sport they have spent years nurturing.
The two acknowledge the AVP Hermosa Open is a more prominent tournament, but they contended their two tournaments are better for Hermosa because they are less disruptive, and bring in more money.
“We don’t have tractors on the beach setting up a stadium that blocks views. And the teams that come to our events stay in local hotels for a week or two,” Smith said. Neither Smith, nor Lennon have studies indicating the economic impacts of their events. But Smith said his back of the napkin analysis of 1,000 families spending five days in local hotels surpasses $3 million. (Hermosa’s Transient Occupancy Tax, or bed tax is 14 percent.)
CBVA (California Beach Volleyball Association) President Chris Brown offered a different opinion on the conflict.
CBVA holds nearly 1,000 tournaments, year round, throughout Southern California. At the October 10 city council meeting CBVA received approval for tournaments each month in 2024, from March to September, with the exception of June and July.
Brown, who lives in Hermosa, said CBVA didn’t request June or July permits in deference to local volleyball players.
“I’m from here. I’ve run CBVA tournaments in Hermosa for 20 years. I understand how it works, and I know locals want to be able to play on their home courts through the summer,” he said.
That same institutional knowledge has him wondering what’s so complicated about the July scheduling issue.
“The fact the conflict has reached this level shows the city has no concept of beach volleyball. I understand volleyball’s alphabet soup is complicating to the layperson. But lumping AVP in with the AAU and BVCA is ridiculous. It’s like the Dodgers asking to play at Clark Stadium, and telling them no because preference is being given to a visiting Little League team.
“AVP is on a completely different level from AAU and BVCA. It’s been in Hermosa since the ‘60s. Its tournament is nationally televised. AVP is the Major Leagues of beach volleyball. That alone is reason enough for giving them priority,” Brown said.
Eric Fonoimoana may be the only other Hermosa Beach resident with institutional knowledge of beach volleyball on a level with Brown’s.
Fonoimoana played on the AVP tour, won a gold medal at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, and coaches the club team, Elite Beach Volleyball. He sends his teams to all three of Hermosa’s juniors tournaments.
“I’m for consistency. Your dates are your dates. You don’t move into someone else’s dates. The Lifeguard Taplin Bell, the Manhattan Beach 10K have their dates. AAU and BVCA have their dates. They can’t move them because of club and school schedules. AVP is a pro tournament. Its players aren’t restricted by school schedules, so it can move its dates.”
Fonoi acknowledged participation in AVP’s youth tournaments will be hurt if not scheduled in July, but noted AAU and BVCA have longer tenures in Hermosa.
Editor’s note: Requests by Easy Reader for an interview for this story with Community Resources Manager Nichols were responded to with the following email from Public Information Officer Ryan Walker: Lisa will have complete information and will be happy to answer your questions when the staff report is published. ER
