by Brianna Smith
Barbra Fontana made her way to Atlanta to compete in the Olympics in 1996 as a member of Team USA’s very first beach volleyball team. What made her journey particularly unlikely was that only a few years earlier she’d thought her competitive volleyball days were over.
Fontana was a star player at Mira Costa before graduating in 1983. She was a four-year starter playing volleyball at Stanford University, where her teams made the NCAA Final Four each year. She started college as a pre-med major, then switched to political science to prepare herself for law school.
“And no, I didn’t know what I wanted to do when I grew up,” Fontana told a group of Mira Costa students in 2018, when she was inducted in the school’s Hall of Fame. “Sure, I had some ideas, but my strengths and passions changed as I grew up.”
One path that didn’t seem possible was continuing to play volleyball. Nobody was really making a living playing volleyball at that time, and so Fontana entered law school. She attended Santa Clarita law school, where she discovered a passion for human rights law. After graduating, she decided she wanted to stay in California and focus on paying off her student loans.
One day, a friend invited her to play in a professional beach volleyball tournament. She had been an indoor player, but growing up in Manhattan Beach, had of course always played “for fun” on the beach.
“I just gave it a try,” Fontana said in an interview in July. “It wasn’t really something I was looking to do for a career, but I knew a lot of the people that were competing and so I went and competed in the first couple [games] before I had to start studying for the bar and I loved it. I just instantly fell in love with it.”
Her passion for beach volleyball was ignited, and so Fontana moved back to the South Bay. She practiced law while simultaneously competing professionally for three years before focusing solely on beach volleyball. By this time, professional volleyball was growing into a sport in which it was possible to make a living.
“Thinking I was only going to play professional volleyball for a few years, I kept my law profession going, but let’s face it — being a professional beach volleyball player is a lot more fun than being a lawyer,” Fontana said in 2018.
During her 18 year professional career, Fontana won 22 tournaments and was ranked #1 in the US for three years. She also became the first woman to earn $1 million on the AVP tour.
Then came the 1996 Olympics. The world so eagerly awaited for the inaugural beach volleyball games to begin that the 10,000 seat stadium in Atlanta sold out for every match.
“One of the most unique feelings about the Olympics for me was just feeling that sense of togetherness worldwide from people that I knew going into it and then other people that I just met,” Fontana said. “It was just such an amazing energy about it and I think that’s one of the unique things about being an Olympic athlete.”
She competed with her partner Linda Hanley. The pair made it to the Bronze Medal match but were beaten by an Australian team, placing them at fourth. They were the highest ranking US women’s pair.
Now Fontana is a beach volleyball coach in Manhattan Beach, teaching young girls the art of the sport and how to apply it in daily life.
“Setting goals and working hard – being responsible and knowing what you want and making choices… it’s really rewarding to help kids lean into that and be able to really push themselves and set goals that are attainable and set some goals that you might not accomplish,” Fontana said. “Then, how do you deal with the fact that maybe you fell short on a goal or two?” Fontana said. “That’s what I really like. I like getting back to the sport that gave me so much.” ER
