MANHATTAN BEACH, California — Daybreak has not but damaged on the morning of August 20. It’s simply earlier than 5 a.m., that blurry time the place, for some, it’s late within the evening and, for others it’s early within the morning.
This isn’t an uncommon time for Betsi Flint to be awake.
Her daughter, Cora, has by no means been a lot of a sleeper, which places her 7 a.m. match, the earliest you’ll ever see on the AVP Tour, and Flint’s seventh whole of the 2023 Manhattan Seashore Open, instantly in Flint’s wheelhouse.
Of the six gamers Flint will play that Sunday in Manhattan Seashore, solely Flint has modified diapers at 2 a.m., rocked a child again to sleep quite a few instances all through an evening, lifted and competed and practiced recurrently off of 4 hours of sleep (typically much less). Solely Flint’s physique has undergone the huge modifications that include having a child, and solely Flint has recovered from such a drastic shift, each bodily and psychological.
Solely Flint, within the deepest sense, is aware of what she is actually able to — and make no mistake, she is able to a lot.
“I’m a mother, I’m up at 5 a.m. with Cora so I used to be in my factor able to go,” Flint says. “Thriving. That’s my time, 5 a.m.”
So she heads out into the silent blackness of pre-dawn, into an awaiting tropical storm, ready to do what few thought attainable.
“Rapidly I’ve this softness, this sweetness, this tenderness …”
Betsi Flint occupies a uncommon area on this planet {of professional} seaside volleyball: A mother who continues making her full-time residing competing. On the AVP Tour, there are solely two lively moms among the many top-50 ranked gamers: Flint, and Aurora Davis. Increasing that checklist to the highest 100 provides solely two extra. The the reason why are quite a few, and lots of of those are apparent, starting with the astonishing modifications a girl’s physique undergoes all through a being pregnant, and the difficult and vexing restoration that comes after, to not point out the small matter of the added accountability of elevating one other human being.
Maybe extra complicated is what occurs to a brand new mom’s thoughts: Will the aggressive drive that fueled her to turn into one of many high gamers in the US stay, or will it’s diminished by a newfound, doubtlessly overpowering maternal intuition?
For some — take Kerri Walsh Jennings, Laura Ludwig, and Agatha as examples, all of whom have loved huge success since having youngsters — changing into a mother solely fueled their drive, the final considering being that they’re now offering for one more member of their household who depends solely upon their capability to win matches, earn prize cash, and proceed supporting their livelihoods. Successful may, from that lens, be considered as doubly essential. An additional life depended upon it.
For others, they’ll uncover the edginess they as soon as had previous to having their youngsters has been chiseled and rounded into one thing softer, a once-hard exterior softened, not all that totally different from the tables and chairs and partitions that may quickly turn into baby-proofed all through their houses.
“Earlier than the newborn I used to be this intense, fierce competitor. Not offended, however slightly feisty. With out that means to I in all probability gave a pair staredowns right here and there, simply having that fierceness, that edge,” Kim DiCello, an AVP champion mentioned in 2019 as a brand new mom. “After having the newborn, oh my gosh this flipped. Rapidly I’ve this softness, this sweetness, this tenderness that I had no concept was in me. I don’t suppose anything may have pulled it out apart from having a child.”
Flint, who admits she “performs higher with that ‘F you’ mentality,” was interested by what influence having a toddler would have upon that proverbial and perpetual chip on her shoulder.
Would she nonetheless be the identical killer she was?
“I used to be actually fearful about that once I acquired pregnant, if I used to be going to lose the aggressive drive and simply all of the physicality,” she mentioned.
There was, looking back, little motive to fret. When Flint had Cora in January of 2021, she didn’t decelerate a single RPM. She even wanted to enlist the assistance of her husband, Chase, a former basketball participant at Loyola Marymount, to place a governor on her. Hold her from leaping again into full-time observe and lifting too quickly. To remind her that it is perhaps sensible to permit her physique to get well from the bodily equal of main belly surgical procedure and an emotional shift for which there isn’t any equal.
“I needed to return again, and I’m fairly decided so I knew it was going to occur,” Flint mentioned. “However I believed it was going to be three months I’d be enjoying. I don’t know why I had this in my head, however it’s very difficult to be enjoying at a excessive degree three months post-partum and never tremendous secure to your physique both. I got here again round five-and-a-half or six months which continues to be fairly quick however I believed I went about it the appropriate manner. Chase was there to carry me again once I needed to work out early on.”
An sudden however recurring difficulty, Flint discovered, is that there’s little or no data and training on how skilled athletes who turn into moms can safely return to sport. At Flint’s six-week post-partum checkup, Flint’s physician instructed her she was superb to return to her regular exercises. However “regular” on this case referenced a traditional human being, not an expert seaside volleyball participant who requires explosive vertical and lateral actions and whose physique is consistently in unusual and uncomfortable positions, lunging right here, diving there, splitting and rolling and touchdown and spinning. When Flint, shocked however inspired by the physician’s inexperienced gentle, requested her pelvic flooring therapist if she may, actually, return to lifting and training as was “regular” for her, her therapist properly pumped the brakes.
“She mentioned ‘Ah, I do know your targets, this can be a muscle, it’s not absolutely healed, you might want to learn to re-engage your core, since you lose your core the final half of being pregnant,’ “ Flint recalled of that dialog. “It was good to have her advising me and sluggish me down slightly bit and it was price it as a result of my physique’s felt nice.”
“She’s a killer”
Emily Day had zero expectations when she and Flint rejoined as companions in the summertime of 2021. Day, who had performed with Flint from 2018-2020, had been competing with Sara Hughes, and after six largely unsuccessful tournaments determined to separate . When Flint instructed Day she’d be able to compete in an AVP Subsequent Gold Sequence in Atlantic Metropolis in July of 2021, barely 5 months after giving delivery to Cora, Day hardly anticipated to win.
They hadn’t practiced as soon as.
Day was flying straight from Switzerland. She instructed Flint that if something felt fallacious, if something was amiss, if she felt the smallest twinge, she had no downside forfeiting. That they had no plans for something after Atlantic Metropolis, no dedication for the season, simply two good associates getting on the court docket once more.
After which they performed 5 matches.
In in the future.
In close to triple-digit warmth and darkish and scorching sand that, at finest, melted holes in gamers’ socks and, at worst, turned the bottoms of toes right into a minefield of blisters.
“For her to have all of these matches and compete? That’s gnarly,” Day mentioned, laughing. “She was able to compete.”
When is she not?
There’s a phrase that comes up continuously amongst Flint’s friends on the AVP Tour when describing the 31-year-old: Intense.
A quiet presence off the court docket, Flint doesn’t carry herself with the plain, bombastic depth of, say, a Trevor Crabb or Taylor Sander or Tri Bourne. There’s, fairly, a steely, smoldering furnace underneath the floor, one that may simply go unnoticed till you’re within the field together with her.
“It’s robust to place into phrases,” Day mentioned. “Inform Betsi she will’t do one thing and she or he’ll do it 10 instances over in your face instantly. Simply the best way that her mindset works and she or he had her thoughts made up that she was going to do it and there’s no stopping her as soon as that occurred.”
Even April Ross, probably the most aggressive ladies to ever contact a seaside volleyball, somebody who had competed in opposition to Flint for years, was shocked on the depth of her depth.
“She’s a killer,” mentioned Ross, who coached Flint and Julia Scoles throughout the 2023 season whereas she was pregnant herself. “The best way she thinks about issues in matches that she verbalizes, it surprises me generally and that’s superior. I need to be like that. She’s inspiring me to have a greater mentality in sure conditions, so I believe I realized loads from her and her depth and the way she applies it. It was actually enjoyable to see the best way she approaches totally different conditions, eventualities the place she’s down, the place she doesn’t suppose she’s enjoying properly, if one thing pisses her off, it’s no mercy.
“It’s uncommon on the ladies’s aspect, no less than to precise it the best way she expresses it. Who is aware of what some persons are considering however you may kinda really feel it when folks aren’t genuine, once they’re bubbly on the floor and also you marvel if that’s actually how you’re feeling however Betsi, you may inform, she’s out to get you.”
This depth, that killer intuition, helps clarify how Flint was capable of not simply merely return to the court docket 5 months after having Cora, however to not miss a step. In truth, she might have come again even higher than the pre-pregnancy model of herself. In Manhattan Seashore that August, her second AVP match since changing into a mother, Flint and Day completed second, pushing Ross and Alix Klineman, recent off an Olympic gold medal, to 20-22 within the second set of the finals.
“It was enjoyable being again six or seven months post-partum,” Flint recalled, “and going ‘All proper, I can do that.’
“That was cool.”
There’s a image Flint loves from that match. The Flints — Betsi, Chase, toddler Cora — are off on a aspect court docket. Betsi leans over a Monster cooler, her sun shades propped on her hat. She smiles a beatific smile, one which makes Cora, held by Chase, giggle at her mom. Chase affords the digital camera a candid, goofy dad look acquainted to all dads who’ve turn into child transportation automobiles, one in every of many invaluable roles Chase will play throughout match days, or every other day, actually.
It’s a picture of a mother fulfilled, an aspiration realized: Sure, she may proceed doing what she loves, what she is world class at, sustaining a household constructed on a bedrock of affection and belief, elevating a toddler one of the best ways they understand how.
Sure, the Flints may have all of it.
“I’ll cherish that image ceaselessly and yearly simply taking an image and seeing how a lot she’s grown,” Flint mentioned. “That’s an enormous a part of my why is to encourage her to chase her desires and no matter that will likely be when she will get older.”
“I needed them to see me following my desires”
That’s a part of the magic of changing into mother: The larger image will get immeasurably greater. The aim indescribably deeper.
It’s one thing solely the moms of kids can actually know.
“I needed to go on the market and be an instance to my youngsters,” mentioned Nicole Branagh, a 2023 Seashore Volleyball Corridor of Fame inductee who competed whereas mothering a pair of kids, Tegan and Will. “I needed them to see me following my desires and doing every little thing I may, working onerous, placing within the time, and in addition have the ability to know that they’re a very powerful issues.”
Branagh was one of many few examples Flint may look to of girls who efficiently returned to the seaside after having a toddler. Remarkably, two years after Tegan was born, Branagh gained the 2015 Chicago Open alongside Jenny Kropp, the mom of twins.
“Figuring out we may compete, we will do that. Exhibiting them which you could comply with your desires. That was my angle,” Branagh mentioned. “I needed to win however I additionally didn’t need to waste my observe time. If I used to be having a smelly observe, I’d suppose ‘OK, Nicole, you’re taking time away from Tegan or Will. Let’s get this going.’ You’re taking time away from being with them so go on the market and make it price it.”
There’s zero wasted time with Flint. Of all the ladies presently on the AVP Tour, solely Davis — and shortly, doubtlessly, Day, Ross, and Klineman, ought to they arrive again in 2024 — is aware of the worth of a minute as a lot as Flint.
“Practices have been get in, get out, and you may see it within the gymnasium, she’d get her raise in and bounce out fast,” Day mentioned.
Quick, sure. However has Flint ever taken a shortcut, used Cora as an excuse to chop out early, even when it is perhaps a good one? Not as soon as.
“She works so onerous and I actually suppose motherhood has made her a greater participant,” Ross mentioned. “It’s very evident that she refuses to make excuses for something. I do know her daughter wakes up tremendous early or wakes up throughout the evening and she or he simply wakes as much as observe able to go, by no means says she’s drained. Cora will come to observe and wish consideration from Betsi and she or he simply manages all of it so properly. It’s actually inspiring. I believe it’s elevated her recreation and she or he calls for the identical from everybody else: Let’s get the job completed, no excuses, put in your time. She’s all the time been an intense competitor however I believe this had simply made her even higher.
“It was actually nice to see how [Betsi and Chase] make it work. She’s acquired to coach and she or he has to raise and get bodily remedy and watch video and it’s one thing that took me all day once I was enjoying. I used to be gone from 7 to five:30 daily and she or he’s so environment friendly and Chase is so supportive and simply the best way that they’ve figured it out — OK, you are able to do this. It offers me hope that I can do that and we don’t should perhaps lay our a fortune with a view to get outdoors assist to play this recreation that oftentimes doesn’t pay very a lot. That was very cool to see.”
The “secret mother’s membership”
The variety of moms on the AVP Tour might look totally different in 2024. Day is anticipating to play after having her son in 2023. Ross has not dominated out a return after giving delivery to a son as properly. Alix Klineman competed within the World Championships this previous October together with her new child, Theo, in tow. All of them, in a technique or one other, have seemed to Flint as a mannequin.
“There’s a secret mothers membership the place we’re all aggressive however when you turn into a mother it’s all cool,” Flint mentioned. “I didn’t understand once I was enjoying how legit that was or how onerous that will need to have been so it’s cool to respect these mothers who’ve come earlier than me and hopefully I can encourage extra folks once they determine to begin a household too. I’m right here for anybody on the market who desires to speak. It’s encouraging to see folks come again to play at a excessive degree after having youngsters.”
It’s troublesome, sure, however it’s these very challenges — the early wakeups, the endurance required to navigate unruly moods and mood tantrums, the heartache of lacking your baby on the street — which have given Flint an edge solely choose few know. Which is why, on the morning of August 20, the ultimate day of the 2023 Manhattan Seashore Open, Flint wasn’t discouraged when she noticed 4 on the hour of her alarm clock.
She was thrilled.
An unprecedented 7 a.m. match? After a first-round loss requiring the longest street attainable? On a schedule expedited resulting from an incoming tropical storm?
“That performed proper into her wheelhouse,” Ross mentioned, laughing. “That was humorous. She all the time mentions how she’s up so early and I see her tales and I used to be pregnant on the time so I used to be all the time drained, waking up half an hour earlier than I wanted to be there and I’m her tales and she or he was activating and rolling out and on her bike all earlier than our 7:30 observe.
“She’s simply such an intense participant and individual, and I don’t suppose you get that from the surface. She looks like such a candy individual, and she or he is, however when her again’s in opposition to the wall or somebody pisses her off, she simply takes no prisoners and has no mercy. She doesn’t make excuses. She doesn’t care how drained she is, she doesn’t care if one thing hurts, she’s going to do what she has to do to make it work.”
Eight straight wins adopted that heartbreaking opening spherical loss, punctuated by a 22-20, 21-13 finals victory over Hailey Harward and Kelley Kolinske. It was Flint’s third straight journey to the Manhattan finals. Towards all odds, in a match that required her and Scoles to turn into the primary workforce to return again from a first-round loss to win a Manhattan Seashore Open, 2023 was the 12 months she alas cemented herself onto the Pier.
Solely Betsi Flint.
“I like grinding,” she mentioned. “I believe it’s the short-term reminiscence. Nothing issues however this match. Nothing issues however this level and I additionally love being an underdog so then I believed that I used to be an underdog at that time the place nobody believes we have been going to do that and we’re going to discover a manner. We discovered a manner. We did it”
There’s one other image Flint can add to her financial institution of reminiscences, alongside the one from the 2021 Manhattan Open, her first after having Cora. She’s spraying a Kona Brew at Scoles, who sprays one again. Her eyes are closed, her smile spreading from cheek to cheek. Within the backside left-hand nook, the electrical scoreboard reveals the ultimate rating of the second set, the decisive 21-13 win. It’s an image that doesn’t embody Cora however is a testomony to every little thing Flint desires to point out her daughter, and each different new and yet-to-be mom: Sure, you are able to do this.
You may have all of it.
