Professional Seaside
October 25, 2024
I renewed my 50-year love affair with seashore volleyball on Saturday.
In mid-October no much less.
Not in Joao Pessoa, Brazil, for the Elite16 match, or in Puerto Cortes, Honduras, on the NORCECA cease. Or in Oceanside for the AVP League. This a lot seashore volleyball in October, for Pete’s sake?!
Nope, I used to be at a spot referred to as Blackie’s Seaside, which isn’t some small spit of sand in Scotland or some burial floor within the swamplands of New Jersey. That identify doesn’t essentially conjure heat and fuzzy, however the vibes emanating from that small slice of heaven in Newport Seaside have been off the charts.
The event: The Newport Seaside 4 Man/4 Girl Invitational, merely essentially the most entertaining seashore match I’ve attended in years. And, I might say judging by the large smiles from the shut to five,000 spectators on web site (on a university soccer Saturday!), in addition to the gamers (Phil Dalhausser beaming … a number of instances!), that will have been a sentiment shared by fairly a couple of in attendance.
And the weekend left me with rather a lot to say to new USA Volleyball CEO John Speraw as we head into the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics. My phrases for him observe.
The competitors in Newport Seaside was excellent. That’s what occurs when you’ve gotten three Olympic gold medalists, seven of the eight gamers who represented the USA ultimately summer time’s Olympic Video games in Paris, AND 12 previous Manhattan Seaside Open champions representing 26 titles in all. So whereas the AVP League was occurring in Oceanside, this match had Alison Cerutti, Phil Dalhausser, Eric Fonoimoana, and Brandie Wilkerson.
The climate was within the mid-70’s on a spectacularly sunny day with no wind. Mixing with the group, the legends in full pressure: Smith/Stoklos/Menges/Don Shaw/Jon Lee/Sean Rosenthal/Jake Gibb AND essentially the most colourful participant to ever don a pair of Quiksilvers, Gary Hooper. To prime all of it off: Corridor of Fame announcer Chris “Geeter” McGee, again on the mic, offering the soundtrack to a heavenly day. Is there a P.A. announcer in ANY sport higher than Geeter?
Who introduced this spectacular solid of characters all collectively? Co-impresarios Steve Obradovich, Kevin Martin (no, not the previous seashore nice Ok-Mart), Mario Marovic and Enjoyable Zone’s Henry Pyle. They have been capable of appeal to eight completely different native company sponsors. The outcome: A complete purse of $250,000, the most important one-day payout of any match within the WORLD for 2024. However greater than that, the gamers have been lodged on the five-star Balboa Bay Resort, and upon getting into their room, every have been greeted with a present bag. It’s these little issues that may, and do, make a giant distinction.
One of many sponsors was Slunks. I’ve by no means met their CEO Chris Reames, however I can let you know that firm has given extra again to the sport of seashore volleyball lately than anybody else. Along with sponsoring quite a lot of groups/gamers, Slunks nearly gave away their very distinctive hats. You possibly can purchase one for $5 at this match. It was 1970 yet again! Motive sufficient to struggle L.A. visitors and hoof it to Newport Seaside!
The 4 man/4 lady sport is an distinctive product. The rallies are longer, which engages spectators extra. With 4 gamers and a few subs on every group, there’s an esprit de corps you don’t see within the two man/two lady. And the gamers appear to have extra enjoyable and it reveals (see Dalhausser remark above). The matches from Newport Seaside have been all proven on VBTV, Volleyball World’s streaming service. And right here is hoping that the FIVB offers this model of volleyball a really, very shut look sooner or later.
The ladies’s match was exceptionally entertaining. And revelatory in lots of respects. The perfect participant on the courtroom Saturday?
Megan Rice.
Now, there are two gamers named Megan Rice who play skilled seashore volleyball. The one ripping it up on Saturday was (I imagine) Megan J. Rice. The J ought to stand for leaping jack. She has obtained to have one of many two or three finest vertical leaps on this planet. And to prime it off, she hits the stuffing out of the ball. The four-woman format performed to all of her strengths.
A few different shout outs to her profitable teammates, Carli Lloyd and veteran Geena Urango. Lloyd, the previous AVCA indoor nationwide participant of the yr at Cal, now 35, gained a bronze medal indoors in Rio in 2016. And she or he has among the most stunning palms, regardless of the floor. She actually has the quickest flick-like launch of any setter. If you’re in Austin this winter you’ll be able to see her play indoors for the LOVB franchise there. Urango would have gained the “Hoover vacuum” defensive participant of the match if there was one. She was within the pocket, digging for that profitable Provenio Capital group that featured Lloyd, Rice, budding star Toni Rodriguez, Charlie Ekstrom and Betsi Flint, herself a Manhattan Seaside champion.
Unequivocally, the most effective participant on the sand Saturday was the appropriately named Taylor SANDer, who led his group, Citrus Ford, to a second consecutive males’s group title. He had the aforementioned five-time Manhattan Seaside Open champion and two-time World titlist Jim Menges shaking his head in absolute wonderment at his termination expertise. It was bombs away all day for Sander. It appeared as if he jacked each excessive angle that was attainable on the courtroom. It was as phenomenal a hitting show as I’ve ever seen. — anyplace. His group included 2008 Olympic gold-medalist Dalhausser, Nick Lucena, and Sander’s brother, Brendan, in addition to the Crabb brothers, Taylor and Trevor.
It’s actually fairly astounding when you consider it, that neither the Seaside Professional Tour nor the AVP can get native (or nationwide for that matter) sponsors on the stage {that a} small neighborhood like Newport Seaside can and did.
Obradovich, Martin and Marovic are all senior executives in unrelated companies who labored this as a aspect hustle, and spent cash out of their very own pockets to assist this occasion succeed. Their love of the sport of seashore volleyball, and their selflessness ought to hopefully encourage others in order that gamers like Miles Partain, Andy Benesh and Trevor Crabb don’t must jam down the 405 to get to Oceanside to play one other match the identical day.
Which leads me to my “Expensive John” letter.
John Speraw is the newly employed president and CEO of USA Volleyball. I’ve met him as soon as and he is a fascinating persona who is sensible, has a commanding presence, will hear and look you within the eye.
However he has a serious activity at hand — effectively quite a lot of duties all through the game — and a serious alternative in seashore volleyball.
Speraw is well-connected with among the ex-volleyball-playing rainmakers within the enterprise world. There are a LOT of very profitable former gamers who make up his inside circle. Along with the plain want for extra company sponsors, it’s crucial that particular person benefactors be recruited, whether or not by way of a basis, or another means to offer developmental cash in order that the 2028 Los Angeles Olympic Video games can present a springboard to the long run progress of the game.
Second, Speraw, the previous UCLA and USA Olympic indoor coach, must prioritize the seashore sport typically, and the boys’s aspect particularly. If it was me, I might again up the Brinks truck and rent German Jurgen Wagner or Brazilian Marcio Sicoli, or each, to guide the nationwide program efforts on this essential quadrennial main as much as a house nation Olympics.
The German program has been stunningly profitable, together with Olympic gold-medalists Laura Ludwig and Kira Walkenhorst (2016) and Julius Brink and Jonas Reckermann (2012), and the reigning silver medalists from Paris, Clemens Wickler and Nils Ehlers. Svenja Muller and Cinja Tillman gained the newest European Championship. The frequent denominator: Jurgen Wagner.
Sicoli is well-known to American seashore lovers. He coached Kerri Walsh Jennings and Misty Might-Treanor to 2 of their Olympic gold medals. In Paris he mentored Wilkerson and Humana Paredes to a silver medal and method, method again in 2004 he was the coach to Brazilian legends Shelda and Adriana when that pair misplaced within the last to Walsh Jennings and Treanor on the Athens Video games.
Third, Speraw must stimulate the event of a home USA seashore volleyball circuit. One which works carefully with the worldwide Seaside Professional Tour, in order that there aren’t calendar conflicts, and the most effective home gamers can be found to play on every. Additionally, USAV must host some worldwide competitions within the USA, and never await the Seaside Professional Tour to get its act collectively on that entrance.
In September 2009, the AVP placed on a compelling Davis Cup-like twin between Brazil and the USA in Glendale, Arizona. It was a sensational match with actual drama. That’s what occurs while you put on the Crew USA singlet. The actually excellent news is that now there are extra nations than ever that may area 5 aggressive groups in each genders.
I really imagine Speraw has the unifier gene in him. No time is best than now to rally the troops and have a gathering of the minds. Get essentially the most artistic and elastic minds and thought leaders in seashore volleyball collectively in a single room. There are a selection of wildly profitable folks on the market like Obradovich/Martin/Marovic/Pyle, who’re altruistic, and care in regards to the seashore sport, and need to see medals across the necks of USA seashore stars in Santa Monica in 2028.
New leaders in lots of companies sadly turn into wallpaper after six months. They get mired within the bureaucratic sludge and spend time drowning in emails, conferences and protocols. However the first six months is when it has to occur:
There’ll by no means be a greater time for John Speraw to impact change than NOW.
