The great indoors of beach volleyball
By JEFF LATZKE
AP Sports Writer
OKLAHOMA CITY -- Kerri Walsh wasn't sure what to expect when she left 13-degree temperatures, walked into an arena and started warming up for a beach volleyball game to be played indoors.
When spectators started shedding their parkas to show their swimming trunks underneath, the former Olympian felt a little more at home.
That dry run last February in Albany, N.Y., gave birth to a 19-city tour to try to bring some Southern California flavor to the chillier parts of the country this winter.
"It's a full-blown summer event in a blizzard," said Walsh, whose flight out of Albany after last year's test event was canceled due to a snowstorm.
Along with some of beach volleyball's top setters and spikers, the Association of Volleyball Professionals will bring in 200 tons of sand to fill the arena floor at each of its stops on the Hot Winter Nights tour that gets going tonight at Oklahoma City's Ford Center.
Four men and four women will play in a round-robin tournament in each city, taking turns partnering with each of the other players of the same sex for two-on-two games. Each stop will have individual winners, and a tour champion will be crowned in the final event Feb. 23 in Las Vegas.
Among those who'll appear on the men's side are Mike Lambert and Stein Metzger, the second-rated team on the AVP tour last season, Jake Gibb and Sean Rosenthal, the No. 3 team, and 2000 Olympic gold medalist Dain Blanton. Women's competitors include Jenny Johnson Jordan and Annett Davis, the third-ranked women's team last summer, and 2004 Olympic bronze medalist Holly McPeak.
For the players, it's a chance to get an early start on their preparations for the summer tour and earn a little cash during what's normally a quiet time. For fans, it's an opportunity to see top-level players who otherwise might never come to town.
"It's a win-win for everybody," Blanton said Wednesday.
In mid-January, most players would normally be right in the middle of a September-to-April layoff and just starting their training in preparation for the start of summer tour action.
"It's a great opportunity because we do have quite a few months off if you're not playing internationally as well as domestically. This kind of fills up that time," said Blanton, who plans on skipping the Olympics this year after playing in the last two.
"I know a lot of people have other jobs in the offseason that they do to keep busy. That would eliminate that if they have more events."
The AVP has expanded in recent years since founder Leonard Armato got involved again prior to the 2001 season and rescued the tour after it deteriorated into bankruptcy. Since then, the schedule has nearly tripled from seven to 18 stops with new events in Charleston, S.C., and landlocked Louisville, Ky., last year.
And further expansion is possible. Armato, who's now the commissioner and CEO, said the tour would consider holding as many as 20 to 25 events, but only if it is able to maintain the same quality that exists at its current stops.
Armato considers the winter tour to be a way of growing the AVP's fan base outside traditional markets that have summer events. If it works out well, he can see a tour being held every winter. Or it could be a way to scout out new hotspots for an outdoor tournament.
"Hopefully this will open up other avenues so we can come back in the summer and show them how it's really done," said Walsh, who is serving as the winter tour's spokeswoman while she recovers from shoulder surgery that will sideline her until the regular season starts.
Besides Oklahoma City, the tour includes three other cities the AVP has never visited before — St. Louis, Kansas City, Mo., and Omaha, Neb. It also swings through Wisconsin, Minnesota, Illinois, Ohio, the Pacific Northwest and the East Coast — including a return trip to Albany.
"It's important to expand our audience and the people who are familiar with our sport," said McPeak, who recalls playing in front of a packed house at Madison Square Garden in a similar event more than a decade ago. "We just can't always be on beaches."