Volleyball Players Now Have Visions of Sydney

Let’s travel, for a moment, into the future.

On the waterfront in front of the Sydney Opera House, we see volleyball nets stretched across the sand and Holly McPeak flying horizontally across the landscape.

Nearly five months ago, when beach volleyball made its Olympic debut at Atlanta, this was a hopeful picture in the minds of many volleyball fans. At that time, the IOC had not sanctioned the sport into the future Olympic program.

On Nov. 17, the IOC announced it would include beach volleyball as an Olympic sport. Last week, the FIVB reiterated that announcement with a proclamation that beach volleyball will be a medal sport in the next Olympic Games at Sydney in 2000 as well as in all future Summer Olympics.

The Sydney Opera House waterfront and Bondi Beach are among possible venues the FIVB will consider for the 2000 Games.

Former WPVA president Barbara Fontana Harris was asked what she thinks beach volleyball might look like in four years.

Fontana Harris, who with partner Linda Hanley placed fourth at Atlanta, will be 34 when the next Olympics rolls around. Will she try to participate?

“That’s kind of a hard question. For me, four years is a ways off. I currently have no plans of retiring,” said Fontana Harris, a Laguna Beach resident. “Hopefully, if I’m at the top of my game and competing, I definitely will go for that.”

The failure of U.S. women to medal in Atlanta was stunning, and Fontana Harris expects the road to be tougher in Sydney.

“Some other countries are really stepping up to the plate in terms of improving their beach games and that’s just going to continue,” she said.

Style of play most certainly will change, especially in the women’s game, with teams running more plays, with taller women emerging in the sport, and with women such as McPeak proving short players can dominate.

“As the athletes come out of college, and maybe some of the indoor athletes, if they make the decision to come out and play beach, that might influence the style of play,” Fontana Harris said.

Some names to remember for Sydney include: Lisa Arce, the WPVA’s most improved player in 1995, Karrie Poppinga, who finished the season ranked 13th in the WPVA points standings, Christine Schaefer, who finished ranked 11th, and Krista Blomquist, the WPVA’s most improved player this year.

Of course, there will be familiar faces in Sydney. McPeak, a two-time WPVA player of the year, will be 30 in 2000.

“That’s a good age, I think,” she said. “I definitely picture myself there. I figure I’m getting better with age.”

*

Fontana Harris played with Angela Rock in the past two FIVB Women’s World Championship events, finishing seventh Nov. 10 in Salvador, Brazil, and fifth Nov. 24 at Jakarta, Indonesia. Hanley opted out of those trips, choosing to spend time with her family in Pacific Palisades.

Fontana Harris and Hanley, who attended Laguna Beach High, plan to play together for the upcoming WPVA season. They finished last season as the top-ranked beach team.

The 1997 WPVA schedule will not be announced until late next month, but sources say it will open in April with a Tournament of Champions at Miami. Last season, the tournament was scheduled for September in San Francisco but that event was canceled and rescheduled for the start of this season.

It will feature six to eight of the WPVA’s top teams, plus Brazil’s Jackie Silva and Sandra Pires, who won the Olympic gold medal this summer, and Monica Rodrigues and Adriana Samuel, who won the silver.

In addition, the WPVA’s national championship tournament probably won’t be held at Huntington Beach, where it has been the previous two years in August. The WPVA probably will schedule a regular tour stop at Huntington Beach in May or June.

Hermosa Beach is one candidate for the national championship site in August, pending the AVP’s schedule.

*

Ian Cairns of U.S. Surfing met with California State Park officials and a group of recreational surfers last week to discuss surf contest policies at Trestles.

In recent months, Lower Trestles has been thrust into the spotlight because a group of surfers, called the Trestles Surfing Assn., called for a limit to surf contests at the famed spot, just south of San Clemente.

Last month, the Assn. of Surfing Professionals announced that the U.S. Open in Huntington Beach would be consolidated with the AirTouch ProAm and a major surf contest might be added to the list of surf events staged at Lower Trestles.

Cairns, who favors using Lower Trestles, said the meeting went well, and thinks an agreement can be reached to appease all parties concerned.

“You can’t get everyone to agree on one policy, but you can compromise and come up with something that hopefully can work for everyone,” Cairns said. “But above everything, the main focus for us all should be the environment, and how to keep impact to a minimum.”

Cairns said officials from Parks and Recreation will meet again Thursday and will introduce a park policy for the use and staging of surf contests at Trestles.

While a date for a major World Champion Tour site has not been set, Cairns said there is a very good chance there will be a top professional event at Lower Trestles in May.

As far as the recreational surfers are concerned, Cairns said some possible measures discussed included shorter operating hours, limiting an event to six days instead of seven, and reducing the number of events.

“The reality is that there will be surfing events at Lower Trestles,” Cairns said. “There will be a policy, but hopefully with a balance that hopefully all can agree to.”

*

Layne Beachley of Australia won the OpPro women’s surfing championships in Haleiwa, Hawaii, last month, beating fellow Australian Kim Wooldridge, defending world champion Lisa Anderson and Patricia Rossi of Tahiti.

Hawaiian Kaipo Jaquias won the OpPro men’s division in 10- to 12-foot waves Nov. 24. Jaquias beat former world champion Derek Ho, North Shore standout Pancho Sullivan and Florida’s Shea Lopez.

On the Beach runs monthly during the school year. Witherspoon and Hamilton may be reached at (714) 966-5904.