Ageless Kiraly still a crowd favorite

AVP NISSAN SERIES BELMAR OPEN: HE'S AVP'S SPECIAL SAND MAN

Published in the Asbury Park Press 07/10/05
STAFF WRITER
BELMAR
http://www.app.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050710/SPORTS/507100473/1002

The article his wife dug up a few months ago contained a familiar refrain,
the one about how Karch Kiraly was somehow still able to play well on the
Association of Volleyball Professionals Tour despite his advanced age.

"That article was from nine years ago," Kiraly said before smiling.

Those predictions of Kiraly's demise all those years ago now have a special
place in the filing cabinet with the stories of former Red Sox general
manager Dan Duquette saying Roger Clemens was in the "twilight of his
career" back in 1996.

At 44 years old, Kiraly is a living legend in beach volleyball. Just last
year, he and former partner Mike Lambert won three AVP events and the
overall points title. He has won more than $3 million in his career and a
combined three Olympic gold medals between indoor and beach volleyball.

Now all anybody seems to want to know about is the end.

"That's been the storyline for the last nine years," he said after his final
match in the contenders' bracket on Saturday at the Nissan Series Belmar
Open. "Everyone wonders, "Could this be my last season?' "

One year ago at Belmar, Kiraly dislocated his shoulder, ended up playing the
rest of the AVP schedule with basically one good arm and still won the
points title with Lambert. He had surgery in September, which ended up being
more of a cause for optimism than any chance to reflect on whether or not it
was time to hang it up.

"I thought that if I could do it with no shoulder last year, then maybe
having surgery I could do better," he said. "It turns out we didn't."

The play of a recovering Kiraly and an out-of-sync Lambert resulted in
Lambert dumping him as his playing partner, which led Kiraly to seek out
current playing partner Adam Jewell, who had recently been dumped by his
partner.

"We're adjusting a little because we both played full-time defense last
year," Kiraly said. "We're both probably best off in that position, but
we're making it work."

When Kiraly was playing in his first open tournament, the 30-year-old Jewell
was busy celebrating his first birthday. When he won his first tournament,
Jewell was four years old.

In Belmar Karch is a fixture. He is Maximus in "Gladiator" — he owns the
crowd. A large group of fans who had been at the beach for nearly 10 hours
was still hanging on every point about a half hour before the sun went down
on Saturday as Kiraly and Jewell staved off elimination with a thrilling
17-21, 21-19, 20-18 win over an elite team that featured Lambert.

Kiraly's sadistic workouts and supernatural feel for the game ensure that he
is not Joe Namath on the Rams, hanging on to the bitter end while everyone
can barely bring themselves to watch. He is still a threat to win any
tournament he enters.

"Conditioning is one of the things I have to do at this age," Kiraly said.
"I got to try to earn an advantage somehow, and I think I can in
conditioning. I'll never be the hardest hitter anymore or the highest
jumper."

"He's like a computer," said Phil Dalhausser, a 6-foot-9 blocking machine
who teamed with partner Nick Lucena to defeat Kiraly and Jewell in a
winners' bracket match earlier on Saturday.

"The way I look at it, he almost sees everything in slo-mo so he can react
to what's happening in an almost mechanical way. He's a machine, basically."

While he's often called the Michael Jordan of volleyball, he is not some
untouchable icon like Jordan has become. He is more human, signing
volleyballs with the sun going down in the distance, not surrounded by
bodyguards and a team of P.R. people shooing everyone away.

He is the greatest player of all time, but got dumped by his playing partner
and still did not derive any special pleasure in beating Lambert on
Saturday. Imagine Jordan getting dropped by the Bulls when he was still at
the top of his game. Do you think maybe he would hold a grudge or 12?

"I have no hard feelings toward Mike," Kiraly said. "He's one of the nicest
guys on the tour. He's great for the tour and great for the sport."

But he's still not the greatest, which makes you wonder if Kiraly has ever
fully reflected on everything he has accomplished.

"I'll probably do that when I'm done," he said.

Check back with him in nine years.