The OC Metro article is now online! Check out the photo of Karch
hitting past Ian Clark's block.

Here's the link: http://www.ocmetro.com/metro051304/sports051304.html

Beach Volleyball Legend
OC's Karch Kiraly is widely recognized as the best volleyball player
ever.

By Don Patterson

First, there is the matter of separating fact from fiction. When
you've been king of the hill in a pro sport as long as Karch Kiraly,
you tend to be surrounded by plenty of both, and, over time, one
overlaps the other, making for spirited discussions but creating a
somewhat tangled version of history.

There's one story about Kiraly's freshman year playing volleyball at
UCLA. This was 1979. As legend has it, a big, gangly UCLA senior
muffed an overhead set and Kiraly grabbed him by the collar and told
him at full volume to never, ever take a ball like that with his
hands again.

On a recent morning, as he ate breakfast at a San Clemente eatery
near his home, Kiraly was asked about the veracity of this story. It
is the beginning of another busy day, one that will include
volleyball training - he's 43, playing his 26th season of beach
doubles - and assisting his wife, Janna, with the homeschooling of
their 2 boys, Kristian, 13, and Kory, 12.

"I don't remember that," he says. "That's not to say it didn't
happen. It may well have."

Another story from his college days comes up, this one about a heated
match at USC when the Trojan hecklers were out in force. One guy was
in a wheelchair, firing a steady string of zingers at Kiraly, telling
him exactly what he thought of UCLA's offense. Then the Bruins won,
and, as the story goes, Kiraly sprinted off the court, got in the
guy's face and asked him - again, at full volume - just what he
thought of the offense now.

"That one is fact," says Kiraly, smiling. "I was waiting the whole
match to scream at him. And about 2 weeks later, I was cruising
around Westwood, and who should I see coming down the street but this
guy. And we laughed about it, and he said: 'I loved that you came
right back and didn't hold back because I was in a wheelchair. You
treated me like any other heckler.' I'm glad it came out that way;
otherwise I probably would have always felt a little bad."

And finally, there is a story told years ago by Al Scates, UCLA's
men's volleyball coach since 1963. The setting: Tokyo. The year:
1980. This one has Kiraly blocking a hitter from a Japanese All Star
team with such resounding authority that the ball bounced underneath
the net and back onto UCLA's side of the court. That's the way Scates
remembered it, anyway.

"I can't say if it's fact or fiction that it went under the net, but
we all had a ton of blocks, and they were awesome blocks," Kiraly
says.

Holding out his palm and moving his fingers to simulate the flight of
a ball, he takes a moment to consider the equation, then says: "Just
with the laws of physics, on a hard hit ball like that, it's got a
spin that's going to make it go back toward the hitter if it hits the
floor rather than under the net. But I'm not sure I've ever seen one
go under the net."

This kind of discussion, of course, is completely unnecessary
considering Kiraly has had such a storied career that it won't suffer
in the least if a few of the more riveting stories don't check out.
There is plenty that is undisputed. He has won 3 Olympic gold medals,
2 on the U.S. indoor team in 1984 and 1988 and another on the beach
at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics with Kent Steffes. He has won more beach
tournaments (144) than any other player in history and also more
career prize money (topping $3 million). And last year, when he won
an AVP (Association of Volleyball Professionals) tournament in
Huntington Beach with Brent Doble, he broke his own record as the
oldest player to earn a victory.

"Nobody has had an impact on the game like Karch," says TV announcer
Chris Marlowe, who played on the '84 gold medal team and was also a
beach champion beach in the '70s. "You can make an argument that
there have been better indoor players, and you might even be able to
make an argument that there's been a better beach player. But there's
no one who can say they were a better combination."

You almost can't help but wonder what drives Kiraly at this late
stage in his career. He has financial security, and the AVP Tour
doesn't pay nearly as well as it did 10 years ago, so it's hard to
imagine money is much of an incentive. He already is regarded as the
greatest player in history and, sure, that's subjective, but try
finding someone who will debate it. He has plenty of outside
interests, enjoys spending time with his family, helps a number of
charities. Add it all up, and it doesn't fit the stock story of an
aging athlete who keeps playing because he doesn't know what else to
do. But maybe that's the point.

"I think having those other interests - having a family - actually
makes it easier for me," he says. "If I have a bad day on the court,
it doesn't mean I've failed that day in my life. When you have a
family to come back to, it makes what you do on the court a little
less important."

Which isn't to say that he doesn't still take great pride in being
prepared and playing well. This year, he will break in a new partner,
Mike Lambert, a 2-time indoor Olympian who is a relative newcomer to
the beach. Part of the reason he ended his 2-year alliance with his
previous partner, Brent Doble, is that he was disappointed that they
only had 1 victory last season.

"The way I was playing last year, I felt like Brent and I were
capable of winning more than once," he says. "I don't want to just go
out there and cash it in and collect a paycheck. I want to vie to win
tournaments."

To Marlowe, this never-ending hunger for more wins is not unlike what
golf fans saw from Jack Nicklaus.

"When you're a great player, there is always a desire to prove it one
more time," he says. "And I think Karch thinks he can still be the
best player at 43."

That same iron will can be found in Karch's father, Laszlo, who grew
up in Hungary. As a young man, Las fought for his freedom using
Molotov cocktails when the Soviets invaded his homeland in 1956.
Seeking true freedom - and opportunity - he immigrated to America. He
worked his way through college washing dishes, went on to medical
school and is now a successful doctor in Santa Barbara.

Having played indoor volleyball in Hungary, Las quickly got hooked on
the beach game after moving his family from Karch's birthplace in
Michigan to Santa Barbara in 1967. Karch was only 6 when his father
first taught him how to bump a volleyball. It wasn't long before the
2 of them were playing together in tournaments, and Karch says now
that competing at that age played a key role in his success.

"It was great for my self -esteem to be competing - and doing well -
against adults," he says. "You can't just praise kids and give them
self -esteem because it's so hollow. You've got to let them earn it
through mastery of something, and I had that. I had mastered a set of
skills where I could stand toe-to-toe with any man. I was beating
most of them by the time I was 15. It was a great opportunity that my
dad gave me."

Of course, that was a different era. There was no big push to get
scholarships, no kids playing through burnout because their parents
have invested big money in club volleyball dues. "I wasn't forced
into any vicious cycle," he says.

In his view, chasing money or TV fame or scholarships isn't a good
motivator, and he punctuates that sentiment by pointing out that even
Olympic medals lose their shine over time.

"Besides Jesse Owens, I don't know if anybody remembers anybody from
Olympic competition before 1960. In the year 2100, my medals will be
ancient, ancient history, and that's no big deal to me.

"I've always done it to be the best that I can, and I got in it just
because I really enjoy it. As a result, I find I still love to play."
OCM

Don Paterson is a freelance writer and editor of DiG, a beach
volleyball magazine. He lives in Carlsbad.


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Sun and Fun

Beach volleyball is more formal than it used to be, but it's still
not tux and tails. Back in the 1950s, when the doubles game was first
getting traction in its Southern California birthplace, players
competed for pitchers of beer, refereed their own matches and, as one
old timer put it, pursued the simple goal of going an entire
weekend "without wearing shoes."

Today beach volleyball is a global Olympic sport. All 12 tournaments
put on in the U.S. this season by the AVP (Association of Volleyball
Professionals) will be televised, the sites scattered countrywide,
from Belmar, New Jersey,

to Chicago to Huntington Beach to Hawaii.

Still, there isn't as much distance as you'd think between the
average slap-it-around hacker and a top-level pro. On weekdays, rec
players from Santa Barbara to San Diego might find themselves
scrambling through the sand within a few feet of volleyball
heavyweights such as Karch Kiraly, a 3-time Olympic gold medallist
who lives with his family in San Clemente, or L.A. residents Kerri
Walsh and Misty May, the favorites to win the gold at this summer's
Olympics in Athens.

If you think that means there's any resemblance between the way they
play and the way you play, think again. Taking your shoes off is the
easy part. From there, it gets a whole lot more challenging.