I didn’t post much this year, so I’m cramming to fill you in before it’s over! Writing is next, but first up my…
2021 Year in Review (Volleyball Edition)
It was another year of uncertainty in beach volleyball—something I’ve learned to expect throughout my career. After getting a three-tournament season in 2020, we hoped for more in 2021, but no one knew what to expect. What did we get?
Three tournaments.
This year was a different one for me—the first one I lived outside of California. We moved to Idaho at the end of 2020 with no idea how permanent it was going to be. And surprise, surprise: an Idaho winter is not ideal training ground for beach volleyball. But between kettlebell swings in the bedroom and pulling my son Ketch in the snow, I made it work.
Another major change was I lost my partner Stafford Slick in a freak water skiing accident.
Just kidding. He retired and got a real job. I was left without a partner and feared my options would be limited living so far from Hermosa Beach.
I thought through the list of potential partners and would have been happy battling with a number of them. But one person on the list was Andy Benesh. Andy was a younger blocker who’d qualified in a handful of AVPs but had yet to make a big mark. I’d played him a couple of times and knew he had a lot of potential. But I also knew if we teamed up, we’d be hurting for points, likely in the qualifier.
But I was still excited about playing with Andy. What might have sealed the decision was talking to my friend and former partner Jon Mesko who was very fired up on the idea. He said Andy was a great guy, and he thought we’d do well together. So I took a chance.
I traveled to California for a couple of days to practice with Andy and then we did a weeklong training camp in Florida. We had our ups and downs as we ironed out some things and quickly got a feel for each other. Andy is a hard worker and a supportive partner, and it felt easy to share the court with him. We played in a few smaller tournaments leading up to the AVP season and had some hard losses. There was definitely some upside to our team, but we were inconsistent and never finished as well as I thought we should. Rolling into the AVP season, I was nervous. Had I made the right call? Was I in good enough playing shape to risk battling through the qualifier?
We stuck it out and traveled to Atlanta for the first AVP. Thanks to some teams not playing, we snuck in as the last team in the main draw. We knew this was a good opportunity and seized it. We fought through the Atlanta heat, beating three higher-ranked teams before losing a heart-breaker to Bourne/Crabb.
As much as the loss stung, we’d played well and earned enough points to avoid the qualifier for the rest of the year.
My wife, Janelle, would play the last two events, so we moved the family to California for the rest of the season (hopping homes so none of our friends got too sick of us). With time to train between tournaments, Andy and I made the most of our time together. Led by our coach, John Mayer, we crammed for the last two events, working on the things that had cost us in Atlanta.
We improved upon our start, finishing 3rd place in both Manhattan Beach and Chicago. Along the way, we beat some of the top teams, including Dalhausser/Lucena, Gibb/Crabb, and Hyden/Ricardo. We still showed inconsistencies, often starting slow and losing the first set big. But we fought back and played at our best when the game was on the line. Andy proved to be a gamer, stepping up his block and making big plays in big moments.
Our AVP season exceeded my expectations. What felt like a gamble at the time now seems like a no-brainer.
So despite a global pandemic, moving to Idaho, and losing a partner, 2021 was a good volleyball year if far too short. And while no one knows what 2022 will hold, I’m still doing burpees in my bedroom. Because if I’ve learned anything from my beach volleyball career, it’s how to handle uncertainty: Train anyway.
Speaking of the unexpected: another surprise came at the end of the year. My friend and former roommate Yariv Lerner is producing a beach volleyball movie and asked me if I wanted to be in it. So I caught a last-minute flight to Bulgaria with no idea what to expect. It turned out to involve a speaking part and actual acting!
The movie is called Qualifying. I’m excited to see it in 2022. Hopefully, they’ll have fixed my acting in post-production.
