Battle to run beach volleyball in US just getting started - Los Angeles Daily News
HERMOSA BEACH -- It's the third shot of Jose Cuervo for beach volleyball in 2011, but the sport's party is just starting.
Sure, men's and women's champions will be crowned this afternoon at the Hermosa Beach Open, and the winners might just represent the United States in next year's London Olympics.
The main event, though, is months away, when the real reincarnation of the U.S. domestic tour will occur.
You think the sand gets hot underfoot on a summer day? Wait until the Cuervo tour and the fledgling National Volleyball League lock horns as they try to resurrect a real volleyball season after the AVP closed its doors a year ago.
While Cuervo has made its intentions clear that it would like to be the major player, the four events on the NVL circuit this season did nothing but convince its CEO and founder, Albert Hannemann, that his way is the highway to success.
"It would be nice to have one tour, but right now we're all trying to find our way," Hannemann said. "I think our model is the most sustainable model that can be around for many years to come. I want to have a tour my daughters can play on, and I think with what we're doing, that's going to happen."
The NVL has decided to go ahead with eight events in 2012, but must cross two major hurdles: plan around the FIVB international schedule, which will be announced in December, and recruit the best players to play in as many events as possible.
Just like Cuervo will be
doing."We're going to continue to try to work with (Cuervo)," Hannemann said Saturday in Hermosa Beach. "It's best for the player to not have to choose between different events, so we're going to do our best again to work on our schedule so there's nothing conflicting. And hopefully the players then will have enough events to play on to make a career doing this again."
The FIVB schedule is the key, since the top U.S. players need to play in those events not only to qualify for the Olympics but to ensure that they're as familiar as possible with potential Olympic opponents.
This year, the players were divided between the NVL, the Corona Light Wide Open tour and then the three late Cuervo events.
"The important thing for me is to make sure the NVL continues to grow, being more the players' tour, making sure we're taking care of the players. That's my goal," Hannemann said. "After 18 years on the AVP, I know what I wanted, so I'm trying to create a tour that I always wanted to play on."
At the end of the day, Hannemann admitted, there's the possibility of a merger, but it wouldn't come without a clash, like each might want to take its ball and go home.
"Any other tours out there, my only concern is to try and not schedule weekends that they have their own events," Hannemann said. "Anything else, there is no real collaboration that is possible.
"We're Wilson, they're Spalding. They decided to do it that way, so it kind of ties your hands from coming together, because that's a big sponsor.
"We're completely different tours, with completely different objectives."
The NVL was the first domestic tour this season to have potential Olympians participate on American sand, but Hermosa has its share.
Top-seeded Sean Rosenthal and Jake Gibb won their three matches in the 32-team draw, as did second-seeded Matt Fuerbringer and Nick Lucena. Those two teams are fighting neck-and-neck for the second Olympic qualification spot behind Todd Rogers and Phil Dalhausser.
While one team will eventually be bitterly disappointed, they aren't competing at the cost of their friendship.
"Jake and Rosie and Nick and I are competing basically for that same spot in the Olympics, but we pretty much back each other all the time, help each other out," Fuerbringer said. "It's camaraderie out there, otherwise it's going to be miserable. I think we're doing a good job of that."
Third-seeded Sean Scott and John Hyden, the big winners domestically this season with eight titles, were knocked off by Matt Prosser and John Mayer but are still alive in the contender's bracket. They'll meet fifth-seeded Billy Allen and Brad Keenan, who were upset by No. 21 Paul Baxter and Pedro Brazao in the second round.
On the women's side, Jennifer Kessy and April Ross, likely Olympians with Kerri Walsh and Misty May-Treanor, cruised to three wins as the top four seeds remained unscathed.
Kessy and Ross are ranked fifth in the world rankings, but if that's where they were seeded for the Olympics, they would face the No. 1 seed in the semifinals.
"We would like to secure our spot, No. 1, whether it's the first (U.S.) spot or the second spot," Kessy said. "We would really like to secure the first spot. We need to improve our seed. If we go to the Olympics, we want to do well, so we want to have a top-three seed.
"That's where we want to be."
25 Sep, 2011--
Source: http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&fd=R&usg=AFQjCNGC_B7Ucgk3XpsFSpwYA9borYMSjA&url=http://www.dailynews.com/sports/ci_18973150
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