Pot of Gold

Irish eyes smile as beach volleyball arrives

By Kirstin Olsen

When most people think of the beach volleyball, bikinis and sandy beaches obviously come to mind. Not four leaf clovers and the Blarney Stone. In Ireland, someone at 6-feet, 2 1/2 inches may feel like Shaq in a sea of Leprechauns.

Believe me.

In the United States volleyball players gravitate to each other like lost souls, often on the beach. This is not the case in Ireland, as training and even finding games presents a challenge. You’d have nearly as much luck looking for that pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

First off, Ireland’s climate is the worst weather Californian’s could imagine: cold, rainy and windy. Far from ideal conditions. The beaches are ripe with large stones, which could make diving for balls similar to riding a Slip and Side down the face of the Grand Canyon.

It’s truly an Emerald Isle where Gaelic football, rugby, soccer and hurling reign, and most people have never heard of Karch Kiraly.

I, personally, would have never used beach volleyball and Ireland in the same sentence. Until last July, that is, when USA Volleyball gave me the opportunity by to go to Ireland and represent the USA in a beach demonstration. Having never been to Europe, I jumped at the chance like Sean Rosenthal or Jason Ring on a hard-packed surface.

Getting Off the Ground
It all started with local promoter Jerry Dawson’s vision of producing a beach volleyball event in his seaside resort town of Bray, located about 30 minutes south of Dublin. He approached Paul McKeever, director of development and coaching for the Volleyball Association of Ireland (VAI), which had just started the country’s beach program. For help organizing the event, Paul turned to Ali Wood, USA Volleyball’s director of international high performance beach programs, who was introduced by mutual friend Scott Buss, the volleyball coordinator for the Special Olympics. Because the event date conflicted with both AVP and FIVB events, Ali chose three athletes not under contract to accompany her: Leanne Haarbauer, Kat Madden and me. We were asked to play a demonstration doubles match between scheduled Irish matches and to run clinics. I was thrilled with the opportunity.

The flight was long and I had trouble sleeping. That had something to do with my excitement and the anticipation of seeing the beautiful Irish landscape, not to mention the airsick/drunk passenger seated behind me. We finally arrived in Dublin and were met at the airport by a chipper Paul McKeever, who immediately drew us in with his dry sense of Irish humor.

We arrived in the quaint seaside town of Bray at the 1940s style Esplanade Hotel overlooking the Irish Sea. The sea front was lined with hotels, shops and pubs that seem to have happy hour around the clock. Bray’s normally barren beaches pulsate with life during the summer, almost like Hermosa Beach on a weekend.

Somehow Volleyball interest swam all the way across the Atlantic and bounced off the sand and into Irish hearts. About 10 colleges have women’s indoor volleyball teams. Paul is the head coach at the University College Dublin, where we scrimmaged with several of his athletes who also competed in the tournament. Though they do not have the exposure to the sport other countries have, and beach volleyball popularity is still in its infancy, there is a definite love for the game. These athletes possess a lot of heart and a never-say-die attitude, fostered by a recent visit by legendary British player Denise Austin to tutor some of the up-and-coming Irish players.

“She taught us a lot about the game that we didn’t know,” said Ireland’s Pauline Walsh.

Ali consulted with VAI’s “Beach Division” on how to get a program started, from FIVB entry procedures to what type of athletes to recruit. The VAI plans to pursue the Olympic qualification in hopes of fielding teams in time for London 2012. In the meantime they are seeking teams to compete in FIVB Challenger or Satellite events.

Playing Ball
Coca Cola and its new “Be Active” campaign sponsored the event, aptly named the Coca Cola Beach Volleyball Festival, as well as local sponsors to coincide with Bray Summerfest 2006, a cultural event with music, food and plenty of Guinness. About 260 tons of sand were dumped onto the site, and we helped Jerry and his crew fine tune the net and lines for the court. Wood posts were hammered into the ground “old school style,” and my years of sailing experience paid off by tying knots to hold up the net against the howling Irish wind. Grandstands were built for the crowd of 18,000 and, suddenly, Bray had a beach volleyball venue looking like a slightly greener Manhattan Beach.

The event itself consisted of six men’s and women’s teams. The winners received a free trip to play in a tournament in Weymouth, England, held later that month. Team USA played a Queen of the Beach format, switching partners every game, between the Irish team’s matches. Among us Americans, Kat, with a wee bit of her own ancestral luck o’ the Irish on her side, won the crown. In the Irish matches, Ollie Rossiter and Noemi Kunick won for the women’s competition while Marcus Haehnel and Ivars Kezberis took the men’s.

The VAI and Bray Events did a great job of promoting Ireland’s first organized beach tournament. “Team USA” did radio shows and made appearances at several pubs and restaurants, and our pictures even appeared in four Irish newspapers. A photo of me in The Sun seemed almost life size. What can I say … I’m big in Europe. They treated us like celebrities! We were even introduced to a crowd before a concert by popular Irish singer Brian Kennedy. A cute Irish tyke on his daddy’s shoulders shouted, “Go Team USA!” My heart melted and I realized how special it was to this community that we were here.

My new found Irish luck suddenly made me a star.

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The Irish beach volleyball cheerleaders photo op with, from left, Ali Wood, Leanne Haarbauer, Kat Madden, and Kirsten Olsen.

Play during an Irish men's match.

Madden goes up for the block during the U.S. exhibition match.