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Summertime all the Time: Beach volleyball raising its profile nationwide

Photo courtesy of Jordan Wendelken - Beach volleyball has surged in popularity in recent years, leading to its introduction as an Olympic sport in 1996 and as an NCAA Division I sport this year. Local beach volleyball clubs like the Texas Outlaws, pictured above, have also seen their numbers grow dramatically.

By Andrew Snyder, asnyder@starlocalnews,com

Published: Monday, June 11, 2012 3:22 PM CDT

Cast a net on the beach and you'll likely catch some volleyball players.

The onset of summer is a reminder that a sport once confined indoors is becoming more and more comfortable with sandier digs. Beach volleyball is shedding its leisurely image and becoming serious business.

Especially for Jordan Wendelken, director of the McKinney-based Texas Outlaws beach volleyball club. After starting his venture this year, he's seen it grow exponentially in a short span of time. He now has locations in Waco and McKinney that support five and 10 teams, respectively, and he expects to have 40 teams between the two midway through June. The McKinney location operates out of The Beach at Craig Ranch.

Larger clubs around the area support as many as 150 athletes.

�To be able to say that the United States is one of the top volleyball countries in the world is always good,� Wendelken said.

Wendelken's success is just a local example of the upward trend beach volleyball has been riding for well over 20 years. A recent apex came when the U.S. mens and womens beach volleyball teams captured gold at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. According to TV by the Numbers, the initial match of womens gold medal winners Kerri Walsh and Misty May-Treanor helped pull in 28.7 million viewers when paired with Michael Phelps during primetime coverage on NBC.

�That's when beach volleyball really skyrocketed,� Wendelken said.

Since then, the sport has continued its ascent by strengthening its college presence. The inaugural NCAA Division I womens sand volleyball season wrapped up in April when Pepperdine defeated Long Beach State in the sport's first national championship match. Sixteen DI schools, most of which are located along the east and west coasts, fielded a team this year and that count is expected to increase dramatically next season.

Unlike its indoor counterpart, beach volleyball features just two players per team with no substitutions.

Coaching during a match is also not allowed, giving each player a greater measure of control and responsibility than they would have in a six-player indoor rotation.

Court volleyball remains the more prominent style, but beach volleyball aficionados like Wendelken are trying to shed the sport's image as just a means to have fun and keep in shape until the sport heads back indoors. The two disciplines, of course, have plenty of common ground and athletes can benefit from taking part in both.

�You can be really, really good at court volleyball and terrible at beach volleyball,� Wendelken said. �But you can be really good at beach volleyball and you'll be really good at court volleyball.�

The connection between the two styles is shown by Pepperdine's championship roster. Of the 16 women that made up this year's squad, only two exclusively played sand volleyball.

But focusing solely on beach volleyball is a way for some athletes to find greater success.

�You're not going to get the 6-foot-8 girls playing beach volleyball,� Wendelken said. �The reason why is she already has a scholarship to her dream college playing court. So these beach coaches don't even bother looking at those girls. They want to find girls that are good at playing beach volleyball.�

With the 2012 London Olympics kicking off in July, beach volleyball can expect another shot at the national spotlight. That in turn should drive more interest in clubs like Wendelken's across the country. While the coasts remain the sport's hotbed for obvious reasons, Texas is busy establishing its time in the sun.

�We have Texas teams going out there and beating them and taking national titles, because we're actually taking it really, really seriously,� Wendelken said.

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