Locals shine at Manhattan Beach

Charlie Brande

The Manhattan Six-person Beach Volleyball Tournament was held in

conjunction with the Manhattan Beach Surf Festival at the Manhattan Beach

pier in early August.

The event, which is the largest and most competitive six-person beach

tournament in the United States, has been a summer tradition for over 30

years. With a women’s and men’s open tournament coupled with a senior

men’s (over 40) division, the tournament brings together most of the best

volleyball players who have ever played the game.

This year’s men’s open division champions were the Balboa Bay/Peridan

International Volleyball Club team. The Balboa Bay teams have entered for

25 years and have finished no better than third place during that span.

The division was extremely competitive with the biggest and the best

usually winning after two days of grueling play in the hot sand at

Manhattan.

The core of this Balboa Bay team is Ty Price, Matt Herrington, Jason

Perkins and Matt Winterburn, all of whom played at Corona del Mar High.

Price (setter and 1989 CIF most valuable player), Herrington (outside

hitter and 1989 All-CIF) and Winterburn (setter/outside hitter and former

AVP player) were mainstays on the championship team, while Perkins

(middle blocker, and 1989 All-CIF) missed this year’s event due to family

obligations.

Other local standouts included James Felton (former UC Irvine outside

hitter and assistant men’s coach), Doug Skoro, Brian Boone, Donnie Rafter

(former UCLA All-American and presently a member of the United States

National Team), and Jim Butchko (formerly of Orange Coast College).

In 1989, after CdM (led by Price and company) had beaten Mira Costa to

win the CIF Southern Section championship, I entered them in the

Manhattan six-man so they could see what was ahead for them in the

volleyball world.

Their first opponent was a team called Raymond Construction, which

included local coaches Dan Glenn (Newport Harbor), Tom Pestolesi

(Estancia, Newport Harbor and Irvine Valley College), Mile D’Allesandro

(Newport Harbor, Golden West College and UCI), Albert Gasparian (Golden

West) and Ricky Ciarelli (Huntington Beach).

Needless to say, the experience of the Raymond team was too much for

our young high school graduates and the verbal abuse was even tougher.

Well, the CdM boys have come a long way.

The finals were played in the late afternoon in front of about 2,000

fans were very vocally supportive of Balboa Bay’s opponent, most of whom

lived in the Manhattan area. After jumping to an early lead, Balboa fell

behind, 13-12, in the final game.

The Balboa Bay team rallied to win, 15-13, culminated by a

match-winning stuff block by Winterburn. Price’s setting, coupled with

the back row play of Herrington, were crucial pieces to the success as

well as the “go-to” hitting of former USA national team member Duane

Cameron.

One of the teams that Balboa Bay defeated in the playoffs was named

“Fletch”. A former six-man winner, Fletch dressed in Laker uniforms,

warmed up with a portable basket on the sand volleyball court for the

layup lines and has a huge Manhattan Beach following. They even hang out

between matches in a big tent that is labeled “Forum Club”. Former

Estancia High, Stanford University and USA national team member Matt

Fuerbringer was a member of this year’s Fletch team.

In the 40 & over division, Balboa Bay Volleyball Club is always very

well represented by such volleyball stalwarts like Terry Sheward, Bob

Searles, Steve Friedman, Jim Sargeant, Hugh Foster, Tom Mitchell, Steve

Brown and Scott Gaynor.

With the 2002 tournament approaching, it is probably time for the 1980

Newport Harbor CIF champs to enter. It would be great to see Bill

Yardley, Kevin Droke, Tom Bunnell, Dave Devick, Peter Helfrich, Gary

Crane, Ted Cox, Big Al Gaddis, Bruce Caldwell and Mark Barrett in action

again.

The women’s division was also very competitive. The Newport Harbor

girls team is always an entrant. The annual experience of six-man in the

sand at Manhattan Beach has to be a tremendous benefit for the Newport

girls.

In a volleyball aside, the USA national team programs are based at the

Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colo. This summer, UCI was

represented by four Anteaters at the Training Center.

Present players Eric Helenihi and Jimmy Pelzel were training for the

World University Games team, while Mike Rupp and Donnie Rafter are

training with the national team. Chris Harger had been training but will

play professionally in Europe instead. the UCI men’s program continues to

improve.