Brush with greatness

Walsh recalls meeting another champ

By ERIC McHUGH
The Patriot Ledger

QUINCY - This was Kerri Walsh’s only previous brush with Boston-area sports.

“I was there for an appearance for Sirius Satellite Radio about two years ago, and I got to hang out with a Patriot for a day,” Walsh said. “I’m actually such an idiot I can’t remember his name.”

Tom Brady? No. Richard Seymour? Uh-uh. Troy Brown?

“Yes!” Walsh said, her memory finally jogged. “He was very nice. It was so awesome because the commotion he caused was so rad. I felt like I was with a movie star.”

Brown, the Patriots’ all-time leading pass-catcher, is pretty popular around these parts, and basking in his reflected glow isn’t a bad way to kill an afternoon. If Walsh wants to return the favor, she could always invite Brown down to Marina Bay in Quincy on Saturday (it’s should be an off day for the Patriots) to watch her play in the Bob’s Stores Boston Open.

Brown would be mobbed there, too, of course, but on the trucked-in sand Walsh could hold her own in terms of celebrity buzz. In pro beach volleyball, Walsh is big - and not just because at 6-foot-3 she dwarfs the 5-10 Brown, edges out 6-2 Patriots teammate Adalius Thomas and comes up just an inch shy of Brady and Randy Moss.

Walsh and partner Misty May-Treanor are as good as it gets. Think the Patriots of 2001-04, the Cowboys of the 1990s, the 49ers of the ‘80s and the Steelers of the ’70s all rolled into one. Heck, throw in those dynastic Celtics, Yankees and Canadiens teams, too, and you have an idea of how Walsh, 29, and May-Treanor, 30, have towered over their sport like some tanned, toned Colossus.

There were 15 team events on the AVP Crocs Tour in 2006, and Walsh and May-Treanor won 13 of them. Heading into last weekend’s Manhattan Beach Open, the duo had captured nine of the 10 events they had entered this year. They once won 89 matches in a row. Soon after that they ripped off 50 straight. They’re the defending Olympic gold medalists (Athens, 2004). They just snagged the world championship title in Switzerland. And they’re well on their way to their fifth consecutive AVP Team of the Year crown.

So, to summarize: They’re good.

Obvious question - Is it harder to scale the mountain or to stay there?

“You know, climbing the mountain happened so long ago that I don’t really remember that part,” Walsh said last week by phone from her native California. “But I would way more want to be the favorite than the underdog. I think Misty and I are always the favorites with targets on our backs, but we play with the urgency of an underdog. So I think we have the best of both worlds.

“Once you’re at the top, you don’t want to leave. It’s so nice up there. The air’s so clean and it’s so inspiring. Winning is inspiring. ... We are very motivated to stay where we are and keep improving so we can be there for a long time.”

Is that competitive imbalance good for the AVP? Maybe, maybe not.

“It’s a little bit like the Tiger Woods effect,” said AVP CEO/commissioner Leonard Armato. “People come out to see the big star, and they are certainly big stars. There are some good things about it, for sure. You love star power and drawing power. (But) at some point you want to see some rivalries develop, so we’re looking forward to that. There are a lot of young girls coming up through the ranks that hopefully are going to be challenging them.”

Knocking Walsh and May-Treanor off the pedestal won’t be easy, though.

Competitor Michelle More raves about the duo’s “innate and natural ability” on the sand. Armato likens Walsh to a “Velociraptor on the court” and calls the 5-10 May-Treanor “probably the most instinctive beach volleyball player to ever walk the face of the earth. She seems to know where every shot is going.”

Ask Walsh to explain their dominance, and she’ll point to their superb chemistry. She’ll also praise new coach Troy Tanner, who won a 1988 Olympic gold medal with the U.S. men’s indoor team. Seems that Walsh and May-Treanor weren’t happy with the international part of their 2006 season - “we were just a little burned out” - and Tanner has helped them stoke the fire.

“He’s taking our game to an entirely new level and just really making the game easy,” Walsh said. “Volleyball is a very simple game, but in sports you tend to over-analyze things and over-think things and try to do too much. But if we keep things simple, we’re pretty dang good.”

Good enough to win Olympic gold again in Beijing in 2008?

Well, that’s certainly the plan.

“In so many ways Athens feels like it was just yesterday; in other ways it feels like it was 20 years ago,” Walsh said. “But a year from now it’s going to be the opening ceremonies. I was watching the news (last week when the one-year countdown began) and I was getting chills. I cannot wait for this to happen. Right when Misty and I won the gold medal in Athens we were like, ‘Let’s do this again.’ Ever since then we’ve been on this drive.

“Last year we stalled a little bit, but we figured it out and we are an upward climb right now and it’s so fun getting better.’’

Eric McHugh may be reached at emchugh@ledger.com.

Kerri Walsh hit the ground as she goes for a shot.