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| HOLLY STEIN photo/AVP |
Barbra Fontana |
“I still have a passion for the sport
and I still love what I do.
Being an older player, I definitely
have a different perspective on the sport
and I think I appreciate it on a daily basis.”
— Barbra Fontana
The Fontana
of Youth
For The Patriot Ledger
QUINCY - Don’t tell Barbra Fontana that the AVP is geared toward a younger crowd. Fontana, who is the oldest women’s player in the AVP at 41 years old, is still very much a factor on the Crocs Cup Tour. She and partner Denisse DeNecochea have placed third seven times this season and advanced to last night’s third round against Annett Davis and Jenny Johnson Jordan.
“I still have a passion for the sport and I still love what I do,” Fontana said. “Being an older player, I definitely have a different perspective on the sport and I think I appreciate it on a daily basis.
— Barbra Fontana
“I don’t think about my age or how long I’ve been playing, but it’s definitely different out here. There are a bunch of 20-somethings running around doing their thing.”
Part of Fontana’s success, which has included 20 first-place finishes in her 15-year career and over $800,000 in earnings, is her ability to stay healthy. She said that, like anything else, comes from experience.
“You need to train smart, you can’t just train hard,” said Fontana, who takes more days off now and utilizes massage therapy. “You have to know your body and get a read on what’s going on.
“We’re trained as athletes to say ‘no pain, no gain.’ But that’s not a good slogan when you’re trying to have some longevity to your career.”
Fontana has played all over the world. She’s won on five different tours and represented the U.S. in the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta. She doesn’t mind traveling, but admits she’s had to curtail some of it in recent years.
“I don’t do as much exploring as I used to now that I have two kids (Lucas and Giovanni) and a husband (Gil Harta) at home,” Fontana said.
“I generally try to get home to them as soon as I can.
“But the schedule has been wonderful,” Fontana said. “We had a slow start, but now we’re ramping it up, playing every weekend for the next six weeks. It’s a long schedule, with 18 events, but that’s great because it means the tour’s doing well and we’re making money.”
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| HOLLY STEIN photo/AVP |
Nicole Branagh |
It’s not you, it’s me
Swapping playing partners is common-place on the AVP. After all, pro beach volleyball is a business, and sometimes your current business partner doesn’t give you the best chance to win and make money. The break-ups are usually amicable, but sometimes a partner is caught off guard.
“It comes in all shapes,” said Fontana, who was let go by partner Dianne DeNecochea earlier in the season, only to reunite with her for the Boston Open. “Sometimes people know and sometimes they don’t.”
Nicole Branagh switched from Holly McPeak, one of the winningest women’s player in AVP history with 72 wins, to Elaine Young, McPeak’s former partner, last year. The switch worked, as Branagh and Young are third in the Crocs Cup standings. But that doesn’t make it easier to deal with.
“Last year Holly and I were doing great, but I got a call from Elaine and that was a good opportunity for me,” Branagh said. “But nothing was going wrong there.
Sometimes, if you’re not playing well, you think maybe there’s someone else out there you’d play better with. It’s a business at the end of the day and you learn that lesson early. But that’s the hardest part of this job.”
Size not an issue
One of the first things you notice at an AVP event, aside from the assortment of vendor tents hawking everything from tequila to cheap sunglasses, is the size of the female athletes. They’re patently tall.
Several of them measure above 6 feet, with Dianne DeNecochea leading the way at 6-4. There are, however, a few exceptions.
At 5-foot-3, Chrissie Zartman would blend into most crowds. But the 23-year-old from Hermosa Beach, Calif., stands out on the AVP as its shortest players. Although Zartman and partner Sara Dukes lost both their matches yesterday, she said that her height - or lack there of - hasn’t hindered her career.
“I don’t really think about it too much,” Zartman said.
Zartman has a tall partner in the 6-1 Dukes, but said that it’s not necessary for a short player to have a tall partner. She pointed to 5-6 Katie and 5-7 Tracy Lindquist, who’ve played together for six years and finished third in a tournament last year. Holly McPeak, who’s placed first 72 times in her career, is also 5-7.
“Digging and placing your shots, those are the things you focus on,” Zartman said.
The Patriot Ledger
QUINCY - It's summer, it's warm and it's sunny. So it's no surprise that the kids were out in force at the AVP Boston Open at Marina Bay Friday.
More than half of the morning crowd consisted of children under high school age, including large groups from summer camps, schools and the Weymouth Recreation Department.
The loudest cheers of the day erupted from those color-coordinated sections where the kids stamped their feet and shouted at the public announcer's command. Just outside the main tournament stadium, carnival games, retail huts and food stands were swamped with children.
However, while the AVP Tour has shown that there's a significant interest in volleyball among young kids, local parents are exasperated by the lack of organized youth volleyball available to their children.
“I've been looking into it more and more, but I just can't seem to find a league for my kids,” said Mary Welch, of Quincy, who brought her two daughters to Friday's tournament action. “It's a shame because my kids love volleyball, but there's no Little League equivalent for volleyball - at least not that I've found.”
Another Quincy mother, Jessica Drake, echoed the sentiment.
"I can understand that volleyball isn't exactly the Red Sox around these parts,” said Drake, “but you'd think there would be some options in what sports kids get to play, especially in Quincy, where we have such good high school volleyball.”
One local father, Mike Davis, claims that he's a supporter of the AVP Tour because the events are so family-friendly.
“I've been playing volleyball with my daughter since she was a little girl,” said Davis. “I never ended up finding a league for her to play in, but we still love playing. This tournament has been so much fun for us both.”
While Davis was never able to find an organized youth volleyball league for his daughter, he says that he has been able to find some ways to keep her interested in the sport.
“We set up a net and play at the park sometimes, and she plays it in gym class at school,” said Davis. “I also found her a few clinics to play in, taught by high school coaches and stuff, so I think she'll be ahead of the game when she gets to high school.
“But I would definitely be interested in a league if I could find one.”
Idol worship
There were plenty of teenagers out and about at Marina Bay, as well. Most of the yellow-clad volunteers were area high school students who spent their time shopping, playing games and standing in line for autographs from Olympic gold medalists Kerri Walsh and Misty May-Treanor.
“They’re definitely my favorite team,” said one of the throng having their visors signed after May-Treanor and Walsh easily dispatched their quarterfinal opponents. “They’ve been my favorite since before the Olympics a few years ago. Misty is so tough, and Kerri is so tall, but so graceful at the same time.”
The crowd was substantial for most of the day, but the seats really began to fill up for May-Treanor and Walsh’s match against two sisters, Katie and Tracy Lindquist, which lasted all of 29 minutes.
“I sort of feel like I’ve seen what I came for,” said Mark Andreas, of Milton, “but that was over so fast, I’d feel dumb to leave now.”
Distractions
A large portion of the paid attendance spent its time, before and after the ladies quarterfinal match, milling around the various games and booths, including a volleyball serve booth, a high-striker (the carnival game where you test your strength by hitting the base of the tower and trying to make the bell ring at the top of the tower), a vertical jump test, and several retail booths selling things like Crocs sandals (the Tour’s sponsor), Barefoot wine, sunscreen and other amenities. Shaws Supermarket also set up shop with its own booth, and a snack-shack fed the hungry patrons.
“It’s a pretty impressive set-up,” said a passerby, Robert Moore of Quincy. “It gives you something to do if you don’t want to sit in the sun anymore, and it’s all fun for the kids.”
The booths are strategically placed between the main stadium and the six outer courts, catching the interest of those wandering back and forth.
Matthew J. Nielsen may be reached at mnielsen@ledger.com.