[Noozhawk’s note: This is the latest in a series of articles on the myriad of recreational activities along the Santa Barbara waterfront. Click here for the complete series index.]
From the game’s all-time greats to weekend-warrior recreational players, the East Beach volleyball courts are a living landmark for one of Santa Barbara’s signature sports.
Among the more than two dozen year-round courts are 14 dedicated to beach volleyball legends and gold medalists who learned their craft there, among them John Hanley, Henry Bergmann, Kathy Gregory, Kathy Hanley, Paul Hodgert and, of course, Karch Kiraly — the Santa Barbara High School alum widely considered volleyball’s G.O.A.T. (both indoor and beach). This past summer Kiraly coached the U.S. Olympic women's team to the gold medal in Tokyo, adding to the three Olympic gold medals he won as a player.
East Beach hosts tournaments, youth and adult classes, leagues, camps and clinics, all for a wide range of experiences and abilities, and there is plenty of availability for pickup games.
For many, East Beach volleyball is a source of lifelong friends, marriages and mentors.
“The culture of East Beach is what's attractive,” said Dillan Bennett, the girls and boys volleyball coach at Bishop Diego High School. “Any court you go to, you're bound to run into a sub-community that you can connect with — you just have to be willing to stick with it and not give up trying to find the right mix of people.”
Gus Detar and Patti Cook, a mixed doubles team active in tournaments, work on drills on a late summer morning at East Beach. (Dennis Moran / Noozhawk photo)
Bennett, also the operations manager and administrative assistant to the principal and athletic director at Bishop Diego, remembers sitting on the ice plants at East Beach as a 13-year-old watching the play and working up the courage to ask the older ones if he could join in.
“For about 10 years, I played at East Beach every day, meeting countless people, competing in tournaments and eventually coaching,” he said. “What I'll always remember most is the opportunity I had to work my way up and earn ‘street cred’ on the beach.”
Many names of friends and mentors — people who taught him the game, how to assess strengths and weaknesses, organize tournaments and more — come easily to Bennett.
"'Lifetime friends' doesn't do this group justice,” he said.
Longtime friends and volleyball legends Karch Kiraly and John Hanley embrace after Hanley had a volleyball court at East Beach named in his honor on Feb. 9, 2020. Hanley was a two-time All-American at the University of Hawai’i and excelled as a professional beach volleyball player. Kiraly is a three-time Olympic gold medalist. The pair were teammates at Santa Barbara High School in the 1970s. (Nan Schooley photo)
With a lifelong “innate attraction to teaching” from childhood, it became natural to pay it forward and become a coach and teacher.
“Coaching is a way I've found to stay involved with a sport that outgrew my playing ability, and I get to teach something to the next generation I am passionate about,” he said. “While I don't get to play 12 hours a day anymore, the two hours I get to be in the gym with my team each day is a special time for me.”
He’s also passionate about the history of East Beach and its role in the game. Names like Kiraly, Gregory, Todd Rogers, Dax Holdren, Phil Dalhausser, John Hanley and many more come easily.
“The history of our beach is rich, and continues to spider-web out as time passes, further establishing East Beach as one of the greatest places to play the sport in the world,” Bennett said.
The court dedications are made possible by the Friends of East Beach Association and the Santa Barbara City Parks & Recreation Department.
On one random, uncrowded, late-summer morning, players included a longtime anyone-can-play group.
“We’re doing it for fun,” Charlie Voss of Santa Barbara said. “Most of us have been playing for decades. It’s good for the aging set.”
Dillan Bennett, right, spikes in the Legends Plus One game at the Henry Bergmann Court Dedication on July 10, 2010, at East Beach. Bennett’s teammate at left is John Hanley. They were playing against Randy Stoklos and Sinjin Smith. (Ken Delgado photo)
He joined this particular group a few years ago, he said.
“Different groups get together for a period of years and they separate out and rejoin,” he said. “I think at one time these guys were called the Old Nooners. It used to be the Regular Nooners years and years ago, when everybody was younger.”
Nearby, the mixed doubles team of Patti Cook, 39, and Gus Detar, 40, were working some drills by themselves for a workout. Cook, a former AVP professional, played at Westmont College and later coached there for 11 years, compiling a 190-65 record.
Meeting for drills a few times a week is good in itself for a workout and skill maintenance, and it’s been good for rehabbing an early-June knee injury that kept her out of summer competition, she said.
“This has allowed me to get my legs used to the sand and basically rehab my knee to get me playing again — I think it’s sooner than it was last week,” she said. “We could go to the gym, or we could come out here and exercise outside. And it’s a really good workout. We keep our skills up to play, because we love playing and it’s more fun when you win. So might as well work on it and try to win.”
Swimmers dash for the ocean during one of the summer’s weekly Reef & Run competitions at East Beach. (Dennis Moran / Noozhawk photo)
City Parks & Recreation offerings include adult beginner and intermediate classes in the spring and summer, extensive leagues in co-ed and men’s and women’s AA, A and B divisions, and summer camps for kids.
A list of tournaments is available here. There are weekend tournaments from the California Beach Volleyball Association, AVP First, Shorebreakers and more. Popular homegrown tournaments include the King & Queen of the Beach, Polar Bear (the day before Super Bowl Sunday) and Lime & Coconut in August.
Santa Barbara AVP player Katie Spieler, who learned her trade there, co-founded the East Beach Volleyball Academy in 2016.
Beach volleyball isn't the only athletic activity featured at East Beach, though the more than two dozen courts are a prominent feature. In the summer, especially, sports celebrations include the Semana Nautica summer sports festival in July and the weekly Reef & Run Summer Series.
And summer days brim with hundreds of young people involved with the Junior Lifeguard program.
— Noozhawk correspondent Dennis Moran can be reached at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address). Follow Noozhawk Sports on Twitter: @NoozhawkSports. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.
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Along the Waterfront: East Beach a Cradle for Volleyball Greatness and Fun - Noozhawk
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