Rogers Holdren Seek Elusive Title
8/17/01
By DAVE LOVETON
NEWS-PRESS STAFF WRITER
Playing at home is supposed to be an advantage but don't try telling that to Todd Rogers
and Dax Holdren, who just returned from a nine-week trek through Europe. The talented tandem has captured eight pro beach volleyball titles since 1998 and it might have been nine if they hadn't suffered a meltdown in last year's final of the AVP Karch Kiraly Classic.
They squandered a 14-6 lead against Lee  LeGrande-Franco Neto in the championship at East Beach and eventually dropped a 17-15 decision. After coming through the loser's bracket, Rogers-Holdren would still have had to win another game to seven even if they
won the first game. "Every time I see Mr. Lee LeGrande, I remember and I remind him about the gift we gave him," said Holdren, a 6-foot-3 left-hander. "We want to try and win here and get that taste out of our mouths." Rogers-Holdren, a pair of former San
Marcos High standouts, are seeded first for the $125,000 Michelob Light Open at
Santa Barbara, which begins today with men's and women's qualifying tournaments. They've won twice in the United States this year -- at Clearwater, Fla. on the now-defunct Beach Volleyball America Tour and two months ago at Hermosa Beach in the debut of the "new"AVP.LeGrande, who likes to throw off opponents with an "in-your-face" style, is
back with his old partner, Brent Doble, and they're seeded fifth. Kiraly, who was
named the volleyball "Player of the Century" by the FIVB and learned the game
at East Beach, is making his 2001 debut.The three-time Olympic champion, who
won his own tournament in 1999 when the AVP ended a six-year hiatus and returned
to Santa Barbara, is playing with Scott Ayakatubby. The duo won eight titles in 1995.
Rogers, 27, and Holdren, 28, have a lot in common, besides being married with kids
and living in Santa Barbara. They were born in September, won a CIF championship at San Marcos and have played together on the beach for the last eight years. "Being a father makes every tournament more important in terms of making money and doing well," said Rogers, who has a 2-year-old daughter and 4-month-old son with his wife, Melissa. "You try not to put that stress on yourself but it's hard not to think about."
It's also hard not to think about "what might have been" in last year's Santa Barbara final.
"It comes up every once in awhile and it's definitely a bummer," said Rogers, an
assistant coach at UCSB for the last two years. "But things happen like that sometimes."
Is there extra incentive this time around? "We always want to win here, regardless of
what happened last year," Rogers said."The fact that it's in Santa Barbara alone ...
this town has a knowledgable group of fans and they show up to support volleyball."
Holdren, who recently moved from San Diego to Santa Barbara with his wife Jen
and their two sons (4-year-old Kobe and 9-month-old Ellis), says fatherhood has
changed him as well."It helps me concentrate more on what I need to get done volleyball-wise," said the "It helps with my time-management. I can't spend all day on the beach and at the gym like I used to."A record 108 men's and women's teams
signed up for this year's tournament, which will run Saturday and Sunday with the
finals set for 1 p.m. on Sunday.This will mark the 80th pro beach tournament for Rogers and Holdren, who've reached the "final four" 23 times and have six titles in the last 16 months.Their trek through Europe wasn't successful, however, with their top finish
(fifth) coming in their final event at the FIVB World Championships in Austria on Aug. 1-5. They were scheduled to play last week in Belgium but cancelled their plans.
 "We were tired of it," said Rogers, an All-American setter during his playing days
at UCSB. "It's a major grind. You're not at home at all. A lot of the European guys
just jet on home between tourneys if they're not in the qualifying. "The qualifying process (which they had to through for four straight weeks) is extremely tough. You play a qualifying tournament and then, your reward is playing another tourney right on top of
that. It's hard to do that week after week." Holdren agreed. "Things didn't go as well as we hoped," he said. "It was a learning experience. Neither Todd or I had been to Europe for that long a time period to play volleyball.  "I learned that I want our (AVP) tour to get
stronger, so I can play over here all the time. I also learned that everyone around
the world is getting a lot better. They're catching up to the U.S., for sure."
Rogers pointed out that he and Holdren had an advantage over the AVP teams
when they won on June 10 in Hermosa. It was the debut of the new AVP and most of
the American teams hadn't played under the FIVB rules like Rogers-Holdren, who won
an international tourney in Mexico last year. "At Hermosa, we did better with the new
rules," said Holdren. "The AVP teams will be better prepared now." Rogers-Holdren will play next week at Manhattan Beach and hopefully, at the season-ending King of the Beach in Las Vegas."There's some question whether we'll qualify since the AVP hasn't decided if its going to count the BVA win or not," said Rogers. "We need to do well in both Santa
Barbara and Manhattan Beach. I don't know why they don't want to count all the
tournaments. Do they want lower-ranked players in the King of the Beach?"
And what do Rogers-Holdren need to do to become the Kings of East Beach?
"We need to play our game, which now consists of moving the ball around,
running our plays and sometimes, hitting over on two (to confuse the blocker)," said
Rogers. "Dax's serve will be important and we need to put up a solid block."