Muskegon stop lands Olympic gold medalists
Wednesday, July 11, 2001
By Cindy Fairfield
MUSKEGON CHRONICLE SPORTS EDITOR
Defending champions Dax Holdren and Todd Rogers will not compete  this weekend in the Association of Volleyball Professionals Sunkist Open in Muskegon.But Eric Fonoimoana and Dain Blanton, who won gold medals at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, will return after missing last year's tournament here. Blanton and Fonoimoana missed last year's event because they were participating overseas while accumulating points for Olympic qualification.The twosome has competed in several Federal de International of Volleyball (FIVB) events this year but has opted to play in Muskegon instead of Italy this week.Once again, there will be no admission charged. This year, the AVP is bringing in bleachers that will seat 1,000 at the Stadium Court.Blanton and Fonoimoana will enter the tournament as the No. 1 seeds.They are second on the points and money list behind Holdren and Rogers.In addition to Holdren and Rogers, other key players who won't be here include former Olympic gold medalist Karch Kiraly, who has not played on the tour yet this year because of injury, and Kevin Wong and Stein Metzger, who also are competing in Italy. Sinjin Smith, one of the founders of the AVP in the mid-1980s, also will be playing overseas.Women return Saturday and Sunday's tournament will feature 24 two-person men's and women's teams with a purse of $62,500 each.The AVP has adopted international rules for this year's tour.Getting a "sideout" no longer is important as rally scoring eliminates the need to have the serve. Each match consists of two games to 21 points with a tiebreaker, if necessary, to 15 points. The court also is smaller and serves that hit the net and go over are legal.The rule changes aren't popular with players _ "there was nothing wrong with the sport itself" said Karch Kiraly, in reference to the tour's loss of money over the years. Players say the rule changes take away strengths of smaller players like 5-foot-9 Brian Lewis, whose vicious serve and outstanding defense was among the best on the tour in years past. Lewis won Muskegon's event in 1999 with Franco Neto but has retired from the sport. "One of the most important messages I wanted to send everyone was that of unification, including in the rules," said Armato. "We had some of our tour players competing overseas and there was a lot of bickering over the different rules. It makes sense to have one set of rules."
From AVP to MBA
The three players with the winningest history in West Michigan won't be here this weekend.Kiraly and Kent Steffes each won five titles in Grand Haven since 1990.Steffes has been retired from beach volleyball since 1997, when he and Jose Loiola teamed up to win first place in Grand Haven's final tournament.Steffes is working on his Masters of Business Administration degree at Stanford and no longer plays competitively.Lewis won the second most titles in the 10-year history of the event here with two titles (1996 and '99). He retired this year.
Local ties
There will be at least six people with local ties competing in Friday's qualifying tournament.Grand Haven's Mary Wilson, who is teamed with Michelle Corday, and former Muskegon and Grand Haven basketball standout Santana Aker is partnered with Arizona's Gary Barnes. Muskegon's Jim Vanderwall and Grand Haven's Justin Kellogg, Dave Rawles and Gary Freed are also entered in men's play.Aker, who lives in Southern California, has tried to qualify in both previous events. Since players accumulate points even during the qualifiers, Aker has nine points and is ranked 37th.There will be 32 men's teams and 15 women's teams competing for four spots each in the Sunkist Open, the third event on the AVP tour.Qualifiers begin at 9 a.m. Friday.