A Year to Grow On
Courtesy of the AVP
12/30/2002
After taking a year off of her professional beach volleyball career to
bring daughter Jaylen into the world, Association of Volleyball Professionals’
Jennifer Johnson Jordan hit the beach running in 2002. Teamed with Annett
Davis, who also sat out the 2001 season due to a pregnancy, Johnson Jordan
amassed $40,395 in earnings on last season’s AVP Tour.
The comeback, which included two championship victories over the AVP’s
Team of the Year (Elaine Youngs and Holly McPeak) at the Aug. 8-10 Michelob
Light Manhattan Beach Open Presented by XBox and the Aug. 22-24 Nissan US
Championships of Beach Volleyball Presented by XBox in Chicago, was so
impressive that the team earned the 2002 AVP Outstanding Achievement Award.
“It was hard coming back after having Jaylen, only because I had been
off the beach for so long,” the five-foot-ten-inch UCLA graduate said.
“One thing that did help me was working out up until the day before she
was born. When I first came back I had to re-train my body for the beach,
which was tough but it was worth it.”
If genealogy tells us anything, Jaylen, who recently celebrated her first
birthday, is destined for athletic prowess. Along with the abilities her
mother passed down, she is also blessed to possibly acquire skills from
her father, Kevin Jordan, a former wide receiver at UCLA. Additionally,
her grandfather is Rafer Johnson, winner of decathlon medals at the 1956
Melbourne (Silver) and 1960 Rome (Gold) Olympic Games. Johnson Jordan
said her father’s performances, along with guidance from her mother (Betsy),
offered the guidance and drive necessary for her to become an Olympian
in the beach volleyball competition of the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney,
Australia. “His (Rafer Johnson) history in athletics and his legacy
are what first inspired my quest to make the Olympic team,” the seven-year
beach volleyball veteran said. “Both my father and mother motivated me
to pursue my dreams as an athlete through their unconditional love and support.”
With the comeback season under her belt, next season’s AVP Tour offers
a host of opportunities for Johnson Jordan to look forward to. Under
the direction of Commissioner Leonard Armato, the AVP is continuing the
return to its previous glory days. The new look AVP is changing what was predominately
a tour for men into a land of equal opportunity. Last season, every stop
featured a women’s bracket playing for the same prize money as the male
counterparts.
Johnson Jordan said the current AVP leadership is taking the game the
right way and added that the big crowds that are filling up AVP venues
once again show the revitalization of the tour is certainly underway. “I
think that the current management is doing a great job of getting the sport
more coverage and exposure around the country,” she said. “The tour is definitely
headed in a positive direction.” Triple J, as she is known in volleyball
circles, said she enjoyed the AVP’s new format for its season ending affair
in Las Vegas. An eight-team single-elimination format was played in
the afternoon and evening replacing the previously used individual queen
of the beach format played in the near 100-degree desert heat. The Sept.
5-7 Paul Mitchell AVP Shootout closed Johnson Jordan’s comeback season
on a positive note as her and Davis worked their way to a second place
finish, losing only to Youngs and McPeak in the finals. Johnson Jordan
said she enjoyed the event played on the sand court constructed in the
parking lot of the Hard Rock Hotel and fared well in the AVP Blackjack
tourney finishing only one chip away from being in the finals. “The
format was great because it was a change from what we normally do and being
a single elimination format there was a lot riding on each game which made
it even more exciting,” Johnson Jordan said. “There is a different vibe
with the evening play and being in Vegas, it seems like the appropriate
thing to do.”
Johnson Jordan said her 2000 Olympic journey was such a positive experience
that she would like to make a return trip in 2004 (in Athens, Greece).
The AVP’s new accord with the Fèdèration Internationale de
Volleyball could make that possibility more convenient and less confusing
than in the past. The two volleyball organizations reached an arrangement
allowing the AVP to promote a series of FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour
events in the U.S. This includes a World Tour Grand Slam event in 2003 followed
by two Grand Slam events in 2004. The AVP is promoting the 2005 Beach
Volleyball World Championships in the U.S., expected to be the sport's richest
event ever with at least $800,000 prize money.
Under the agreement, the AVP recognizes the FIVB as the international
governing body for volleyball and beach volleyball and the FIVB sees the
AVP as the official beach tour in the U.S. Both organizations agree
that AVP players in good standing are eligible to participate in events of
either tour under an orderly system designed to support both the AVP Tour
and FIVB World Tour. The FIVB and AVP Tours remain open tours and both
organizations agree to respect each other's activities and work together to
avoid clashes of main events on their respective schedules. “I think
it is important for our sport to have the AVP and the FIVB working together
to build this sport in a positive way,” Johnson Jordan said. “In doing this,
the sport will
reach wider audiences and will grow not only in the United States but
around the world.” The 30-year-old, who resides in Tarzana, Calif.,
plans on spending the off season focusing on the regular duties of her
workout regimen and spending quality time with her husband and daughter.
Johnson Jordan, who has career earnings of $251,689, also works as
a coach with the girls’ varsity volleyball squad at Windward High School
(her alma mater) and is involved with the UCLA chapter of Athletes in Action,
a campus ministry of student athletes. With the fond memory of the
2002 season behind her, Johnson Jordan can build for what should become
a tremendous future and the experiences should give her many golden days
on the beach to look forward to. “After what I think was a slow start
I was very happy with the way I played during the (2002) season,” Johnson
Jordan said. “In many aspects of my game I felt stronger than I ever had
before but I know that there is still room for improvement.”