VolleyWorld has released an online version of the magazine in Arabic in an effort to be more widely available to volleyball and beach volleyball fans. Issue two of 2011 includes features on Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh’s return to the FIVB Beach Volleyball Swatch World Tour.
10:18am | You might have guessed that when you stir your sporting cocktail this time of year the napkin, if not soaked with the tears of coaches and ADs, is, at the very least, well scribbled. Our session today runs the gamut across the globe from golf to futball to sand on the court and sand on the course.
We start with the sand at the LBSU Wellness and Recreation Center volleyball court which was the back drop for the long line of fans during the first anniversary party for the 49er palace of health and happiness. Perhaps only Billie Jean King has been a more impactful citizen sportswoman than Misty Erie May-Treanor (born July 30, 1977) and famous on five continents and on “beaches” built in urban parking lots throughout the world.
She is the face of her sport around the world and is heading into a well-earned sabbatical until sometime in early 2012. The top cats in the chase for the London Olympic games includes Larissa-Juliana of Brazil, followed by Misty and Kerri, then Xue-Zhang Xi of China and Talita-Antonelli Brazil’s number two team. Kessy-Ross of the USA is next but right now the USA would be led onto the Palace Grounds by Misty and Kerri as the top US seed. Last note (and it is somewhat troubling) is that Kerri is having another shoulder surgery as you read this and the timing and tuning these players need will have to wait for about three months.
Speaking of body parts, the former Dirtbag trainer Shauna Horton is now at Cal Berkeley. But when I tried to get her through my pal Steve Holton, I learned that Steve is winding his Bear time down and will just finish the Memorial stadium remodel and then likely move back to his roots in Michigan.
The Cal stadium was first built in 1921 but beginning in December 2010, a massive retrofit and renovation of Memorial Stadium began. The stadium is closed for construction until it reopens in September 2012, with Cal football playing its 2011 home games at San Francisco’s AT&T Park.
Now to the sands that are trapped on golf courses ex Niner John Mallinger pocketed another $64,800 with his 16 under at the Southpointe Golf Club · Canonsburg, PA. John finished 2nd missing by one shot. He played well except for a couple of bad three woods that missed the fairway right. His old coach Bob Livingstone fills in. “So this leaves him 35th on the Nationwide tour through basically a third last week and the 2nd this week. John said he will play Boise and Soboba on that tour. Seems to me he’s got a better chance to finish in the top 25 and get full PGA Tour status there for next year.” He told the coach he will play Vegas on the Big Tour for sure.
Another former 49er golfer, Mike Miles, ain’t on the big PGA tour (or the second line Nationwide Tour) but he recently finished well around town by dominating the SCPGA Professionals championship.
Hate to stir the football pot but if Miami played as well as they did on the road at Maryland down eight starters, I like their shot at home vs. Ohio State on September 17th. Fittingly, a few months after being hired at the University of Miami, new coach Al Golden placed a sign in the Hurricanes’ locker room. It was a help-wanted ad from 1890, when explorer Ernest Shackleton was organizing the first Antarctic expedition. “Men wanted for hazardous journey. Small wages, bitter cold, long months of complete darkness, constant danger, safe return doubtful. Honor and recognition in case of success. “
The U just received a huge gift of $4.2 million for athletics. It came from the late Mary B. Hecht, a multimillionaire department store heiress. UM’s student-athletes have a Graduation Success Rate (GSR) of 86 percent, an athletics department record that also ranks above the NCAA national average of 79 percent. UM’s football student-athletes are among the most successful in the school’s 17-sport athletic program, compiling some of the highest Academic Progress Rate (APR) scores in the nation. In 2011, the football program received national recognition from the NCAA for an APR among the top 10 percent nationally. UM’s APR score of 979 ranked eighth nationally among all Football Bowl Subdivision schools.
Stirring the baseball pot baseball blogger Kendall Rogers tossed out the rumor that “up to eight players have or are leaving the UCI baseball program.
Hottest of the Dirtbag alums this month is Vance Worley. More than a few 49er fans are making hay with the Phillies pitching phenon on their fantasy team. One web wag says that “half of my team are Dirtbags! …Vance’s team appears to be the best (on paper) in baseball and he’s got a great shot at getting a WS ring in his rookie year. Any how “We put the LB in MLB!”
More Misty, she will be at the Big A when his Ranger team takes on the Angels M T W 9/26-7-8. I saw it myself and the Beach brass loved that MM-T was the birthday present for the LBSU Rec Center and space in her line (monitored carefully by Intramural Director Glenn McDonald) sold out in about 30 minutes for her two hour time slot. Poppa Butch May and “advisor” Jim Steele divided their attention guarding her two gold medals and the table full of her books which the 49er shops were selling ($17.50 for the paperback version).
I asked Butch how his kid’s leg was doing the one with that mystery black tape. Dad said, “You would get as much effect using a hypnotist than this tape…”
Another VB and Miami note bear with me, is that one of the talented local players from Lakewood and a member of JP Calderon’s Mizuno Club team, Taylor Hollins, was in town with the Hurricane volleyballers who won the Pepperdine tourney and are now 6-0. I am pitching that the Beach be sent to Coral Gables for a super regional!
So why go all the way to South Florida we asked Taylor. “”Well I wanted to go away from home and they are one of the top 50 schools academically and have good volleyball too.” The hot bed of volleyball that is the 60 mile circle from the peak of the Pyramid is a most fertile ground for college recruiters, including Miami coach Nicole Welch followed Hollins for a couple of years.
Taylor is not shy, she tweeted Khloe Kardashian asking her to hop over from Hollywood and watch her play. The crowd was announced as 189 so if the whole Kardashian family showed up it might double the crowd.
Last of the stat work, Long Beach State is back in action on Friday, Sept. 9, when it entertains Pac-12 foe California at George Allen Field. Kick-off is set for 4:30 p.m. The great Nadia Link now has another Big West Women’s Soccer Offensive Player of the Week award for her mantle. Link led Long Beach State to a pair of wins over the weekend as she played a role in five of the 49ers’ six goals. The Rowland Heights native scored twice, including the game-winner less than five minutes into the second half, in a 3-1 victory over Princeton on Friday. She then came back on Sunday to register two goals and an assist in a 3-0 triumph over Hawaii. Link fired off a career-high six shot attempts, with four on frame, against the Rainbow Wahine. Link is now tied for 14th in school history with 14 career goals. Gee that record may go down before Thanksgiving.—DR. DAN