I want to take an opportunity to break down for you the inter-workings of my sport from my perspective. By explaining my past volley journey to you, I am hoping you can better understand what lies in the future, what opportunities I can create, and the darn situations that I just have to learn to accept.
The AVP is the ultra professional league which in fact stands for the Association of Volleyball Professionals. My aim is to play in this league during the entire beach volleyball season which spans from March to September every year. Unfortunately, this is not something I can just go out and do. The AVP selects the teams to play in the “main draw” or top 24 teams by a system of points. The more AVP sanctioned tournaments I play in, the more points the I incur. My points are combined with my teammate’s points and we are seeded in tournaments based on the total of our last six AVP sanctioned tournaments. For every match a team wins, the more points they add to their total.
In the beginning, it’s hard. Three years ago I was at the bottom of the totem pole with zero points. This meant that I had to find a partner and play in an AVP qualifier. At this point, you might be thinking, “no problem. I’m sure at 6’6” Colleen can just go out there and start dominating.” I held this same confidence until I stepped onto the sand. Have you ever tried running in sand? It feels like running in place while becoming exhausted with every step that goes nowhere. On top of that, I was transitioning from an indoor player (where there are six people on a team) to a beach player (two people on a team.) Now that is a lot of court to cover!
Now, not to boast, but I was considered a good volleyball player in college and beyond. I was an All American (an award given to 24 collegiate players) at Texas Tech in 2000. I played in one of the most competitive professional leagues in the world (Italy A1) from 2002-2003 (good luck reading Italian,) and continued on to play professionally overseas for three more seasons In Holland, Puerto Rico and Indonesia.
When I stepped onto the San Diego sand to play for the first time in December of 2005, I felt like Bambi learning to walk. For every four frustrating days of playing, I would have one positive day. It was these small interspersions of progression that kept me from giving up. Many players move out to California to live the beach volleyball dream, and many move away financially and emotionally spent.
I spent the season of 2006 getting acquainted with the game. A lot of the girls that had been playing the beach game for a while did not want to play with me because I was still learning. I played in a couple of qualifiers and my best finish was 41st place in an AVP tournament, 17 spots away from the goal of top 24. The following season, I decided to hit the ground running. I was good friends with another volleyball player who owned an Airstream motorhome and traveled to all the events in it. I jumped on board and played in 13 AVP events from Phoenix to New York to Chicago to Louisville. Aside from completely spending all of my savings and then some, I finally qualified for an AVP main draw In Coney Island, NY at the end of the 2007 season. Matched up against a couple of veterans, Angie Akers and Brooke Hanson, I was handed my first loss as an official professional beach player. My teammate and I finished 25th, and with $250 in our pockets, we headed back to California to train for the next season.
2008 was a tough season. By this time, I was living in Huntington Beach and had a lot of friends in the LA circle that were telling me I should pursue modeling. Since I was not making the money I had hoped to make with volleyball, I decided to pursue sports modeling to supplement my income. I signed with a sports talent agency and they provided me with auditions for different jobs. I was turned down by Samsung for a commercial in which I would have swung a golf club, turned down by CBS’s “According to Jim” for a part in which I would have played a lumberjack woman, but then accepted by ABC for a spot on their game show Wipeout. (here is the video) I was told this was a game show in which the contestants run through a tricky obstacle course. The winner would receive $50,000. $50,000? For running an obstacle course? No Problem. I attacked those giant red balls with guts of glory, but it was the topple towers that truly took me down
My extreme contusion kept me out of the beach season for the rest of the year and it was not until October of 2008 that I really started training again for volleyball. I terminated my contract with the sports talent agency. I was not again going to let the dangling of some cash get in the way of pursuing my beach volleyball dream.
I got together with Justin Frandson of athleticism and he put me through his program. The program consists of a strong core inside and out. I learned that strengthening the mind is just as important as strengthening the body. Now when I play, I am a P.R.O.: Present in the moment, Ready for the play, and Open to every challenge. When I make a mistake, I quickly make it right in my mind, then let it go to where it belongs: in the past.
The 2009 season has arrived. I played in my first AVP event last Thursday. AVP qualifiers are single elimination events. Laryssa and I knew we had to play flawless all day to get into the main event. My team was seeded 19th in the qualifier and faced the #14 seed of Leilani Kamahoahoa and Dana Kabashima. We had trained against this team in the past and knew they would be tough. I entered the match for the first time in an AVP event with a calm and controlled confidence and played one of the best matches of my life. We beat them in two games: 21-19, 21-19. This meant we had one more team to take down to get into the main draw. We faced the #3 seed of Lauren Mills and Kelly Weiss from San Diego. We went at them with the same aggressive play that we won the previous match with and took the early lead. An automatic timeout is taken when the sum of the two scores equals 21. After the timeout, we found that we were playing a different team. They were playing us with a new strategy that we struggled to beat. We ended up losing 21-15, 21-13.
<--- Laryssa
I have processed the ups and downs of the tournament and am using them to fuel my fire for the next challenge. My team is playing in a couple semi-professional tournaments in the next couple of weeks to prepare for our next AVP challenge which will take place at my residence beach of Huntington on May 21. Since there are not many opportunities for us to qualify, we have to take our preparation tournaments very seriously and figure out how to beat a variety of different teams.
I am taking with me to these tournaments my measuring stick and some green ribbon to mark at the 1-meter line on different people. As I am tying the ribbon, I ask them to make a pledge to the Earth by stating: ”I promise to love the Earth and think of it first while living my life with passion.” Upon their arrival to their home, I am asking them to tie the ribbon in their house in a place where they will remember the promise they made to the Earth.
My mission as I embark upon the volley world is to live my life without boundaries, to appreciate this wonderful planet since it gives me the opportunity every day to live my boundless adventure and to encourage others to do the same.
As always I love to hear your questions and comments and your wonderful green ideas!
Recent Comments