AVP Women at Hot Winter Nights

The AVP's Johnsonville Hot Winter Nights stop at The E Center in West Valley City is rapidly approaching. The event features four female and four male AVP Pros in a best-of-the-beach format.

The AVP women who will compete in Salt Lake on February 14th are Nicole Branagh, Lauren Fendick, Jen Boss and April Ross. The Pros are pictured here in the order listed.

One of the interesting story lines on the women's side has to do with the fact that Jen Boss and April Ross played as a team throughout the 2008 Crocs Tour. You will get to see them play both as a team and on opposite sides of the net given the Hot Winter Nights format.

I'm hoping that we'll see lots of parents and their high school-aged daughters at Hot Winter Nights. Why? In part, because more than one-third of those who play beach volleyball regularly are women.

As importantly, with the NCAA's Committee on Women's Athletics recommendation that sand volleyball (women's 2's) be recognized as one of the emerging NCAA sports, young women should be looking forward to opportunities to play beach volleyball at the collegiate level. That, in turn, should prompt parents to consider this new sports option and local high schools to prepare their athletes for these opportunities.

It is important to credit the women who have helped build the sport over the years, including the current role models who will compete in Salt Lake. I urge young women and their parents to come out to support these great athletes and, in so doing, demonstrate that the women's beach game is indeed an emerging sport.

Hot Winter Nights Preview - Jake Gibb

Four female and four male AVP Pros will compete during Hot Winter Nights at the E Center on February 14th. You'll find pictures of the eight Pros and links to their AVP bios on the Hot Winter Nights page on the WBV Web site.

We're really fortunate that Jake Gibb is one of the eight Pros who will be playing in Salt Lake. Jake is well-known to the Utah volleyball community, not only because he is from Bountiful and went to the U, but because he has returned to Utah to play in events on occasion. Jake is also known and respected because of his success on the AVP Tour. Jake and his partner, Sean Rosenthal, represented the USA during the 2008 Olympics, placing fifth.

It should be enough to want to check out of winter and onto the sand for a few hours at Hot Winter Nights. If that isn't enough, come out and cheer for Jake - a local success story who continues to do great things for the sport of beach volleyball both nationally and locally.

Hot Winter Nights Preview

Last winter I happened to be in Madison, Wisconsin when the AVP's Hot Winter Nights Tour hit town. That night the temp was bitterly cold, but I wasn't about to miss the opportunity. Besides, I was curious to see how many other beach volleyball fanatics were in the area and how the AVP would execute the indoor format.

True to form, the AVP did a great job replicating the look and feel of the stadium court at a beach tour stop, notwithstanding the cavernous environment of the Alliant Energy Center. While the cold kept the numbers down, the crowd got noisy, obviously engaged by the competition and the format.

When Mike and I discovered that the tour would stop in Salt Lake in 2009, we immediately offered our assistance to the AVP. As an Ambassador for the event, WBV is pleased to be able to support and promote the event. We're also offering a couple of special ticket packages for groups. Information about the event and tickets is on the WBV Web site. In subsequent posts, we'll feature the AVP Pros who will compete in Salt Lake, starting with Utah native Jake Gibb.

After the fun in Madison last winter, the 200 tons of sand that had been brought in to create the Hot Winter Nights court wound up at the University of Wisconsin. The UW women's volleyball team cross-trained on the sand in advance of a Spring beach tournament. This year, WBV is working with the AVP to use the sand at Wasatch Beach after Hot Winter Nights.

Where is Wasatch Beach?

The Sports Mall in Murray has, for many years, maintained one of the best sand volleyball courts around. I started playing there in the early 90’s when, as a member of the club, I discovered a handful of serious players, including other California ex-pats.

The club has always been responsive to requests from the v-ball players to add or churn the sand, or to invest in new lines and net. So it wasn’t out of character for Brent Cook, General Manager of The Sports Mall, to lend a receptive ear when Mike Manczuk approached him about building more courts to support our plans for Wasatch Beach Volleyball. Brent is pictured here playing some obscure sport that involves a racquet, four walls and no sand.

Brent quickly saw the potential and realized that six volleyball courts constituted a far more productive use of the underutilized grassy area inside the running track. Mike worked with Brent and Brian Laird, Head of Maintenance, to develop a plan for the courts – one that would also accommodate active spectators, sponsors, and lots of other fun stuff that we have in mind. You will have to come out and participate in WBV events to see what I mean by that.