You may be aware of the awesome season that Mike Nelson had last year at Wasatch Beach, winning every open division tourney he entered, the Steamboat Doubles and both summer leagues. You may or may not know what has happened since. Mike's words follow.

Let me start off by saying thank you to everyone who made the 2009 season possible at Wasatch Beach. From the new courts at The Sports Mall, to the many tournaments, leagues and camps, it was great to see so many people come out and enjoy the sport of sand volleyball.

As some of you know, last November I was diagnosed with stage 1 non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, centered on the left side of my neck. Just weeks after our sand season ended here in Utah I was going through aggressive treatment in the form of three rounds of chemotherapy and 18 radiation sessions.

The diagnosis was very unexpected and the treatment was difficult. However, it proved to be a very positive experience for those close to me because it put everything into perspective.

During my cancer treatment I received a lot of support from the volleyball community. I continued to play volleyball throughout my treatments, which I think helped me maintain a positive attitude. A number of you let me know of your concern, and a few of you even shaved your head in my honor. (Thanks to Casey Adams for organizing Team Mikey on facebook.) I even had messages from Phil Dalhausser and Todd Rogers, who let me know that they were pulling for me. My brother Dan had contacted them without my knowledge, and they sent me handwritten letters.

It was awesome to feel all the support. Thank you!

During my treatments I wondered if I would ever get back into top volleyball form. My family and I had made the decision to move to California in November to pursue volleyball on the professional level. The news that I had cancer came the day before we were to sign a lease in Huntington Beach.

Feeling alright through the course of my treatments, and strengthened by a positive prognosis, we decided we would still give it a shot for the 2010 season. I gained additional momentum when Maui Jim accepted my sponsorship request. Within a few weeks of my last radiation session and chemotherapy I was playing in the Fort Lauderdale AVP Qualifier with Casey Adams. Two weeks ago I competed in the AVP Qualifier in Santa Barbara and am looking ahead to the next Qualifier in our new hometown of Huntington Beach during the first week of June.

I look forward to what this season will bring. It has been a crazy couple of months for me, but I am happy to still be around, with the people I love, playing the sport that I love.

See you at the beach!

Mike hitting around a block during the Santa Barbara AVP Qualifier.

WBV Women Shine at the Motherlode

A number of teams made the trip to Aspen for the annual Motherlode Volleyball Classic during Labor Day weekend. We're pleased to provide local perspective on the event, thanks to Linda Byington, WBV Women's Player Representative, and Helen Farr.

Linda teams with Jane Gibb

I played the Motherlode this year with Jane Gibb, Jake's wife. Years ago, when Jane lived in Utah, we played together. We won on Saturday which kept us in the winner's bracket, and ended up finishing 9th in the tournament. We were really happy to tie the best previous finish by a Utah team.


We went out with a bunch of other players and enjoyed the restaurants and night life of Aspen. It's a great town and they put on an amazing tournament, drawing more than 300 teams, including a number of other teams from Wasatch Beach: Helen and Traci, Diane Gordon playing with a partner from Denver, Derran Cannon and Brad Collins, Matt Gordon and Daniel Delanhese, Tobin Reynolds and Dave Tally.

We hung out and supported each other. It was fun having several Utahans in the tourney, and we made friends with a lot of players and fans from across the country.

Helen and Traci - now it really is their favorite!

Traci and I loaded up Linda's Corolla on the friday of Labor Day weekend to head for our favorite volleyball tournament of the year in Aspen, Colorado.



We've been to the Motherlode a couple of times and really love the beautiful scenery around Aspen and the town full of volleyball athletes and fans. There were 34 teams in the Women's Open division this year.

Two years ago we faced a tough team that eliminated us from the tournament, giving us a 9th place finish. This year that same team, Colleen Hunter and Meghan House of St. Louis, won the Barefoot Wine AVPNext Championship Cup and played in the San Francisco AVP main event. We were so happy to beat them in the second round this year in Aspen! Pics of action from that match follow.





Winning that match set us up against the number one seeded team - Paige Davis and Janelle Ruen. The team plays professionally in the AVP and won the Motherlode last year. We played great and beat them in two straight sets! That match earned us a lot of crowd support.


On Monday (Labor Day), we played a tough team from Texas, but beat them pretty easily in two sets. Because of the cross over format, we then played Paige and Janelle again in the semi-finals. They played much better and pulled out the first set 25-23, then won the second 21-14. We played our hearts out and had a great time on the court and off.

We were thrilled to finish the tournament tied for third. We won some money and we were the only team in the top four that was not made up of professionals.

Congratulations to Linda and Jane for matching the previous best Utah team finish, to Traci and Helen for putting the Pros on notice with an awesome third place finish and to the other players and teams from Wasatch Beach who played in the 2009 Motherlode.