Building Castles in the Sand : Hanson Returns to Play Volleyball in Laguna Beach

Leif Hanson felt he wasn’t getting enough time or respect from the coaches at the University of Hawaii, so he left collegiate volleyball two years ago to play on the beach.

That’s what he’ll be doing this weekend on his home turf in Orange County’s oldest volleyball tournament, the 33rd annual Laguna Beach Open at Main Beach.

The event, which is sponsored by Club Sportswear, begins today at 9 a.m. Sunday’s matches start at 8 a.m., with the finals at 3:30 p.m.

As a kid, Hanson--a 1983 graduate of Laguna Beach High School--was a spectator of the beach tournament. Now he and partner Dan Vrebalovich are seeded fourth in the $20,000 event.

The two have played together in only three tournaments. Their best finish was in Hawaii, where they placed third earlier this season. They will have to deal with No. 1-seeded Singin Smith and Randy Stoklos, who are four-time winners at Laguna Beach, and No. 2-seeded Tim Hovland and Mike Dodd.

Hanson had a successful career at Laguna Beach High, where he was a member of three straight Southern Section 4-A championship teams.

The 6-foot 2-inch outside hitter was the Laguna Beach most valuable player and Southern Section player of the year his senior season, as well as being named The Times’ Player of the Year.

Hanson played his most memorable match with a broken finger in the 1983 Southern Section championship against Estancia. He managed 19 kills despite his impaired right hand.

“I remember the doctors said not to play,” Hanson said. “But I took a risk and I played, and let me tell you, it was pretty painful for a while.”

He spent the summer with a cast on his finger, and by his freshman season at Hawaii in 1983, he was ready to pound volleyballs again.

Hanson had played the sport since third grade. Although he played on the beach during summers when he returned home from college to Laguna Beach, the indoor game--with six-member teams--was his specialty.

That’s why he decided to play in college rather than turn pro on the beach circuit immediately after high school. His college career lasted only two years, though.

He traded playing in air conditioning and on wooden floors for the soft, sandy surface and heat of the beach.

“That’s not the kind of place you want to go to for four years,” he said of Hawaii. He also conceded that he did not do well academically at the university.

“The coaching staff there was not too involved with the program. They had the same coach for both the men and the women, and more time was given to the women.”

Dave Shoji, the Hawaii volleyball coach, could not be reached for comment.

Vrebalovich also played at Hawaii for two years. He was an All-American in ‘83, then finished his career at UCLA, where he was also an All-American setter.

Vrebalovich, who was a 1980 All-American at Estancia and the MVP at Orange Coast College, agrees with Hanson’s assessment of Hawaii volleyball.

“The women’s program at Hawaii is more established, so the men are a little bit overshadowed,” he said. “The program suffered as a result of lack of time and interest.”

Hanson, now 22, got fed up and left.

He did consider playing for Pepperdine--which has one of the country’s strongest programs--but found it difficult to stay away from the beach, where he gets a chance to travel and make money.

“I was already too involved with it,” he said.

“Besides, there’s nothing like listening to the waves while you play and diving in the ocean after your game. It’s the perfect California life style.”

Still, there’s a lot of hard work and dedication involved with the beach volleyball circuit. It’s not exactly a breeze playing eight matches every weekend for eight months of the year.

The beach circuit was at one point strictly a summer event, but for the past three years it has started as early as February in South America and gone all the way through the end of the summer.

In making the switch, Hanson traded what he believes to be a safer, team atmosphere with a coach supervising, for the cut-throat pro circuit, in which he has to find his own partners, make up his own workouts and is constantly scouted by the opposition.

“It’s a real challenge because there’s no coach to push you when you work out or to tell you what to do when you play,” he said.

“You know you have to work more when the paychecks don’t come in as big as you want them. That’s what tells you to push harder.”

Playing on the beach also is physically demanding.

“It’s really tough because there’s only two players, and you touch the ball on every single play,” Hanson said. “It’s almost a completely different game.”

This weekend’s tournament is one of many stops on the beach volleyball world tour schedule.

The season started in February in Brazil and has gone to Canada, Hawaii and Florida.

This summer, Hanson will go to Italy and possibly Japan for a mini-tour in October.

“It’s great because we go to countries where volleyball is more popular and we get a lot of support,” Hanson said of the great number of South American and European spectators. “I just hope it can keep growing in this country the way it has in so many others.”

After placing second in the world volleyball championships at Santa Barbara last year, Hanson started this season with a second-place finish at Daytona Beach, Fla., and third-place finishes in Hawaii and Clearwater Beach, Fla. He participates in about 25 tournaments a year.

To stay in shape, he works out with weights, runs on the sand, sprints up hills and finds pickup volleyball games on the beach. He says it’s a lot of hard work, but he plans to do it for at least another decade.

“You may get a bad shoulder or a broken finger here and there, but at least it’s not like football, where you can’t walk when you’re 30 or 40 years old,” he said.