FIESTA ON THE ISLAND : OTL Participants Are Ready to Play

Kevin O’Connell had never been to the World Championship Over-the-Line tournament. It wasn’t because of his playing ability. His mother wouldn’t let him.

“I didn’t want him to come down with all the stuff going on,” said his mother, Sue O’Connell. “He was too young.”

This year, Kevin, 17, is ready to compete and be trusted not to become carried away with some of the 34th tournament’s more celebrated distractions--primarily partying and people-watching.

“I would have liked to play when I was younger,” said Kevin O’Connell, a recent graduate of Mission Bay High School who won his sixth junior title in the world championship over-the-line competition last month at Fiesta Island. “I know we would have been competitive. It really wasn’t my father (Pat) who objected. This was my mother’s idea.”

But Sue O’Connell is no stranger to the fun of this annual Fiesta Island event. Not only is this the fifth time she has played in the over-the-line tournament, but she also is cheering on her husband’s team and enjoying herself between games.

“I’m having a great time,” she said early in the morning of last weekend’s opener. “It’s party time.”

For the O’Connells and a corps of hard-core players, the two-week tournament is the highlight of their summer. It’s a careful balance of good time and competition.

“I know a lot of people come out here to have a good time,” said Gary Thomas, a member of the tournament committee and Pat O’Connell’s teammate in the over-40 division. “But a lot us can get serious about this.”

Sometimes it’s difficult to tell. Tens of thousands of spectators have made these consecutive July weekends a time for little more than fun. Last weekend’s opener was no exception.

Of the record 981 teams entered, some didn’t even last two hours, wiped out in their first two games of the double-elimination tournament. Few of their team names can be published in a newspaper, although it can be said that the most popular themes dealt with the foibles of Gary Hart and Donna Rice, and Jim and Tammy Bakker.

In a party atmosphere, the strategy and skill required to play three-person beach softball is easily lost. That can irk those closest to the tournament, even those such as O’Connell, who demonstrated an ability to just as easily enjoy the tournament’s social aspects as savor its competitive elements.

“I try to mix both,” O’Connell said. “But the second week, things get more serious. That’s when you get more of the hard-core people--the ones who are more serious about the game.”

That’s what much of the second weekend will be about.

Not to say that there won’t be plenty of people just out for a good time on the second weekend, but as the competition progresses, it should become more intense. Games will begin at 7:30 a.m. Saturday and Sunday, with championships to be decided Sunday afternoon.

For those who have made the tournament more than a social gathering, this is when the fun truly begins.

Don Buechler played in his first tournament in 1960. He reached the final that year, and he has missed only two tournaments since, when he said he temporarily lost interest in the game.

“I haven’t grown out of it yet,” said Buechler, 52. “I know I don’t take it as seriously as in the past, but I still want to win. I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t.”

Buechler has been part of six championship teams and is the only player to win titles in all four men’s divisions: the open division in 1963, the century division (for players whose combined ages add up to at least 100) in 1970-72, the over-40 division in 1981 and the over-50 division in 1986.

If there were a hall of fame for over-the-line, Buechler would be a charter inductee.

“There’s always talk of a hall of fame,” said Buechler, a teacher at Mira Mesa High School. “But I’m not sure if anyone is serious about it.”

Such a formal institution might not be in keeping with the irreverent spirit of the tournament’s sponsor, the Old Mission Beach Athletic Club. But there is a general recognition in the membership of the contribution of those such as Buechler who have stayed with the sport and the tournament for much of its existence.

“I’ve watched him for years, and he’s one of the best,” said William (Pops) Matson, at 62 one of the tournament’s oldest players. “He’s playing like some of these young kids.”

Sometimes it has not been easy. Buechler has had several partners retire from competition. He sometimes has wondered if he has grown too old for the game. And he has had to put up with the rowdy behavior that has saddled the tournament with much of its bawdy image.

“There were a few years when I wasn’t sure it was worth the hassle of coming down,” he said. “Things had gotten so out of control.”

His wife, Sue, stopped coming to the tournament about 10 years ago when she and their son, Jud, now a sophomore who plays for the University of Arizona basketball team, found themselves caught on a shaking scaffold in the middle of rowdy male spectators intent on encouraging the tournament’s queen, known as Miss Emerson, to partially disrobe.

But Buechler and his latest partners--Jack Argent, assistant manager in charge of coordinating events at San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium, and Ron Robertson, a real estate businessman from La Jolla--will be back this weekend to try for their second consecutive over-50 title.

“My hitting stroke probably is as a good as it has ever been,” Buechler said. “But none of us get around in the field like we used to. The younger kids run over the sand, we run through it.”

Buechler also admits to taking a slightly more casual approach to the game than in his glory days.

“Sure, I have a beer or two,” he said. “It’s dusty and hot out there. What do you expect us to drink? Grape juice?”

Sue O’Connell, despite her earlier objections, said she enjoyed watching Kevin advance to the second weekend of competition and looks forward to the day when Kevin’s 10-year-old brother, Kelly, can move from junior to senior competition.

Even Pat’s younger brother, Steve, is involved, although a hand injury likely will keep him out of this year’s tournament unless he’s a substitute in the century division. Still, Steve’s Clairemont Surf Shop is sponsoring the four-time world championship team of Chuck Cromar, Kevin Murray and Willie Matson for the third consecutive year.

“With all the talk about the people coming down here to party, people don’t realize there are some families who have spent a lot of years in OTL,” said Pat O’Connell, who has played every year since 1970. “There really are some old-time families in this.”

Maybe few better-known than the Matsons. In addition to William and his son Willie, another son, Mike, and a daughter, Kathy, also entered this year’s tournament.

“These are the biggest weekends of the year for us,” William Matson said. “There’s nothing like it.”

The Matsons are one of about 50 groups who set up tents or lean-tos around the tournament site. This year, the Matson have set up an open tent topped by banners proclaiming their team names. Across the front of the tent, the Matsons have painted “OTL The World’s Greatest Game.”

“It’s true,” the elder Matson said. “There’s really nothing like it.”

For at least two weekends on Fiesta Island each July, it is a slogan with thousands of true believers.