VOLLEYBALL USA CHAMPIONSHIPS : Beach Kings Compete for Royal Sum

In 1983, Mike Dodd of Manhattan Beach said that beach volleyball players were tired of being treated like nets and poles.

Seven years after the formation of the Assn. of Volleyball Professionals, today’s top beach players are treated more like kings than anything else.

Especially when you consider the prize money in this weekend’s season-ending USA Championships of Pro Beach Volleyball at Hermosa Beach.

Players traditionally battled for the title of “kings of the beach” in the final event of the men’s tour. This year, though, Sinjin Smith and Randy Stoklos have that virtually sewed up.

But that doesn’t mean that the rest of the tour’s elite players won’t carve off regal slices of the tour pie.

“If you would have asked me seven years ago if something like this weekend would ever happen, I would have said only in our dreams,” said AVP President Jon Stevenson, himself a top touring pro.

The event carries a purse of $200,000, the largest in the sport’s history, with $41,000 going to the winning team. And 24 of the 36 teams will get a share of the purse.

All three of the top teams have been playing well. Smith and Stoklos--the winningest team in tour history--are seeded No. 1, followed by Karch Kiraly-Brent Frohoff and Tim Hovland-Kent Steffes.

“For all intents and purposes, we’re already kings of the beach,” Smith said. “But we don’t like losing to anyone.”

Play will begin today at 9 a.m. at Hermosa Beach Pier and will continue Sunday. There is no admission fee.