Four-Man Volleyball Catching On With Players, Fans

Great work if you can get it. Only problem is, not many can.

In fact, only 20 do.

The Bud 4-Man Volleyball tour opens its second season with a two-day stop at Mission Bay’s Mariner’s Point this weekend. Among the players on the league’s five teams are four former Olympic gold medalists and several candidates from the San Diego-based men’s national team, which will compete in Barcelona this summer.

But Olympians aren’t the only ones getting into this 10-event tour, with a total purse of $300,000--including $30,000 at this stop. This tour attracts players who can’t, or won’t, make the kind of commitment to volleyball you see in the two-man beach game.

And that’s part of the beauty of it.

“For me, this is perfect,” said Andy Klaussmann, a member of defending champion Club Sportswear, and the only player living outside California. “I have a wife and a job. I love beach volleyball, but my wife comes first. We’ll go out there Saturday without any practice, but that’s the way it is for everyone.”

But the bulk of the tour’s players have been playing long enough that team practice won’t make a world of difference. This is especially true for Club Sportswear, which has three of its members returning, including former San Diego State standout Mark Miller.

“Most of these guys have been playing all their lives,” Klaussmann said. “They know what’s up.”

Klaussmann, 28, recently moved from Huntington Beach to Ft. Collins, Colo., where he is a counselor for a children’s shelter. His career has spanned three seasons on the Assn. of Volleyball Professional’s two-man tour and a one-year stint on an indoor team in France, which followed two NCAA championships at UCLA.

But this is where he’s found his niche, as the financial drain of the two-man tour, along with the intensity and the travel grind, finally became too much.

“I could finish 17th in two-man and still lose money,” he said, adding that all teams are guaranteed winnings and their expenses. “Here, there’s no way I can. There’s no risk.”

Certainly the risks were minimal for Miller, who owns a business in El Cajon. Miller, 30, retired from the game in 1988, after college and his three years on the national team.

But Club Sportswear Captain Jeff Stork, drafted him as an alternate last year, and he played the seven-stop season when two starters were injured.

“It never crossed my mind to get back into volleyball,” said Miller, a 6-foot-9 middle blocker. “I hadn’t played in three years.”

Miller’s size makes up for any deficiencies the layoff might have caused, as the presence of big middle blocker such as Miller is part of the reason four-man is a far cry from its two-man cousin.

“You put the big guy in the middle, that’s all he has to do,” Klaussmann said. “I would never bad-mouth two-man because I had a lot of fun with it, but I thing two-man can look boring.”

The addition of two more players on each side of the court creates the opportunity to set offenses and see long rallies, something two-man can’t always duplicate.

“For someone who isn’t an expert, it’s very interesting to watch,” Klaussmann said.

Four-man leaves behind much of the pressure, and ego, of the two-man game.

“It’s like night and day,” Klaussmann said. “This is more of a team. The guys mix a lot more. With two man, you’re sometimes changing partners from week to week. It’s a lot of tension. The only tension we have is who gets drafted.”