A Beachhead in the City : Amateur Athletic Foundation of Los Angeles Supplies Courts and Instructors to Help Introduce Youth to Volleyball

Two years ago, some people came and built two strange sand pits at Normandale Park in Nestor Olea’s neighborhood just east of Torrance. Then came the poles and the volleyball nets stretched across them. Later that summer, a couple of tall, suntanned men came to the park and taught Nestor and his friends how to play volleyball in the sand.

Two years later--this week, in fact--Assn. of Volleyball Professionals tour players Jeff Rodgers and Shahid Sheikh returned to Normandale Park for a third year of beach volleyball instruction for inner-city youth. Nestor Olea, now 13, had grown five inches since the previous year and couldn’t wait to show his summer coaches how much he had progressed since then.

“Last year, when the program was over, I came here every day with my brother and practiced, and went to the beach on the weekends,” Olea said during a break in action Wednesday. “I got taller and I could spike it better. It was great when Shahid and Jeff came back (this year) and I could show them what I can do.”

The Amateur Athletic Foundation of Los Angeles started its beach volleyball instruction program in 1990 at four inner-city locations, including Normandale Park, which is at 22400 S. Halldale Ave. The AAF built the sand courts and hired tour pros--this year’s includes Rodgers, Kent Steffes, Eric Boyles and Women’s Professional Volleyball Assn. players Amy Baltus and Dennie Knoop--as instructors.

This year, the program has been expanded to six cites, including a second in the South Bay--Rosecrans Park on West 149th Street in Gardena. The program runs until Aug. 21 and is free. Children can sign up at the park.

“We’re giving the kids an opportunity they normally wouldn’t have,” said Ed Derse, the AAF’s beach volleyball consultant. “We bring the beach to the inner city. It’s a great recreational opportunity. . . . It’s extremely rare that young beginners get their introduction to a sport directly from the top professionals.

“It’s amazing. At first these kids don’t know what to make of this sport. Every year we take the kids to the beach at the end of the summer for a tournament against the other parks. And each year we get some kids who have never been to the beach before, and here we are just 10 minutes from the beach.”

Rodgers, the 32nd-leading money winner on the AVP tour this year, and Sheikh, an aspiring pro, have worked together at Normandale Park since the first year of the program, when the sand pits and fluorescent volleyballs looked like alien creatures to the kids.

“I love kids,” Sheikh said. “It’s fun seeing the progress in the kids from year to year. That first year, just tossing the ball back and forth was tough for them. The kids had lots of interest but no skills. They started wearing beach gear and reading the magazines, and they wanted autographs. But they didn’t know how to play.

“But I think the coaches meant a lot to them. They’re very loyal to us.”

None is more loyal than the precocious Nestor Olea, whose brother Victor, 19, was made an apprentice coach by the AAF after participating in the program the past two years. Nestor’s three-year odyssey through the program is what the AAF envisioned when it started it: At first it was just something to break up the summer boredom, but now it’s a dream.

“I want to play on the AVP,” he said, matter-of-factly. “I like this a lot. To me, it’s more fun than basketball. I also want to get a scholarship to play in college.”

Sheikh said that kind of a dream is possible, “especially when they start out that young. Helping one of these kids get a college scholarship or even break on the tour would make all of this worth it.”