Atkinson Has Learned to Balance Volleyball and Family

Several times a week, Kristi Atkinson can be found in one of her sons’ elementary school classrooms with safety scissors or a Beverly Cleary book in hand.

If Atkinson, a volunteer at Harold Ambuehl Elementary school in San Juan Capistrano, is not applying paper-mache to a majestic butterfly or helping a student write the letter “N,” she is running with the kids “quick as a bunny” to a child-size table for some similar project.

This is not how most players in the Women’s Professional Volleyball Assn. spend their free time.

Which is why it was surprising when Atkinson finished seventh last weekend with Valinda Hilleary of Costa Mesa at the Jantzen Pro tournament in Portland, Ore.

It was the best finish of the year for Atkinson, who has competed in five tournaments this season with various partners.

“In the players’ tent, everybody was freaking out. They are all mad at me for not training hard, but it was all in jest,” she said. “Most of the gals [on the tour] are single, and when they get to go kick back after a practice session, I’ve got a whole other job.”

Atkinson, 31, has limited her playing time this season in an effort to spend more time with her sons, Alex, 8, and twins Kelsey and Kagen, 4. For Atkinson, devoting more time to her family didn’t mean becoming sedentary.

“I love volleyball and all sports,” she said. “Just let me play.”

Atkinson, formerly Kristi Stokes, began playing beach volleyball before ninth grade in Santa Monica, where, she said, “If you wanted to be in the ‘in’ crowd, you better learn how to play.”

Atkinson learned from the best--she and her friends often shared beach courts with Sinjin Smith. She played for the Santa Monica High varsity as a sophomore and also worked at her parents’ store, Stokes Tire Service, along with her three siblings.

“We all worked there,” she said. “If you wanted those new roller skates, you had to sell a pair of tires.”

Atkinson’s family moved to Dana Point during her junior year and she led Dana Hills High to the second round of the Southern Section playoffs as a senior in 1981.

Atkinson bounced around a bit in college, playing volleyball for a year at Cal State Fullerton in 1982 and spending a redshirt season at UC Irvine in 1984. She also attended Cuesta College in San Luis Obispo for a year.

In 1986, Atkinson married longtime sweetheart Don, who had played volleyball at San Clemente High and San Diego State from 1976-78.

Atkinson had shoulder surgery in 1991 and from 1993-95 she traveled and played in almost all the tournaments and had several fifth-place finishes.

“I just had a real drive and a passion to play,” she said. “I really enjoy the competition. I enjoy being in new places. It was exciting.”

Atkinson was able to compete on the tour because of a supportive family network. Last year, however, she sat down for a cost analysis.

“I felt like I was leveling out,” she said, referring to a string of ninth-place finishes. “And then I thought, ‘What’s it going to take to get to the top?’ And I thought, ‘Wow, I’d probably lose my family.’ ”

And suddenly, in the spring, her family needed her more than ever. Her father, Jack Stokes, 73, had a stroke, her husband started a golf attire business to go along with the photography/video business they run out of their house, and she began to teach her son, Alex, at home because she was unhappy with his former elementary school. He has since transferred to Ambuehl.

“I thought I better put volleyball on the back burner because there’s too much going on,” she said. “It was a hard decision, but I haven’t regretted it.”

She has been busy. In addition to helping at the elementary school, her activities include: helping in the youth program at her church, coaching local elementary school and club teams, and occasionally working as an actor in television commercials--she also has appeared as an extra on the television series “Baywatch.”

Volleyball is over for the season for Atkinson, who doesn’t have enough points to compete in the season finale, the Best of the Beach tournament at Kauai, Sept. 13-15. As for next season, she hasn’t decided if she’ll try to make a run on the WPVA or continue reading children’s stories in her spare time.

“It could kind of go either way. I can’t really see myself completely quitting,” she said, perhaps thinking about her $1,187 paycheck from Portland. “I’m pretty motivated right now.”

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By a few indications, the WPVA is growing quickly.

The purse for the Best of the Beach tournament is $75,000. That’s up $35,000 from last season’s tournament. The total prize money from the WPVA’s 15 tournaments this season is $910,000, which is $338,000 more than last season.

Holly McPeak probably will finish as this season’s top money-winner. She has won $79,525 and needs to finish in third place or better at Kauai to eclipse Karolyn Kirby’s 1994 single-season record of $83,010.

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Now that Kelly Slater and Rob Machado have bowed out of the upcoming World Surfing Games in Huntington Beach, Oct. 5-13, it appears San Clemente’s Shane Beschen will join the U.S. national team in the weeklong surf contest.

Beschen, ranked second on the World Tour, will be competing with Taylor Knox of Carlsbad. The two will be the only professional surfers representing the United States. When the contest was organized, Slater and Machado were the two professional surfers selected to participate. However, their involvement wasn’t certain and both officially pulled out last week.

Slater, the Florida surfer who is world champion and ranked first on the World Tour, has been focusing his time and effort on the World Qualifying Series. And last week, Slater, 24, won the Roxy Quicksilver Surfmasters in Biarritz, France, beating Jojo Olivenca of Brazil in the finals. Slater has won six of the World Champion Tour events. Although Slater continues to build his lead in the WCT ratings, Beschen still has a chance to challenge, but he must win the remaining three WCT events.

The World Surfing Games are particularly noteworthy because Olympic officials will observe the competition to make a determination as to whether surfing should be included in the 2000 Olympics in Sydney.

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Jeff Booth of Laguna Beach will be back to defend his title at the Body Glove Surfbout at Trestles, which starts Sept. 16.

Booth will be challenged by some hot locals, including Beschen and Chris Ward, who was a finalist in the AirTouch Pro last month in Huntington Beach. In the women’s competition, top-ranked Rochelle Ballard will defend her title.

The Trestles contest, which also includes bodyboarding and longboarding, is one of the more popular events on the Bud Surf Tour because of the spot’s almost perfect conditions.

The contest concludes Sept. 22with the men’s surfing and longboard finals.