Altice Feels at Home Even in the Spotlight

The year was 1975 and Summer Bartholomew was floating down the runway in a gossamer gown of rainbow colors. Wearing that bright dress and a blithe smile, Bartholomew was crowned Miss California and Miss USA.

Four years later, in a hospital in Fountain Valley, Stan Altice witnessed the birth of his second daughter and named her Summer.

“I just loved the name,” he said.

Flash forward another 16 years and Summer Altice is sitting on a bench outside the Fountain Valley High gym. In striking symmetry with her namesake, Altice recently burst on the modeling scene after winning the 1995 YM magazine annual high school cover girl model search.

But Altice, a senior outside hitter for the Baron girls’ volleyball team, is not a beauty queen looking to float through life.

“Not everybody is Cindy Crawford. I would be happy not even being a supermodel. Being able to get a taste of everything that I want a taste of makes me happy,” she said.

Often, her taste runs toward marine biology--she watches every television show on marine life that she can find.

Altice may spend some of her time gliding down a runway on a pair of wobbly, spiky-heeled pumps. But she gets a bigger kick out of how loud the gym floor roars when she lands in her high-tops after a wicked jump-serve.

Her jump serve has long been her trademark and it’s one of the best in the county. This season, she has improved her consistency at hitting and passing and that has helped Fountain Valley to a 5-1 record and a No. 2 county ranking.

“She’s very competitive. She’s our hitter that we look to when the game is tight,” Baron Coach Lori Biller said.

Altice is comfortable in the spotlight.

In the spring of her sophomore year at Fountain Valley in 1995, with no modeling experience, she cut out some of her pictures from the Baron team photo and mailed them to Young and Modern magazine for its cover-girl competition.

Out of thousands of applicants--many of whom submitted professional modeling shots--Altice won. She spent three days in New York, sightseeing, attending special events and photo shoots. Cover Girl makeup model Niki Taylor presented her with the first-place award and check for $10,000 at a special luncheon packed with representatives from the world’s top modeling agencies.

Since then, Altice has signed with Elite Model Management and has appeared in Levi’s advertisements as well as Sassy magazine. She also has worked as a runway model.

Katy Strouk, Altice’s agent at Elite, said clients line up once they hear she plays volleyball.

“I think everyone got tired of the waif,” Strouk said. “Summer is very refreshing.”

Although it’s tempting to run full speed down the modeling road because it pays so well, Altice and her parents want to maintain a normal high school experience.

“Right now, school and volleyball are the first priority,” Stan said, “and the modeling takes a back seat to that.”

Altice has turned down several modeling offers to honor her commitment to the Barons and her club team, the Orange County Volleyball Club. Despite her efforts at normality, however, she says her modeling accomplishments often cloud people’s view of her.

“People think, ‘She’s a model. She must have such an attitude. She must be so stuck up.’ But I’m normal. I cry. I’m not rich. I drive a 1987 Chevrolet Celebrity,” she said with a laugh.

She hopes people will not judge her at face value--”If you look at a magazine and something catches your eye, are you not going to open it up to see what’s inside?”

Altice has been playing volleyball since fifth grade. In the summer of 1995, her club team, Magnum, placed fourth in the under-16 division at the Junior Olympics in Orlando, Fla.

Last season, she began playing for the Orange County Volleyball Club, where she says she has learned a lot about herself on and off the court.

“It’s not winning or losing,” she said. “It’s the friends and the people that you meet along the way.”

That’s one for the portfolio.