LeGrande Has Cast Away His Image as a Hothead

When you’re talking with a beach volleyball player, the last topic should be stress.

Anger management ought to be left to the suits in the high-rise offices. Stress doesn’t fit into the beach volleyball job description.

But the subject came up first with Lee LeGrande. Before nude surfing and real estate, even.

He actually needed a break, a timeout from the sideouts. In his first eight years on the tour, his reputation came more for his antics than his actions. He was a wild one, as likely to chest bump a referee as to serve an ace.

“I was just so eager to prove myself,” he said. “I know I’m talented. I just wanted to show the volleyball world I was ready to win.

“Everybody was like, ‘He’s so physical; he looks like [Randy] Stoklos. How can he not win? It must be in his head.’ That irritated me.

“I wanted it quick. I wasn’t patient enough.”

So last winter LeGrande, a native of Oahu, took a helicopter with his father to a remote Hawaiian island. He hunted. He fished. He surfed naked--he describes it as “ultimate freedom.”

Overall, the experience was “a real cleansing of the soul,” he said.

He lived like Tom Hanks in “Cast Away,” surrounded by turquoise water washing ashore on black sand beaches.

“You really realize how complicated you make life,” LeGrande said. “I’m able to take that positive energy and turn that into my volleyball.”

The biggest change playing partner Brent Doble noticed was “the calmness.”

“Definitely a little more about the important things,” Doble said. “Less about being boisterous and being the show. He was definitely focused.”

The tandem won consecutive tournaments in July. They’ll be competing in the Michelob Light Open this weekend at Manhattan Beach.

The AVP, bought and revamped this year by Digital Media, is trying to cultivate identifiable players. Icons Karch Kiraly and Sinjin Smith are on their way out, leaving a dearth of recognizable names.

LeGrande could attract fans.

He’ll hit the ball with his chest. Another favorite is the “Randy” dig. Smith used to say “Randy” when he was playing with Stoklos--only LeGrande says it a lot louder.

LeGrande likes to interact with fans, tossing the ball into the stands for them to touch it before he serves. He’ll also engage in trash-talk with spectators.

“It’s kind of a love-hate relationship,” Doble said. “In some cites, they love him, in some cities they hate him. Because he’s so animated ... kind of that Hawaiian, strutting around kind of attitude. He definitely gets into it with the crowd.”

Doble, who is from St. Paul, Minn., and began playing volleyball in college, is such a contrast to LeGrande that they bill themselves as the Odd Couple.

“He’s the all-American, Midwest, super-nice guy,” LeGrande said. “I’m your abrasive, colorful, rub-you-the-wrong-way-sometimes guy.”

But there’s more to LeGrande than attitude. He’s into yoga and reading books such as “The Art of Happiness” by the Dalai Lama. He has been to South Africa, Indonesia, Australia and Brazil.

He joined the Big Brothers program this year and spends time playing in the park with 9-year-old Gianno Dallas. He has a Screen Actors Guild card--he shot a Pepsi commercial this month.

He took real estate lessons and has talked with Jack Gillespie of South Bay Brokers about selling residential properties.

Gillespie once leased an apartment to LeGrande and his girlfriend, and he thinks LeGrande could be a good real estate agent because of his personality.

“He’s outgoing, he’s real personable,” Gillespie said. “He can talk to you about pretty much anything. That big smile he has kind of breaks down a lot of barriers. That’s important in sales.”

Gillespie has also talked to LeGrande about his fiery attitude.

“He can’t have that same nature with people in business as he does on the court if things don’t go quite his way,” Gillespie said. “I think he understands that.”

Volleyball has been a part of the mix for LeGrande since his late teens.

He grew up hanging out at the Outrigger Canoe Club, paddling canoes, surfing, playing soccer.

He didn’t start playing volleyball until he was 17, and only then because one day the waves were too flat to surf. He found he liked it--”It fit the Outrigger lifestyle that I was living,” he said--and he played at Honolulu’s Punahou High, then at Pepperdine. In 1992, the Waves won the NCAA championship.

The balancing act now is to maintain his enthusiasm without angering anyone, Doble included. “When I’m out there not making noise or firing up myself or my partner, I’m not much of a partner,” LeGrande said. “So the way that I look at it is, you can play with emotion and fire and not walk over to the other side, not go past that fine line.

“You love me or hate me. Lately, I’ve been giving you things not to hate me with.”

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J.A. Adande can be reached at j.a.adande@latimes.com.