Volleyball star Dain Blanton attracts more Blacks to the sport

Jet Magazine

Dain Blanton can leap, he's quick on his feet and he has a powerful slam. He's no NBA star. Blanton rules the courts in beach volleyball.

Blanton, 26, is the only Black player on the Association of Volleyball Professionals (AVP) tour. In his fourth pro season, he is ranked fifth and is one of the most popular players. Last year, he became the first Black to win a major tournament. Hermosa Beach, CA, was the biggest tournament and awarded the most prize money in the sport's history.

Blanton is a pioneer. His powerful play has earned him instant respect, and his popularity draws a more diverse audience to the volleyball scene.

Blanton is OK with being the only Black on the tour for now. One of his goals is to increase the number of Blacks involved in the sport, especially youths. Through the Dain Blanton Inner-City Youth Program, Blanton exposes youths to his sport and shows them there are sports other than basketball.

In major cities where he competes, Blanton conducts clinics where he talks to youths about setting goals, peer pressure and getting a good education, and he gives pointers on the game. They are also invited to see the Laguna Beach, CA, native compete.

"If I can introduce the sport, they can see this is cool," Blanton tells Jet. "I wish more African-Americans played, and if I can interest a couple of kids, it's worth it."

His talent and good looks have opened other doors. The handsome athlete has signed a modeling contract with the Ford agency, and he's a sought-after endorser. Blanton says these aid him in increasing the visibility of his sport. "If I can draw more different types of people, it's important for them to use me."

Blanton adds that his lifestyle is great. "What you do for work is stay in shape. It's at the beach, outside and it has a lot of flexibility. It beats a desk job any day."

AVP Sails into Huntington Beach   

Thursday, 08 May 2008

HUNTINGTON BEACH

By Frederick D. Nash

(Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images North America)

Olympic gold medalist Dain Blanton returns to professional volleyball

The AVP (Association of Volleyball Professionals) has returned to the west coast. Top male and female athletes compete for points, prize money and a potential gold medal, in this Olympic qualifying year. 2008 also marks the reunion of Dain Blanton and Erik Fonoimoana who took home Olympic gold medals from Sydney, Austrailia in 2000.

Dain Blanton, who's family moved from New York to Laguna Beach would watch his older brother play volleyball and began to play himself in the 5th grade. A superior athlete, Blanton excelled at basketball and volleyball in high school. The love of the game propelled Dain to play club volleyball, where he developed into one of the best players in the nation. Although he played in a State CIF Championship in basketball at Laguna Beach High School, he chose volleyball in college and played at Pepperdine.

After a successful college career, Blanton was motivated to become the only successful African American to compete on the professional tour. In 1997 he won a Grand Slam event at Hermosa Beach, which marked the launch of a great career. With the growth and popularity of the sport in the United States and worldwide, Dain's career grew with it. Broadcast television dollars, fashion and California lifestyle have merged into the AVP Tour.

Due to geography and general exposure, Dain has accepted the challenge to get more minority kids exposed to the game. Minority involvement and difficult access for young players helped launch "Dain's Day at the Beach" an organization targeted to address the lack on minority opportunity in the sport. Dain also support his playing partner's organization "Dig for Kids" founded by Erik Fonoimoana. Dain continues to look for other opportunities to inspire young kids and expose them to the game he loves.

OLYMPIC CHAMPION - Two time Olympian and Gold medalist (Sydney 2000) Dain Blanton greets Chelsea Winston of Valencia.

Dain Blanton loves the competition and the bigger than life atmosphere of championship professional volleyball. Sponsored by Oakley, Dain holds claim to the distinction of the only African American to compete and win a gold medal in Olympic competition. Blanton's take on the race issue is that he doesn't focus on it. "If I break records or win on the Olympic stage, then everyone understands how difficult and rare the gold medal is. People who normally don't watch volleyball would see how special that accomplishment is"

Dain has recently started another chapter by picking up the broadcast michrophone at Fox. For now, look for he and his playing partner Erik Fonoimoana as they try to re-capture the magic that propelled them to Olympic gold.

In Sunday's results, Blanton/Fonoimoana were eliminated in the challengers bracket. The AVP number 1 team of Todd Rogers and Phil Dalhausser dominated all comers to take the Cuervo Gold Crown. For the women, Jenny Johnson Jordan and her partner Annette Davis, the premier African American women's team, made it to the quarter finals, where they were beaten in three sets. The number 1 women's team of Misty May and Kari Walsh beat Wachholder and Turner to take the crown.

The tour now travels to Charlotte, North Carolina. Look for these fine athletes when they head back to the west to San Diego, Hermosa and for the granddaddy AVP tournament and one million dollars of prize money at Manhattan Beach.

2008 Hall of Fame Inducts Nine Athletes

Release: 11/03/2008

WOODLAND HILLS, Calif. – Coaches, friends, families, professors and staff turned out Sunday night to honor some of Pepperdine’s best at the 2008 Athletics Hall of Fame dinner and induction ceremony.

After an eight year lapse, the Hall of Fame dinner was resurrected to recognize the outstanding achievements of nine extraordinary athletes who achieved tremendous accomplishments while at Pepperdine and in life thereafter.

The evening started with a welcome by Robert Beaman, Chairman of the Pepperdine Athletics Board, followed by an Invocation by senior volleyball standout Julie Rubenstein.

“Pepperdine athletics has a rich and storied history,” said Dr. John Watson Pepperdine Athletic Director, in his opening remarks. “We have a high degree of excellence and sportsmanship and for a school our size nobody can compete with our athletic success.”

Men’s volleyball coach Marv Dunphy introduced Dain Blanton, the first Hall of Fame inductee.

Blanton talked about how Dunphy had come to his high school in Laguna to recruit him.

“My journey at Pepperdine began and ended with Marv Dunphy,” said 2000 Olympic gold medalist in beach volleyball. “We won the 1992 NCAA championship under his direction. I believe he is one of the best volleyball coaches in the world.”

Blanton still holds the Pepperdine record for digs per game (2.30). He graduated in 1994 with a degree in public relations and is the first two-time U.S. male Beach Volleyball Olympian. He currently does sports broadcasting for the Angels, Dodgers, Clippers, UCLA and USC.

1951 graduate and three-year basketball letter winner John Furlong was the second inductee. He entertained the audience with stories from the past at the Vermont campus and drew a standing ovation for his accomplishments.

“They tried to find someone to honor from my class and I was the only one alive,” joked Furlong.

Furlong earned All-American honors as a senior and helped the Waves reach the NAIB Tournament in both 1950 and 1951. He coached varsity basketball at Taft High School for 28 years and has a gymnasium named after him.

“I’m an emotional guy,” said Furlong with his voice cracking. “I waited 57 years for this.”

Women’s Volleyball Olympian Nicole (Sanderson) Hannan traveled all the way from Australia to receive her award.

“Nicole traveled half-way around the world to convince me to pay for her education to play volleyball for the Waves,” said women’s head coach Nina Matthies.

While at Pepperdine Hannan became one of the first players in history to earn All-West Coast Conference first team honors four times. She graduated from Pepperdine in 1997 with a degree in sports medicine. She competed in the 2004 Athens Olympics for her Native Australia and finished fourth in Beach Volleyball.

“I came to Pepperdine from the other side of the world and made new friends, family and teammates,” said Hannan. “Nina always believed in me and taught me to believe in myself.”

1988 NCAA Men’s Individual Tennis Champion Robbie Weiss is the only Pepperdine student-athlete to ever win the singles crown. Weiss was two-time All-American and ranks No. 2 all-time on the Waves list with 83 championship wins. The accomplished tennis player played professionally and was a member of the ATP Tour for seven years.

“This is a special evening...One that I’ll never forget,” said the 2008 ITA Hall of Fame inductee. “ When I was in High school I came out from snowy, cold Chicago to visit Pepperdine and after going through the tunnel and on to Pacific Coast Highway I knew this was the school for me.”

Weiss went on to thank Pepperdine for giving him the chance to complete his degree in 1997 after he left the professional tour.

“I am a Wave for life. I will always love this school and hold fond memories of my time here,” said an emotional Weiss.

Two-time National Player of the Year in NCAA men’s Volleyball, 1999 graduate George Roumain was described by Dunphy as “one of the most decorated men’s volleyball players in Pepperdine history.”

“When I was seven I asked my mom if I could go to surf camp in Malibu,” said the three-time All-American. “We lived in Florida and she told me no, but I knew one day I’d make it to Malibu.”

Roumain told a story about how he was heavily recruited by UCLA, but in his heart he knew that Pepperdine was the place for him. He described Dunphy as “a second dad to me.”

“He’s a big, tough, wonderful human being,” said Dunphy in his introduction.

Men’s golf inductee and professional golfer Jason Gore was unable to attend due to a work related commitment. The 2000 psychology graduate led Pepperdine to the 1996 national championship and was named All-American honorable mention team that year. In his two seasons with the Waves he had 19 top-20 finishes. He went on to play in the 2005 U.S. open and the 2006 PGA Championship. He thanked Pepperdine via video from Florida.

Three-time All-American and 1998 Wimbledon quarterfinalist, Ginger Helgeson-Nielsen was remembered by coach Gualberto Escudero as an athlete who questioned finishing her collegiate career her senior year.

“I told Ginger that it takes drive, dedication, commitment and love for the sport,” said Escudero. “If she hadn’t played her senior year she would never have reached the NCAA quarterfinals and finished her collegiate career ranked No. 4 in the country.”

Helgeson-Nielsen praised Escudero as a coach and mentor and called him the “epitome of consistency and patience.”

“I take pride in being introduced as a Wave Alumni,” said Helgeson-Nielsen.

Helgeson-Nielsen’s professional career included wins over Anna Kournikopva and Monica Seles in doubles and Martina Navratilova, Mary Jo Fernandez and Conchita Martinez in singles.

Men’s Baseball Head Coach Steve Rodriguez praised 1957 Biology graduate Jim Brinton for all he has done for Waves baseball both on and off the field. Brinton played on Pepperdine’s first two baseball teams that advanced to the NCAA District Playoffs in 1955 and 1957.

“We were a bunch of second line prospects, rag-tag scrappers,” said Brinton who has gone on to become a respected urologic surgeon in Orange County, Calif.

Brinton, who was coached by John Scolinos, has served on the Seaver Board of Visitors and Executive Committee, the Athletics Advisors Board and the Hall of Fame Committee for Pepperdine. He endowed the John Scolinos Distinguished Baseball Player Award.

Rodriguez honored Brinton with a surprise when he called freshman Wave Nathan Johnson to the stage.

“I’d like to introduce you to Nathan Johnson who will be the first recipient of the newly established Jim Brinton Baseball Scholarship,” said Rodriguez.

“Pepperdine gave more to me than just baseball,” said Brinton. ‘My life was influenced by both John Scolinos and George Pepperdine.”

The last inductee of the evening was also the third athlete to be introduced by long-time Pepperdine Volleyball Coach Dunphy. 1985 physical education graduate Jeff Stork was a three-time All-American and a gold and bronze medalist in two Olympics.

“I went to Texas to recruit this guy and when he gave me his phone number, I looked at the area code and asked him why it was (213)?” said Dunphy, “It turn out he grew up in Topanga Canyon about a mile from me as the crow flies.”

“Nobody has had a greater impact on my volleyball career than Marv,” said Stork. “I played for him for eight years and coached with him for four.”

In an evening that included the athletes honoring their coaches as much or more than they were honored themselves, everyone agreed that the resurrection of the Hall of Fame was long over due and attendees were already talking about the 2009 ceremony.

OUTSIDE MAGAZINE

Sport

Same Ball, Little Different Spin

Beach volleyball's emerging phenom wants his sport to look more like America
By Sarah Freidman

When Dain Blanton explodes from the sand and smashes a scorching spike over the net, his 6-foot-3, 198-pound frame jackknifes in midair, torso and legs snapping together with the force of a steel trap. It's a moment of such raw ferocity that beach volleyball spectators are sometimes surprised to see him landing back on his own side of the net. "Dain's got the quickness, the speed, the strength," says Ed Viramontes, a Los Angeles YMCA director who has run clinics with Blanton. "He's alert, his timing is perfect, and I don't think there's an ounce of fat on him."

Perhaps the best-conditioned and, at 26, one of the youngest of the top 10 players on beach volleyball's professional tour, Blanton broke into the sport's upper echelon last summer by pairing with Canyon Ceman to win the Miller Lite Grand Slam, the tour's most prestigious event, at Hermosa Beach, California. On the 16th of this month, he will be called upon to prove that this victory was no fluke when he returns to Hermosa for the U.S. Championship. Although insiders speculate that it will be an uphill battle — other pros say that he's not yet fully in sync with new partner Eric Fonoimoana — no one is lining up to bet against Blanton. "His greatest strength is that he does everything well," contends Marv Dunphy, his former coach at Pepperdine. "And that's a rarity."

He's rare — indeed, unique — in at least one other respect: Blanton was the first and so far remains the only African-American man to make a mark in professional beach volleyball, a game that still displays an exceedingly white tan-line. Though his achievement inspires sportscasters to invoke Jackie Robinson and Tiger Woods, Blanton says the comparisons are unwarranted. Growing up in the Orange County town of Laguna Beach, in the heart of Reagan country, he says he never really experienced racial discrimination. "It's a volleyball community, and race was just not a big deal," Blanton says. "When I'm out there playing, I don't think about the fact that I'm African-American, and I don't think the people I'm playing against are thinking about it either."

Blanton does, however, have a sense of mission about expanding his sport's demographically narrow player base. Out on the tour, he's been setting aside time to conduct a series of clinics to introduce beach volleyball to inner-city children. "One of my goals," he declares, "is to see another African-American win a professional beach volleyball tournament. And the sooner, the better." In the meantime, though, Blanton has his own contests to worry about. Though he and Fonoimoana have spent the summer racking up seconds and thirds, Blanton himself worries the duo's game may lack the consistency needed to prevail in Hermosa Beach. But then again, the oddsmakers were saying the same thing last year before he walked away with the title. "When he's on, he's simply overpowering," says Association of Volleyball Professionals tournament director Matt Gage. "In one tournament last year he served 11 aces in a single game. Believe me — that's amazing."