With his work done for the 2012 Olympics, Dave Williams is focusing on Brazil in 2016
by Ella Rosenfeld and Kevin Cody
One week prior to the July 27 opening of the London Olympics, the United States’ two men’s and two women’s Olympic volleyball teams will compete in an FIVB tournament in Klagenfurt, Austria.
“Klagenfurt is the Manhattan Open of Europe,” said Dave Williams, managing director of Beach USA Volleyball. “It will be a good tune-up for our teams and a chance to intimidate other teams.”
But playing in a major tournament so close to the Olympics is a double edged sword, because of the risk of injury, Williams added.
Williams’ concern for the players is not just professional. The long time Hermosa Beach resident has known them since their early AVP years. Williams was AVP’s tour operations director from 2001 until shortly before it folded in 2010. Previous to joining the AVP, he was executive director of the WPVA (Woman’s Professional Volleyball Association).
“I have seen Sean Rosenthal go from a kid with raw talent to an outstanding beach volleyball icon. I saw the first professional volleyball event that [Phil] Dalhausser ever played in, where no one knew who he was. I watched as Misty and Kerri win gold in 2004. After that there wasn’t a single young girl who didn’t want their autograph,” he recalled during an interview last week at his 200 Pier Avenue office, overlooking the beach.
That day, Kerri Walsh, the two-time Olympic gold medal winner who will be seeking her third gold medal in London, was in Williams’ office to discuss her hopes for the 2016 Olympics in Brazil.
Looking back and planning ahead is William’s job.
In London, he said, he’ll spend his time meeting with the leaders of other countries’ federations. He wants them to bring their beach volleyball teams to Hermosa Beach to train each spring. This past spring the Chinese, Italian and Dutch trained for the Olympics in Hermosa. Troll Subin’s Yard athletic club in downtown Hermosa was designated Volleyball USA’s official training center.
In London, Williams will also meet with FIVB leaders to coordinate the international tour with the multiple U.S. domestic tours, which in themselves are a struggle to coordinate.
Upon his return from London, Williams must start from scratch to plan the Beach USA Volleyball 2016 Olympic trials. This year’s U.S. teams were selected based on the points they scored on the overseas FIVB tour. Sean Rosenthal and Jake Gibbs, the second men’s team, didn’t secure their Olympic berth until two weeks ago, when they won a FIVB tournament in Rome.
“People are already calling me who want to host the 2016 trials. But the most important issue will be determining who gets to attend the trials. That’s where the hard thinking has to go,” Williams said.
Williams declined to speculate on what the selection process will be, except to say that he will seek input from Walsh, a Beach USA Volleyball board member, and other top players.
Upon his return from London, Williams said he will also focus on USA Beach Volleyball’s nationwide High Performance Beach Volleyball developmental program, the training grounds for future Olympians.
“USA Volleyball’s job is to bring beach volleyball to every area of the country. If it’s true, as the boating industry claims, that there is recreational water within 90 minutes of every place in the country, then there’s also a beach. A beach on a lake is still a beach,” Williams said
“By the 2020 Olympics, my bet is that the men and women beach volleyball players coming from the United States will be much younger,” he said. All eight members of this year’s U.S. beach volleyball team are over 30.
Nonetheless, he said, he believes this year’s players form the strongest U.S. beach volleyball team since beach volleyball was introduced in Atlanta in 1996.
“All four of our teams are capable of bring home gold,” he said.
For now, Williams done all he can to make that happen. When the games begin, he said, he plans to find a seat high in the bleachers at Horse Guards Parade, where a temporary, 15,000 seat stadium with trucked in sand has been erected with England’s Parliament as its backdrop.
“I’m part of the Olympic delegation, but I don’t get special seating. And I’d rather be up with the fans, anyway. That’s where the excitement will be,” Williams said.
The Brilliant, Ohio native said he will be blogging from the stadium at USAVB.org and on his personal blog:farfrombrilliant.org.
