Kerri Walsh Jennings, a five-time Olympian (and three-time gold medalist) from California, will be in town this week to give a youth volleyball clinic at East Hampton High School Monday morning that is to be followed by a pro-am beach volleyball tournament Tuesday at Kirk Park in Montauk.
Josh Brussell, who coaches East Hampton High’s boys varsity team and has worked as well with the girls varsity, said during a recent conversation at The Star that it was Jen Brabant who had persuaded Walsh Jennings, “one of the best beach volleyball players in the world, she’s absolutely incredible,” to come here. “I’m super excited — I never thought this would happen. This will be her first time here. . . . It’s a dream come true.”
“It will be a two-day thing,” he added. “The clinic” — for ages 11 to 18 — “will be a fund-raiser for her p1440 Foundation, and the pro-am tournament at Kirk Park on Tuesday will also have the Hampton Lifeguard Association as a beneficiary. . . . We’re setting up four courts on the grass next to the high school’s turf field for the clinic. If it rains, we’ll probably move into the gym, we’re saying ‘no rain.’ ” The cost is $350, though some scholarships may be available. Registration is at p1440.org.
At the 9 a.m. to noon clinic, “she’ll do volleyball training exercises and she’ll give a motivational talk about what it takes to be a champion. . . . She wants to bring the sport of volleyball up. . . . Her mission is to make volleyball be seen all the time.”
Brussell took his 14-year-old daughter, Rori, to a recent professional beach volleyball tournament at East Hampton Point, “the best-attended weekend event they’ve had to date, and she was thrilled — she loved it. She told me, ‘If Kerri can get me to serve the ball over the net, I’ll definitely do volleyball when I get to the high school this fall.’ My son, Kai, who’s 12 and has never been particularly into sports, asked after that tournament if he could start playing volleyball. . . . I’ve never seen anyone watch a volleyball game and not say ‘this is the greatest sport to watch.’ ”
“There will be a pro and a lifeguard on every team in Tuesday’s tournament. It will begin at 11 and go until 4 or 5. We’ll do 6-on-6, rather than 4-on-4, which will be kinder to the people who don’t play all the time.” Attendance is free, but donations will be accepted for the two beneficiaries.
Asked for names of some of the amateurs who will play in the pro-am, Brussell listed Kim Valverde, a former two-time collegiate all-American, Chris Botta, Clark Miller, Alex Lombardo, Melina Sarlo, Aaron Torres, Marcus Oransky, and Wyatt Zeledon, the latter three being players whom Brussell is coaching at the high school now.
Thursday through Sunday pickup beach volleyball games have been played at Atlantic Avenue Beach for years, said Brussell, who’s been in them since he was 15, “since Oceans first put a net up 30 years ago.”
