Laguna Open Volleyball Tournament : Dvorak Takes a Working Vacation : Weary of Travel, He Makes Few Stops on the Pro Tour

Financially, Dusty Dvorak has come a long way from his post-Olympic days.

Though he won’t say quite how much money he is making, Dvorak, a graduate of Laguna Beach High School and a member of the United States 1984 Olympic gold-medal-winning volleyball team, has been making quite a comfortable living for himself and wife, Wendi, these past two years playing the sport in Parma, Italy.

He will say that his financial situation has “gone beyond his wildest expectations.”

Dvorak, who is back in the U.S. for the summer, hopes to increase his wealth even more--$20,625 more.

That’s the men’s first-place share of the 35th Laguna Open, which began Saturday and continues at 9 a.m. today at Laguna’s Main Beach.

He is just one of several local world-class men’s players who are getting a chance to play at Laguna Beach because of a scheduling conflict.

The top 32 players on the men’s professional tour are obligated by contract to play in a Manhattan Beach tournament sponsored by the Assn. of Volleyball Professionals this weekend.

“The top beach players are not here, but it doesn’t mean that the level is a step below because there are some very good beach players here who haven’t been playing on the tour,” said Dvorak, who was invited to play in the tournament.

Dvorak, 30, is obviously good enough to play the beach tour, but he concentrated on the Olympics during his eight years with the junior national and national men’s teams.

“The life style, all the traveling was not a lot of fun,” said Dvorak, who has real-estate holdings in Laguna Beach. “I was willing to do it for six or seven years but I didn’t want to make a career of it. I wasn’t one of those athletes who was hanging on to try to do more. I moved on and now I’m enjoying my married life.”

And Dvorak doesn’t find the pace of the pro tour attractive.

“They have tournaments every weekend. You have to hop on an airplane every Friday and return every Wednesday. I’m just too busy with business to be able to do that full time.

“What is life for if you’re going to be always traveling and never having a chance to enjoy?”

Dvorak almost didn’t play the Laguna Open. His partner, University of Arizona basketball player Judd Buechler, canceled at the last minute.

Dvorak made a few phone calls and came up with Mike Whitmarsh, primarily a basketball player from San Diego who has been playing in West Berlin the past three seasons.

They had never played together and got in only an hour’s practice Friday. Seeded seventh, they lost their match Saturday, 15-13, to 10th-seeded Kevin Cleary and Dana McFarland, which means they will have to win the losers’ bracket to have a shot at the championship. Dvorak-Whitmarsh got a bye in the first round of the losers’ bracket.

The top-seeded team of Pete Aronchick and Mark Eller advanced to the quarterfinals. Scott Fortune--another Laguna Beach graduate and an 1988 Olympian--and partner John Ribarich ended up in the losers’ bracket after losing their second-round match to Greg Kiernan and Scott Bailey.

In the women’s division, defending champion and top-seeded Janice Opalinski, of Dana Hills and UC Irvine, and partner Linda Chisholm led in their first match, 6-1, but Sue Holmes and Rosie Bergin fought back to tie the score, 10-10 before Opalinski served out the match to win, 15-10.

Opalinski and Chisholm defeated Sharky Zartman and Deb Richardson, 15-2, to earn a spot in the women’s quarterfinal.