Volleyball: Hard to say goodbye to Balboa gym

Charlie Brande

As the Balboa Bay Club moves closer to opening the “new clubhouse,”

memories of the “old” club become stronger.

The gymnasium at the Bay Club will come down in October with the new

section providing a new state-of-the-art replacement.

The growing success of volleyball in our area has been greatly

supported by the Balboa Bay Club with much of the development happening

in the BBC gym.

In the early ‘70s, under the leadership of BBC recreation directors

John Plass and Henry Hitchcock, the Balboa Bay Volleyball Club started

youth leagues.

The early “all stars” included Joe and Pete Rogers, Lisa and Stephanie

Peters, Laurie and Krista Parker, Hillary MacDonald, Michelle Deemer,

Mike Johnston, Gary Crane as well as hundreds of other local players.

The support of Bay club president, Tom Deemer, and owner, the late

Bill Ray, allowed the Volleyball Club to send our local talent to junior

tournaments, including the Junior Olympics which are held at different

locations throughout the United States.

Those early teams featured players like Doug Killian, Steve Timmons,

Anne Yardley, Dale Keough, Mark Barrett, Bill Yardley, Kevin Droke, Tom

Bunnell, Ted Cox, Dave Devick, Bruce Caldwell, Peter Helfrich, Gary

Crane, Al Gaddis, Kari Rush, Mary Allison, Tim and Mark Slevcove, Greg

and Kevin Kelly, Kris and Kori Pulaski, Kerry Carpenter and John Nguyen.

The training was at the Bay Club gym, which provided many great memories.

Kyle Slaughter was one of the major players in this era. He later

passed away in an automobile accident. His athleticism was awesome, but

his charismatic personality will never be forgotten.

Many very famous volleyball players played in this gym. Besides Steve

Timmons, who starred in three Olympics, Karch Kiraly actually filmed a

commercial in the famous gym.

AVP mainstay Brian Lewis played his first volleyball game at the gym

when he moved to Corona del Mar High School before his junior year. The

Sea Kings won the boys CIF championship that year with Lewis as one of

their go-to guys.

On many occasions, when a gym was needed, our local coaches wanted

their team to practice in a unique setting. The extremely successful

Newport Harbor and Corona del Mar high school teams used the gym. Those

memories, which were almost always during the most important playoffs,

are lasting ones for all of those players and coaches.

The early leagues were a foundation for the present summer leagues.

The open men’s league has been touted as the most competitive summer

league in the United States. The list of men’s and women’s league players

is equally as impressive.

Wednesday, August 15th, marked the last matches ever to be played in

the old Balboa Bay Club gym. While the original team of former Huntington

Beach High players (Dan Glenn, Albert Gasparian, Rocky Ciarelli, etc.)

did not play this year for the first year ever, the final match fittingly

featured a team of Balboa Bay Volleyball Club’s loyal alumni.

With Mark McAnlis, Russ Gan, Joe McCarthy and Greg Wakeham leading the

way and “youngsters,” Dennis Alshuler and Wes Badorek providing the

height and youth, the team narrowly lost to a team of Long Beach State

and UCLA players in the highly contested final.

Tom Pestolesi, who has competed in every men’s league for the last 23

years, also played for the BBVC alumni team. I have to admit that it was

a sad moment for me after spending so many hours in this gym with

leagues, clinics and practices over the years.

The last women’s league finals was another classic with a team

featuring former 70s high school stars such as Kari Rush, Diane Pestolesi

and Anne Yardley, as well as Juile Evans Castillo, Jenny Evans Griffith

(who played like the 1987 CIF Player of the Year from Newport Harbor that

she was), Devon Thomas, Chickie Moiso and Mara Balak.

The championship team featured Shana Bannert, Laura Alford, Marcia

Bradbeer, Christine Howard, Katie Lindquist and Lisa Clifton.

The 2001 edition of the Co-Ed Junior High School League was somewhat

one-sided. The championship team featured Kari and Tommy Pestolesi,

Felicia and Tony Ciarelli and Trey Valbuena, whose parents are all great

players.

They were the class of the league, but were challenged by teams

featuring such standouts as CoCo Yokoyama, Dailey Wiese, Marisa Scott,

Sophia Hillgren, Jackie Havens, Blaire Constantinou and Bailey Robinson.

The tremendous opportunities that the Balboa Bay Club has offered the

Newport-Mesa community in the development of volleyball are so

appreciated by many. The number of players who have learned the game

through the years at the Balboa Bay Club clinics is amazing.

The players that became star volleyball players will always remember

their start. It is amazing the number of people who never continued in

the game of volleyball and they still remember their days at the Balboa

Bay Club gymnasium.

Thank you for all of the great years to the Balboa Bay Club. It is

difficult to see the old gymnasium pass, but the new gym will allow for

many more great memories.