King of the beach

Patrick Laverty

It was printed more than 12 years ago, but Matt Fuerbringer recalled

it almost word-for-word.

Fuerbringer wasn’t about to let a recent interview end without

bringing up what the Daily Pilot wrote about him when he was a junior

at Estancia High, playing for the Eagles’ 1991 state championship

basketball team.

“Spindly Estancia High junior Matt Fuerbringer will probably never

be King of the Beach. Lord of the Lane, maybe, but never King of the

Beach,” a profile of Fuerbringer written on March 14, 1991 said. The

article concluded, “...projected as a blue-chip volleyball recruit.

That’s the indoor game, of course, not the beach variety.”

Fuerbringer repeated those words Tuesday as he prepared for this

weekend’s Association of Volleyball Professionals’ Huntington Beach

Open, partially hinting at the motivation those statements provided

him and entirely saying, look at me now.

In his first full season on the AVP Tour, Fuerbringer and partner

Casey Jennings have become the top-ranked team on the beach. That’s

right, Matt Fuerbringer, he who was 6-foot-5 and 160 pounds as a

junior at Estancia, and can still be considered quite spindly, can

now be called King of the Beach.

After a five-year indoor career in Europe, the former four-time

all-American at Stanford has dedicated himself to the beach game and

he has proved he belongs.

Now standing 6-foot-7, Fuerbringer and Jennings have reached the

finals in four of six AVP tournament events this summer and enter the

Huntington Beach Open looking for their first title. Even without a

first-place finish, they are ranked No. 1 on the AVP money list this

season with 1,792 points and $24,495.

“It’s really surprising,” Fuerbringer said. “But it hasn’t

surprised me since we started doing it. But if you would have told me

before the season that we would make four finals, I’d be ecstatic.”

Now the goal is to break through and win an event and nothing

would be sweeter than the Huntington Beach Open for Fuerbringer and

Jennings.

Fuerbringer’s connections, having grown up in Costa Mesa though he

now resides in Hermosa Beach, are obvious. But Huntington is also

where Jennings learned to play the game after moving from Las Vegas

to attend Orange Coast and Golden West colleges.

“This is a big one, for Casey too, this is where he learned to

play the game after coming out from Las Vegas,” Fuerbringer said.

They met competing against one another at Huntington Beach and

later worked together at the Old Spaghetti Factory in Newport Beach.

When Jennings was looking for a partner prior to this season, he

called Fuerbringer and told him they were playing together.

The 29-year-old Estancia grad had played sporadically on the AVP

Tour previously, participating in 13 tournaments from 1999-2002. He

actually intended to make 2002 his first full year on the tour, but

he received an offer to play indoors in Puerto Rico that paid more

money.

Money was also a reason he kept returning to Europe, including

Spain, Austria and Greece, to play indoor volleyball during the

winter.

“I’ve always wanted to [play on the AVP Tour], the money just

hasn’t been there,” Fuerbringer said. “Right now, we’re the top team

on the beach and we’ve made $25,000. Next year we might not play as

well and not make as much. There’s no guarantees. But the money’s

getting a lot better than it was two years ago.”

After some lean years, which included declaring for bankruptcy in

1998, the AVP Tour has become energized once again in recent months,

including the recent addition of NBC and Fox Sports as broadcast

partners. NBC televised the Manhattan Beach men’s and women’s finals

live and they are scheduled to do the same this weekend. NBC is also

set to telecast six tournaments next year.

Of course, those telecasts will concentrate on the finals and

that’s where Fuerbringer and Jennings have hit a wall this year.

In all four finals that they have reached, Fuerbringer and

Jennings have lost the first game, won the second and then lost the

third to lose the match. Their biggest problem has been early

deficits.

“It’s like the Lakers sometimes play teams, where as the Bulls

came out and crushed teams,” Fuerbringer said. “We do a good job of

coming back, but we only have so many lives.”

Those lives can take a beating in the earlier rounds due to the

parity on the men’s tour. No team has won two tournaments this year.

“The competition out there is unbelievable,” Fuerbringer said.

“We’re playing guys for 17th that are unreal. Last weekend, we almost

lost in the second round to two Olympians. It’s that close.”

But despite the difficult competition, Fuerbringer and Jennings

have still managed to finish second in four of the six tournaments

and third in another. A first-place finish this weekend will only

further cement their No. 1 ranking on tour and possibly help

Fuerbringer put to rest those harsh words written about him more than

12 years ago.