Timmons dusts off his beach game

Steve Timmons said he spends a lot of time these days chasing around his kids, Spencer, 9 1/2 and Stoney, 5 1/2 .

This weekend, he’ll spend a lot of time chasing around a volleyball.

Timmons, a Newport Harbor High and Orange Coast College product who later starred at USC and for the United States men’s national team, is among the volleyball legends slated to compete in the second annual Karch Kiraly Invitational, which is part of the Bank of the West Beach Games at the Huntington Beach Pier.

The event, hosted by three-time Olympic gold medalist and beach volleyball legend Kiraly, is an old-timer’s beach volleyball tournament of sorts that will consist of six four-person teams with three men and one woman per team.

Volleyball legends slated to play include Timmons, Corona del Mar High and Orange Coast College product Brian Lewis, Sinjin Smith, Randy Stokles, Tim Hovland, Scott Ayakatubby, Mike Whitmarsh, Steve Obradovich, Brent Frohoff, Jim Menges, Patty Dodd, Leanne McSorley and Gabrielle Reese.

A few volleyball-playing celebrities, including former NBA player Jud Buechler, who won a title with the Chicago Bulls, and Galen Gering, who appears on the soap opera “Passions,” are slated to play.

The top two teams in each of Saturday’s three-team pools advance to Sunday’s semifinals and finals. Competition starts at 10 a.m. Saturday and continues throughout the day.

Sunday’s semifinals will be at 12:30 p.m. and 1:45 p.m., with the final slated for 3 p.m.

Last year, in the inaugural Karch Kiraly Invitational, Adam Jewell, Canyon Semen, Brent Frohoff and LeAnne McSorley formed the championship team.

Games are played with sideout scoring to 15 points and players are allowed to spike or redirect the ball over the net, similar to slam dunk, which should benefit Buechler.

In another departure from AVP rules, there will be no lift calls for hand sets or passes.

“It’s going to be a lot of fun,” said Timmons, who made a bigger impact in indoor volleyball than on the beach. “Rarely do we all get together like this. I just plan on playing a couple of games on Saturday and hopefully make it to Sunday and play more.”

Before Timmons started spending most of his time chasing his kids, he spent a lot of time chasing the Olympic Dream.

Timmons, who lives in Del Mar and puts on beach volleyball camps, helped lead the U.S. men’s national volleyball team to its first gold medal at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. The Timmons-led U.S. team won what is known as the triple crown, winning the Olympics in 1984, the World Cup in 1985 and the World Championships in 1986.

Timmons was named the MVP of the 1984 Olympics by the Federation Internationale de Volleyball. He was inducted into the Volleyball Hall of Fame in 1998.

Timmons and the U.S. struck gold again in 1988, in Seoul, Korea. Timmons was named FIVB’s Best Blocker in the Olympics and was named the U.S. Olympic Committee’s Male Volleyball Player of the Year.

“Every Olympics was something different,” Timmons said. “Each time it was a different process, playing in different countries. The best part was sharing all that with a great group of players.”

Although Timmons earned more recognition than anybody when the U.S. won back-to-back gold medals in 1984 and 1988, he gives Kiraly a lot of credit for the national team’s success in those years.

“Karch fueled us as much as anyone,” Timmons said. “He has an inner drive that was contagious.”

Timmons, known for his flat-top red hair, is considered the pioneer of back-row hitting. His stellar back-row hitting at a time when that was rarely seen, combined with his front-row spiking made Timmons an unstoppable offensive weapon.

At USC, Timmons earned first-team All-American honors in 1982 and was a second-team pick in 1981. USC reached the final four in each of Timmons’ three seasons on the squad. He was an all-tournament pick when USC won the national title in 1980.

Also with the national team, Timmons captured USA Cup gold medals in 1984 and 1985, won the 1987 Pan American Games and took the silver at the 1985 FIVB Cup and 1986 Goodwill Games.

Timmons played on the AVP Tour in 1990 then returned to the indoor game, playing for Il Messagero of Ravenna, Italy. Timmons helped lead the team to a 24-0 record and a division title in 1990. With Timmons leading the way, Il Messagero went on to capture the Club World Championship in 1991.

Timmons returned to the U.S. national team for one more stint at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, Spain. Timmons was named to the 1992 Olympics All-Spectacular Team as the U.S. captured the bronze medal. He became just the second volleyball player ever to win three Olympic medals.

Timmons said he doesn’t get the opportunity to see the current U.S. national indoor team play because it is never on television. But he said every once in a while he catches the throwback AVP championship matches from decades past that Fox Sports Net has been airing.

“I heard they are getting better ratings than the current AVP events,” Timmons said. “It was a sport on the rise, with all the side shows and heckling and rivalries.”

He thinks of the constant jockeying that would go on between Smith and Hovland and expects more of that this weekend.