Caulkins in spotlight

Raquel Caulkins keeps smiling. The spotlight is on her, the cameras flash and the crowd cheers for her. But the 27-year-old former Estancia High girls’ volleyball assistant from Brazil just keeps smiling.

She could be the next big thing on the Assn. of Volleyball Professionals Tour. So in addition to her happy face, the 2009 AVP Rookie of the Year has been working hard for the upcoming season.

While she has gained notoriety, she has also improved her game and picked up a new teammate (Angela Lewis) for the new season, which begins April 16 at the Fort Lauderdale Open.

She’ll come to her new hometown June 3 for the Huntington Beach Open, as she is now a resident of Surf City.

Maybe by then her name will be even bigger.

She’s got the good looks to match her game. So naturally photo shoots have followed. Some are for a new bikini line. Others are for a photo spread with Volleyball Magazine.

Caulkins, the former Ferreira, doesn’t mind the attention, doesn’t mind being a sex symbol.

“I don’t have a problem with it,” she says with a laugh. “I’m Brazilian.”

She’s a laid-back type. When she goes through weekly acupuncture sessions, she doesn’t think twice about removing her shirt. She’s used to being in a sports bra or bikini top.

Being in front of fans at beach volleyball matches sometimes gets to her though.

“I’m just there in my bikini in front of all those people,” she says. “I try not to think too much about it. I just want to do what I want to do.”

She says what she wants to do is win.

For years, friends had told her that her skills would make her successful on the sand. She excelled as an indoor player, but soon Caulkins wanted the challenge of something new.

Yet rather than put at least two years into the beach volleyball experiment and then analyze the results, she placed everything on the line for one year.

“I told myself that I was going to give myself one season; If I don’t do well I won’t play again,” she says. “My husband [Jeremy] said, ‘You’re crazy. Do at least two seasons.’

“For me it was all or nothing. If in one season I don’t do well I’m done. I’m pretty intense. Everything I do I go all out.”

Caulkins’ highest finish came at the Long Beach Open, where she finished third. She was also ninth at the Manhattan Beach Open, the most hallowed stop on the AVP Tour.

She finished ninth in the AVP standings for the year, playing most of it with friend, Paula Roca, who retired at season’s end.

But with one year under her belt, Caulkins only wants more.

“I want to win,” she says. “I want to be on the top.

“Last year, the cool thing for me was to play the No. 1 team [Elaine Youngs and Nicole Branagh]. For most people it was like, ‘Oh no, we have to play them?’ But it was super exciting for me to play them because I wanted to see where I was at.”

This year, Branagh is teamed up with Misty May-Treanor, the two-time Olympic gold medalist and the winningest player in beach volleyball history.

Caulkins doesn’t plan to back down or dread that matchup if it comes along. She’s been known to take on challenges.

That was the main way to leave her original hometown, small Itajuba in Minas Geras, and go on to bigger things.

Volleyball was her ticket, but it didn’t start out that way. She says she was a gymnast as a child, but one day her coach did not show up. Instead a volleyball coach came and taught her a different game.

Caulkins was hooked.

Later, she became one of the top players in the nation for her age group and moved to San Paulo to be a part of the junior national team. After playing internationally, she wanted to come to the United States for education and to improve her game even more.

At 21, she ended up in Great Bend, Kansas, another small town. She saw other international players who didn’t blend in well with the surroundings and left. But not Caulkins, she felt right at home.

“I’m able to adapt really quick to different situations,” she says.

In her first year, she led Barton Community College to its first national title and was named the tournament’s MVP. Then it was off to Concordia in Irvine, where she sparked another turnaround.

This time, she led the Eagles to the national title match and was named the NAIA Player of the Year in 2004. Before that, Concordia had just one winning season.

Now, she wants to lift her game higher. When many of her counterparts took a break during the off-season, Caulkins intensified her training, working with Lewis and their coach, Scott Davenport.

At 5-foot-11, Caulkins says she must be technically sound so she’s not at a disadvantage against players who are taller and more physical.

But being shorter than the competition is not all that drives her.

“I think when they talk crap and say something that motivates me,” she says. “I was never a physical player. I knew I had to be extremely technical and smart. I can’t be lazy.”

Caulkins can’t sit back when it also comes to promoting herself. Gaining sponsors is key as a pro beach volleyball player. When she became Rookie of the Year, she knew more sacrifices would follow.

Back when she took the plunge into becoming a pro, she had to give up coaching. For three seasons, she had been an assistant at Estancia, where she worked under Jim Huffman, the former Cal State Fullerton coach.

After one year on the AVP Tour, Huffman saw that Caulkins was gaining fame and needed help with management.

He referred the rookie to Katrina Foley, the Costa Mesa City Councilwoman who was breaking into sports representation.

Now, since January, they are working together, two strong women, excelling at new jobs.

“I love Raquel,” Foley says. “She has such energy, drive and determination. She is a very confident woman.”

The women are hoping the confidence carries over to a big year on the AVP Tour.