TALLAHASSEE, Florida — Mark Paaluhi didn’t have to do any of it.
Didn’t have to host a beach volleyball tournament on the second weekend of September, a date that typically marks the beginning of the American off-season.
Didn’t have to sit in multiple Hermosa Beach City Council meetings.
Didn’t have to knock on doors and sell popcorn and bang down every possible sponsor to get the prize purse to $200,000, and he certainly didn’t have to contribute $15,000 of that from the coffers of his own company, SandCourt Experts.
Didn’t have to pay the commentators, all of whom — Matt Prosser, Rob Espero, Megan Burgdorf, Victoria Dennis, Travis Mewhirter — agreed to produce a live product for VolleyballTV for free, for the simple love of the game.
Yet Mark Paaluhi did all of these things.
And it is precisely because he was under no obligation to do them, yet did them — not griped about them, not complained about the need for them, not clamored for someone else to do something about it — anyway, that he is the Beach Volleyball Man of the Year.
When the AVP schedule was announced early in 2024, it wasn’t hard to miss the glaring omission of one of the game’s most iconic cities: Hermosa Beach. Paaluhi’s reaction wasn’t all that much different from the rest of us, and that we collectively viewed that as a problem.
Yet where the vast majority of the beach volleyball “fans” or enthusiasts took to social media or message boards or wherever else to outlet their frustration, Paaluhi did the darnedest thing: He took a call from the city.
They, too, wanted a professional beach volleyball event in Hermosa Beach in 2024. Because of certain logistical and ego issues, the AVP and the city couldn’t work out a date to which all parties agreed. But, they asked Paaluhi, did they need the AVP? Couldn’t they just put a professional tournament on without them?
There was precedent for such an event. When the AVP had yet to be resuscitated by Donald Sun in the early 2010s, the city of Manhattan Beach shrugged its shoulders. They didn’t see much of a problem. They know they host arguably the most important annual tournament on the beach volleyball calendar.
They’d run the event anyway.
That tournament remains the stuff of beach volleyball lore, an old school tournament for the purists — old school rules, no stadium, just show up and put the beach chair down. Sean Rosenthal and Aaron Wachtfogel took down Billy Strickland and Dana Camacho in those finals, and the tournament is now something of a legend.
Paaluhi evidently took notes.
His pitch to the city, and to the beach volleyball world: A low-budget, no-frills approach similar to that of the 2010 Manhattan Beach Open. Any money that came in would go to the prize purse. There would be no stadium, and the rules would remain largely the same, save for a true double-elimination, in which we were treated to a double-final, won by Kelly Cheng and Sara Hughes, who twice had to beat Terese Cannon and Megan Kraft. The other stipulation was that sets would be referred to as games which, when you think about it, makes a whole lot more sense.
The city expedited the permitting process, but even then, Paaluhi only had five months to get everything in proper order.
It took all five months.
Volleyball TV was a late add, as was the title sponsor, Wedbush Securities, whose owner, Gary Wedbush, deserves his own award one day for the amount he has contributed to the game.
As for the event itself? The players unanimously loved it. The vibe was pure, with players allowed to poach from the Beach Pro Tour, an option only taken by a few, but still, it made for some electric parings: Miles Partain and Italian Alex Ranghieri, Tina Graudina and Julia Scoles, Betsi Flint and Vilhemiina Prihti, Heather Bansley and Megan Rice. Brazilians and Dutchies jumped into the field. It made for a lighthearted yet voraciously competitive atmosphere.
In the end, the players left with a collective $200,000 in their pockets. The local bars and restaurants who hosted player parties were overwhelmed with business — and the players, even the ones who lost early, had some of the most fun they’ve had playing beach volleyball as professionals.
Everyone left happy. Volleyball TV wants back in, as does the city.
As for Paaluhi, he will end the 2024 year as the Beach Volleyball Man of the Year.
PHOTO: RICK ATWOOD
