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Day at the Beach: Local youths put up top showings at national volleyball tourney
BY Kevin Hageland, khageland@starlocalnews.com
While much of the sports world was focused on beach volleyball opening at the 2012 London Olympic Games over the weekend, the future of the sport was displaying its skills at the 2012 USA Beach Junior Tour Championship in Milwaukee.
Among that group were a plethora of players from Beach 10K Elite Sand Volleyball in Plano.
"It's huge just to make it that far because to qualify you have to finish in the top three of a 52-team tournament," said Darcy Arellano, Beach 10K coach. "This was the second year we've gone to nationals and the competition was twice as tough as last year; it was unbelievable."
Leading the way among that group were Dayton Arellano (Plano) and Austin Hartline (Carrollton). Dayton, who has spent time at the Olympic Training Center and been featured in Volleyball USA Magazine, and Hartline, who has a volleyball scholarship to Pepperdine, won the Boys 18U bracket and national title with a victory over AJ Logosh and Steve O'Dell in the finals.
"It was crazy to see all the work I put into this sport pay off in one weekend," Dayton said. "The crowd was the only thing that kept me going; I get chills every time I think back on that memory."
"Volleyball has been a major contributor to the mental, physical and spiritual person that I have grown to be," Hartline added. "Winning a national championship is not the icing on the cake for me though; it's more like the batter I'm going to use to make the whole cake."
He might be right as Hartline and Dayton didn't stop with that national title.
The pair went on to win an exhibition match, 21-19 over a team that was in town for the Milwaukee Shootout on the Jose Cuervo Pro Beach Volleyball Series.
"I think that's when people started to say 'wow' and they really started to catch everyone's eye," Darcy said. "People were saying they are future Olympians."
While Dayton and Hartline were the best finishers from Beach 10K Elite, the club had six other teams in the mix of the Girls 14U bracket.
Leading that bunch was Amy Leonards (Plano) and Tori Durney-Reyer (Double Oak), who advanced to the semifinals and finished in third place. It wasn't easy though as Leonards and Durney-Reyer had to overcome a 17-13 deficit prior to the medal round by going on an 8-1 finishing run to secure a 21-18 victory.
"That was a huge comeback right there," Darcy said. "The girls eventually lost to the winning team (Haley Hallgren and Ashley Robert)."
The team Hallgren and Robert beat in the 14U finals was Genna Simpkins and Kylie Grandy, which is the same duo that upended Beach 10K Elite's Avery Arellano (Plano) and Gabby Crowley (Fairview), 21-19. Avery and Crowley, who won their qualifier in Austin, settled for 12th at nationals.
"These girls played great and competed well," Darcy said. "It was a tough draw, but if you want to be the best, you've got to beat the best."
Darcy speaks on the subject as not just a coach, but also a parent as she is mother to Avery and Dayton. Despite the dual roles, Darcy insists there has never been a conflict of interest.
"I really don't think so," she said. "I'm fortunate to have good kids and they respect me as a coach."
That respect was returned by Darcy to all her teams at nationals, which included another four in the Girls 14U bracket.
Avery Barker (Plano) and Callie Williams (McKinney) placed fifth, Brooke Riley (Allen) and Sarah Hodson (McKinney) finished 10th, Jillian Via (McKinney) and Samantha Fawcett (Plano) tied for 12th and the youngest of the bunch, Hannah Bruno (Plano) and Taylor Carty (Allen), came in 31st.
"I was super impressed with Hannah and Taylor," Darcy said. "That's a new team that has hardly played together, so I was very happy with how they did in Milwaukee."
The word impressed came up again when Darcy described nationals as a whole.
"It wasn't just because of what they did on the court, but how they acted off the court as well," she said. "They showed great sportsmanship throughout, so much so that other coaches even remarked to me about that, which is huge and something that made me really proud."
The rewards for those efforts continued on the way home.
Before boarding a plane back to the Metroplex, the airline asked if anyone wanted to give up their seats for a $300 voucher. Dayton and Hartline volunteered. They ended up not having to relinquish their seats, but the airline did give them first class seats because they volunteered.
"Austin put his first class ticket in the biblical book he carries and had a huge smile on his face," Darcy said. "These are good kids and they deserve this success."
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