Misty May

The best U.S. women's beach volleyball team might not qualify for the Olympics. First in results, first in money earned, third on the Olympic qualifying list. That's where Costa Mesa's Misty May and Manhattan Beach's Holly McPeak stand. One spot removed from the Olympics. May and McPeak have done better in 2000 on the FIVB Tour, the international traveling show that serves as the Olympic qualification for all beach volleyball teams, than any other Americans.

Gene Selznick is 70 years old. He rides his 1100 Yamaha motorcycle and dances up a storm whenever he can. Selznick also is the coach of Olympic beach volleyball hopefuls Holly McPeak and Misty May. In the funkiest of Olympic sports, it is the 70-year-old who can offer knowledge learned at the beach in Santa Monica 50 years ago that will, Selznick is convinced, lead McPeak and May onto the Olympic team. May, 22, loves learning from Selznick.

Anyone who saw Misty May play volleyball during her championship days at Long Beach State--with those dark brown pigtails and skin so fair you could tell she spent plenty of time in the gym-- might not recognize her now. That's May with the long blond hair and the killer tan calling the beach her office these days after leaving the U.S. national team last year to try to reach the Olympics playing beach volleyball instead. It was a bold move.

High school sports serve as a rite of passage for the athletes who play them, the students, friends and families that gather to watch them and the sportswriters who cut their professional teeth covering them. High school football games in Los Angeles date to 1896, but it wasn't until 1934 that the Los Angeles City Section was born. The Southern Section was established in 1912 and held its first athletic competition in 1913.

For the last two years, as she established herself as the nation's top collegiate indoor volleyball player, as she caused eyes to widen and hearts to beat faster with her creativeness, with her setting skills and her smoothness on the court, with her pizazz and her ponytail, Costa Mesa's Misty May kept taking the right steps forward and telling her heart to shut up. When May finished her Long Beach State eligibility, she did what was expected. This summer, May joined the U.S.

Misty May's list of accolades grew a little longer and a lot more impressive Monday night when she was named the winner of the 1998-99 Honda Broderick Cup, awarded to the nation's outstanding female collegiate athlete, at a dinner at Reno, Nev. The award, voted on by more than 900 schools and a national board of directors, caps off one of the most distinguished careers in collegiate women's volleyball.

With Long Beach State sitting atop the women's volleyball rankings and heading into the NCAA tournament looking for another national championship, Coach Brian Gimmillaro's plush new offices in the Pyramid suggest that volleyball rules at the Beach. While other Long Beach State coaches sweat it out in portable buildings or cramped physical education offices, Gimmillaro two months ago moved into a new office that looks down on the Pyramid floor, where his team is undefeated this year.

Long Beach State sophomore setter Misty May was named Big West Conference volleyball player of the year Tuesday. May, the conference's freshman of the year last season, led the 49ers to a 32-2 regular-season record. May, from Newport Harbor High, ranked third in the Big West with 11.85 assists and was seventh in hitting percentage with a .315 mark. She also averaged 2.75 digs, 1.91 kills and 0.68 blocks a game.

She studies everything. No point is too insignificant, no approach too mundane for Misty May. That May, a Long Beach State freshman volleyball star, often knows what her coaches want beforehand doesn't matter. She's attentive anyway; always on the attack. Once the lessons are learned, then the fun starts. Her athleticism takes over and May plays at a higher level than most. "She's a really good player," said team captain Brita Schwerm. "She stepped in right away.