Another Day at the Beach : Meeting Challenge Never Gets Old for Chisholm

HERMOSA BEACH —  Once again, Linda Chisholm found herself in a race against time.

This didn’t involve fighting anxiety because she’ll turn 40 this year. And it was even more urgent than getting to her Van Nuys home to feed her four German shepherds and two terriers after a long day at the beach.

Those races she wins.

Chisholm, the first star in the 11-year-old Women’s Professional Volleyball Assn. and still a ranked player, will not play in the Evian National Championships, which begin today and conclude Sunday at Hermosa Beach.

Deb Richardson, Chisholm’s partner all season, broke her hand during a workout Tuesday, and a day later, with the deadline for entering the tournament already lapsed, Chisholm was frantic.

At first, tournament officials extended the deadline, and Ali Wood of Redondo Beach agreed to drop partner Monique Oliver and team with Chisholm. But tournament director Levalley Patterson overruled the decision.

“This is the big tournament of the year,” Chisholm said. “I understand, but they shouldn’t have told me one thing, then changed it.”

Chisholm was not a favorite to win. She no longer dominates the sport she helped found in 1987, but her and Richardson rank fifth in earnings this year with $16,237.50 each.

Their best finish is a third at Huntington Beach, and Chisholm-Richardson usually finish behind younger tandems Lisa Arce-Holly McPeak, Karolyn Kirby-Nancy Reno and Barbra Fontana-Linda Hanley.

There was a time fans crowding the beach to watch the pioneers of pro beach volleyball rarely saw Chisholm trail. She won the first two national championships, held in Pismo Beach in 1987 and ‘88, with Brazilian partner Jackie Silva.

Purses were much smaller, though, and Chisholm earned only about $21,000 in her first two years despite finishing first in 17 of 20 tournaments. This year’s money leaders, Arce and McPeak, each have won $51,250.

Chisholm, who took last year off to build her clientele as a personal trainer, has earned more than $185,000 on the WPVA beach tour and another $65,000 when she defected to the Assn. of Volleyball Professionals tour in 1994 and ’95.

It’s been a decent living doing something she loves.

After an amateur indoor career that included All-American honors at Pepperdine in 1979 and a berth on the silver medal-winning U.S. Olympic team in 1984, Chisholm helped launch pro beach volleyball with Pepperdine Coach Nina Matthies and served as WPVA president until 1992.

Yet Chisholm has come to realize beach volleyball will never be a mainstream spectator sport.

“My gut feeling is that volleyball has hit a plateau,” she said. “The sport is not selling itself as well as it should. It used to be easy to get individual sponsorship, but now money is hard to come by.”

Getting rich by bouncing around the beach batting a ball never was her primary goal. Chisholm lives simply, sharing a house built by her father with her six dogs. Her parents are right across the street in the same home she lived in while attending Birmingham High.

The admitted homebody lets her imagination roam with plans for the sport she loves. Chisholm is pleased that women’s beach volleyball is occasionally televised (the national championship final will be shown at 3 p.m. Sunday on ABC) and that it made its Olympic debut in 1996.

“Our next dream is to have grand slam events like tennis, to have men and women playing in huge arenas,” she said.

Whether she will compete long enough to be in the middle of that arena is a question Chisholm faces every time she looks at the calendar.

“I plan to play as long as my body holds out,” she said. “I’ve had no injuries. You are only as old as you feel.”

More and more, Chisholm feels like coaching. In addition to personal training, she would like to teach junior players their way around the beach.

“I’d like to see junior tournaments on the beach,” she said. “Unless you are of Olympic quality, the beach is the only way to make money. I’d like to take girls that are interested in volleyball and teach them the beach game first.”

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Beach Ball!

* What: Women’s Professional Volleyball Assn. 11th annual Evian National Championships.

* Where: The Pier at Hermosa Beach.

* When: Championship competition begins today at 9 a.m. Twelve teams advance to Sunday, with play beginning at 8 a.m. The tournament final is at 3 p.m. and will be televised on ABC.

* Tickets: Admission is free.

* Fast fact: Defending national champions Lisa Arce and Holly McPeak are also the leading money winners this season with $51,250 each.