Newport among the best in West

Rick Devereux

Going out on Friday night usually means stopping by the ATM to pick

up spending money.

Lindsay Phillips could fish out her Friday budget from the loose

change between her sofa cushions.

Some people expect to spend more than $100 on a Friday night on

the town.

Not Phillips.

She knows she’s spending $3.

For the past six years, Phillips has been coming to the West

Newport Community Center Gym on Friday nights to play drop-in

volleyball.

Drop-in or open-gym volleyball has a tendency at other facilities

to attract part-time players, has-beens and never-weres.

But not at West Newport.

The small gym hidden at the end of West 15th Street behind Hoag

Hospital features games with serious players and players with serious

game.

Including Phillips.

She played at Marina High, was on the volleyball team at

Pepperdine her freshman year then transferred to play at Long Beach

State where she was a standout outside hitter. She then went on to

play in the AVP with former 49er teammate Kristy Kierulff.

“I do this to keep in shape,” Phillips said. “This is pretty much

the best open gym in Southern California.”

The Friday of Fourth of July weekend had more than 50 players

vying for a spot on the three courts.

“We get 35 people here at the very minimum,” said George Lew, who

helped start the drop-in volleyball 13 years ago. “But we can get 80

or more people.”

And the 80 or more travel quite a distance to get to the West

Newport gym.

Chiquito Quintalla used to drive an hour and a half from the San

Fernando Valley every Friday to see action on the court. He now lives

in Long Beach.

“I was just looking for the best players and the best games,” he

said. “Everyone would tell me to go to Newport.”

On the Friday before Independence Day, someone from Las Vegas

showed up to play.

“I’ve heard about people from really far off know about my gym,”

Lew said. “Someone from Japan came in. There were a group of guys

from some Scandinavian country a couple months ago. They came to

visit friends in the area, but they already knew that this was a good

gym for volleyball.”

Lew played volleyball at Estancia High and later served as the

junior varsity coach and an assistant to the varsity coach during the

1990s.

“I’ve been to other open gyms and you’re lucky to get two games

in,” Lew said. “Here, you’re guaranteed at least two games, and you

can play four or five games, if not more. You know you’ll get on [a

court] and you know you’ll play.”

Lew said the only times the gym is closed on a Friday is if it’s

under repair or if a holiday falls on Friday. Other than that, it’s

open.

“The day after Thanksgiving is usually fun because a lot of people

want to burn off all the food they ate,” Lew said. “I’ve had it open

New Year’s day. It was pretty slow, but we still had people here.”

Lew has seen volleyball players grow up. Some have been coming

since they were in high school. Suddenly they will stop coming. When

they start playing again, Lew can guess what has happened.

“I can tell if someone got married and had kids, because they’re

usually gone for about five years,” Lew said. “I ask them when they

get back, and, sure enough, they got married and had a kid.”

Some of the players don’t take time off, even with marriage and

kids.

Roy Pollisco, 43, is one of the oldest players at the West Newport

gym. He has been coming for close to 10 years even though he has a

wife and three kids at home in Irvine.

“I try to come every Friday. Sometimes it depends on what my wife

says,” he said.

He said he comes to West Newport because of the price and the

quality of play.

“You get more bang for you buck,” he said. “This is as good [of

competition] as you’ll find at an open gym.”

When it first opened, Lew had three levels for the three courts --

beginner, intermediate and advanced. Over time, the beginners

improved or started going to other gyms. Now, the gym has an

intermediate court and two advanced courts.

The games are self-referred, which has yet to cause any major

problems, according to Lew. With high school and colleges switching

to international rules, Lew has adapted some of the rules but still

tries to maintain the rules he played under in the 1980s, meaning

games are to 15 points, win by two, with only the serving team

earning a point.

“I hate rally scoring, so we don’t have it,” he said. “But we

allow for let-serves.”