The Next Steps
Stolfus and Ring hope that after their initial push, the new PBVA will come together in what Stolfus calls an “organic” manner. He believes that people can't be forced to organize, they have to come to it naturally. After the information is disseminated, he plans to take a step back and let the dust settle where it may.
But his hope is that this new PBVA can find a way to bring all the different beach volleyball factions together in a way that has never been done before.
“Our goal is to work positively with everybody,” says Stolfus. “We want to kill the acrimony in the sport. If there is a new AVP, great. We need a professional tour that exists on the top level of the food chain and that holds great tournaments. They’re just not going to have a contract that is going to sting us. If USAV wants to fill that gap with their four majors, we’ll work with them as well.”
Though Stolfus and Ring are paying for all of this out of their own pockets and Stolfus admits that eventually they may have to go get jobs, he says that he and Ring are in this fight for the long haul. They'll do what it takes to get this association off the ground, even if it takes months or years.
It just might. Those who have been around beach volleyball for the past 30 years or so know that infighting is just as intrinsic to the sport as the sand it is played on. Could Stolfus, Ring and the PBVA finally change all that? According the Stolfus, the perpetual dreamer, the answer depends on one thing – imagination.
“If we’re unable to imagine what it could be, we’ll fail,” he says. “Imagine sustainability in our sport. Imagine having a tournament in Houston, Texas every year for the next ten years. Going to the same place, with the same fans, building a consistent fan base for the kids. It doesn’t have to be someone owning us to do it. It has to be someone saying we want this and we have the power to do it.”
More on Stolfus and the PBVA
The Dreamer
The Idea
The Back Story
The Obstacles
