Becoming the Best on the Beach
Early on, Logan Tom drew comparisons to the legends of beach volleyball. Now she is playing alongside them.
The basics of the game remain the same, but it's the elements that frustrate Logan Tom. A spray of sand here or a whip of wind there changes everything, so she is retooling her body for the new environment. After years of dominating the indoor court, the volleyball phenom compares the transition to the beach to a fawn learning to walk again.
"It's been a learning process. It's frustrating not being able to do the things I could do easily on the court," said Tom, 25, between practice sessions in Manhattan Beach, Calif.
Over the phone her words tumble over each other, impeded every once in awhile by a bleating whistle in the background. Logan has come a long way since Stanford University where her name became synonymous with the indoor sport. She was hailed as volleyball's biggest star since Karch Kiraly, the three-time men's Olympic gold medal winner.
National titles, two Olympic competitions and honors of all shapes and sizes rained down, but the days since college have not been as smooth.
After Logan led her Stanford team to two National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) wins, she did what most extraordinary amateur athletes do - she turned pro and headed to Spain to play in the Superliga (the U.S. does not have a professional indoor volleyball league). A few weeks before the end of the season, Logan found herself at a juncture: continue playing a sport she knows and loves in Spain or come home and play on the beach.
"I enjoyed life overseas. I love to travel, but I missed home, you know?" said Logan, who is now touring the U.S. with the Association of Volleyball Professionals (AVP). "Beach is a good opportunity for me right now. It's what I love about volleyball plus some new challenges. I'm picking up new techniques and rebuffing old ones."
Quitting Ballet and Playing on the Boy's Teams
Excelling in sports was in her genes. Logan, who is of Chinese and Hawaiian descent, is famously the daughter of former Philadelphia Eagles and Chicago Bears defensive end Melvyn Tom. But the more telltale signs of her future were in her feet.
She was walking by nine months and wearing size eight shoes when she was eight, said her mom Kristine Tom.
Growing up in Napa, Calif. young Logan would tag along with older brother Landon to play basketball and baseba
ll. During the summers she would stay with her father in Hawaii (her parents divorced when Logan was a baby) and play volleyball. Seeing her daughter's passion, Kristine made a commitment to keep her involved in sports. The single mom worked, put herself through school and drove her children to and from practices and games.
"I did whatever he did. I played sports with the boys," Logan said about her brother. "Plus I was always a good head taller than everyone else so all I had to do was put my hands up."
But before Logan was diving and spiking, she had dreams of becoming a ballerina.
"She must have been four or five. I wasn't pushing that one. I just couldn't see it," said Kristine. "I told her, 'you know honey, I just can't see a guy lifting you.'"
After two classes, Logan retired her tutu.
Towering Over Discrimination and Becoming Homecoming Queen
Lured by job opportunity and a lower cost of living, Kristine moved the family to Utah when Logan was nine. And for the first time, the multicultural family felt the sting of discrimination.
"My kids were the wrong color and the wrong religion," said Kristine about the adversity, but Logan always found the strength to overcome. By the end of high school, the solitary athlete was crowned homecoming queen.
"For me it was easier because I played sports and I'm a girl - there's always a way in," said Logan. "I was a loner growing up. I hung out with my mom and my neighbor, you know what I mean?"
Then as fate would have it, when Logan was 13, one of her friends asked if she wanted to go to volleyball camp.
"I said 'Sure why not?'"
The meeting between the athlete and the game of volleyball was prophetic. In the 16-year-old girl the coaches at Highland High School saw power and raw talent.
"I didn't know what I was doing. I jumped and hit the ball hard."
She hit the ball so hard that the U.S. national team came calling, but Logan instead chose Stanford to study international relations. She's still about 50 units shy of getting her bachelor's degree, but if ever there were a good reason to take a break from school, going to the Olympics would be one of them. Most athletes can only dream of the opportunity to represent their country. Logan did that - twice.
In 2000, she became the youngest woman to ever be selected for the U.S. Olympic volleyball team at 19. In Sydney, she led the 10th-ranked U.S. women's volleyball team to a fourth-place finish (We bled on that court.") In 2004, Logan and the U.S. team placed fifth.
With all of her achievements, she says one of her proudest moments is yet to come. She wants that college degree.
"I don't want to be the 40-year-old who sits in the back of the classroom and asks what two plus two is because it's been so long since she's been to school!"
Conquering the Beach
Her self-confidence is there. It's just a matter of finding her legs.
"Logan is one of the best athletes that I have ever played with and I know that the more time she spends out on the beach, the more impressive her natural athletic ability will be," Holly McPeak wrote about her AVP partner on her official Web site.
McPeak was the 2004 Olympic Bronze medal winner in beach volleyball. Logan is soaking up the experience. The pair is currently the sixth seed after the AVP Cuervo Gold Crown Dallas Open.
"I'm always in a rush to do things. It's more fluid for her," said Logan about McPeak.
The next stop for the duo may be the most critical - in Huntington Beach May 3- 6, where the largest check in AVP history, $100,000 will be awarded.
Part of the challenge is making the wind her friend and training her over six-foot body to learn the rhythm of the beach.
"I'm a broad jumper. When I jump I land 10 feet from where I took off. For me it's hard. People keep telling me you don't have to kill the ball," she said. "I need to tweak the bolts and nuts in my head. It's not a power game out here."
No one is more confident about Logan's success than her mom.
"She's always been a gutsy little person," said Kristine, a middle school teacher in Long Beach, Calif. "With Logan the future is always an open door. She's made a commitment to convert to the beach game and she is going to do whatever it takes. I don't know how long it will take her. I can tell you she'll get there."
AVP Crocs 2007 Tour Schedule
For ticket and tour information, go to www.avp.com
May 3-6 - Huntington Beach Pier in Huntington Beach, Calif.
May 10-13 - Westgate City Center in Glendale, AZ
May 18-20 - Hermosa Beach Pier in Hermosa Beach, Calif.
May 24-27 - Waterfront Park in Louisville, KY
May 31- June 3 - St. Pete Times Forum in Tampa, FL
June 7-10 - Atlantic Station in Atlanta, GA
June 14-17 - Family Circle Tennis Center in Charleston, SC
July 5-8 - Seaside Heights Beach in Seaside Heights, NJ
July 19-22 - Marina Green Park in Long Beach, Calif.
August 2-5 - North Avenue Beach in Chicago, IL
August 9-12 - Manhattan Beach Pier in Manhattan Beach, Calif.
August 16-19 - Marina Bay in Boston, Mass.
August 23-26 - Coney Island in Brooklyn, NY
August 30-Sept. 2 - Lindner Family Tennis Center in Cincinnati, OH
Sept. 6-8 - Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas, NV
Sept. 14-16 - AVP San Francisco Best of the Beach Pier 30/32 in San Francisco, Calif.
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