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Pink hat keeps Kiraly young
Volleyball star still strong
at 44
By Colleen Kane
Enquirer staff writer
June 27, 2005
It was the 1980s - a time of stone-washed, tapered jeans
and feathered bangs and blindingly-fluorescent colors - when
the then-growing legend began his trademark fashion statement
because of superstition.
Of all his colored hats, Karch Kiraly's hot pink one was
worn during a streak of six or seven tournament wins, so he
kept it long after the color's style faded. Through fashion
cycles the pink hat has planted itself on one side of the
volleyball net, all the way up to what Kiraly perceives as
a recent rise in the color's popularity again.
"I was laughing with somebody about it (recently): I've
become relevant again," he said. "I've been waiting
ever since for it to come back."
Kiraly's fashion might not have spanned the decades, but
he has.
Kiraly, the three-time Olympic gold medalist, the all-time
professional beach volleyball wins leader, and now, at 44,
the oldest player on the AVP Tour, will return to Cincinnati
Friday in what he has approached as his last season of playing.
Of course, he has approached every season like it was his
last for the past eight years, so don't bet on him retiring
yet.
"I want to see how far I can push it," said Kiraly,
who won both previous Cincinnati AVP tournaments in 1993 and
1994. "It's hard to give a career like this up, when
I tell my wife I'm going to the office, and it's the beach.
But I'm also looking to see how late is too late, how old
is too old."
It doesn't seem it's too late yet.
His body may be past its prime. (He recovered from his third
shoulder surgery last fall.) His motivations have changed.
(Winning every tournament as he used to is not an option;
it's now about the challenge of facing younger players.) His
partners have also changed. (He's on his second partner this
year because of his struggles.) But there are two things that
continue to make him a threat: ageless focus and mental toughness.
"The guy's in phenomenal shape, and he's a mental giant.
When you couple the two together, it's a winning combination,"
beach volleyball Olympian Jeff Nygaard said.
Birth of an athlete
Karch Kiraly, whose given name is Charles, was 6 years old
when his father, Dr. Laszlo Kiraly, began to teach him beach
volleyball.
Three NCAA championships with UCLA (1979, 1981-1982), two
Olympic gold medals in indoor volleyball (1984, 1988), an
Olympic gold medal in beach volleyball (1996), six AVP MVP
titles, 147 beach volleyball tournament wins, more than $3.1
million in winnings and two FIVB titles as the "Best
Player in the World" later, he is beginning to watch
his two sons give competitive volleyball a shot.
When they were younger, Kristian, 14, and Kory, 13, never
used to think of Kiraly as their father when he put on his
pink hat. Kiraly remembers one tournament when the boys were
walking by the courts with his wife Janna, saw the man in
the pink hat and exclaimed, "Mom, mom! There's Karch
Kiraly!" He hasn't been able to draw the same awe from
the teenaged versions of his sons as he tries to teach them
the game.
"I have the same problem every parent has. No matter
what my credentials, they listen to others more than me,"
Kiraly said.
That's a bit of a difference from the teenagers he guided
two decades ago.
Role model
Mike Lambert was 14 years old with a poster of Kiraly on
his wall, trying to model his game after the superstar.
"He was the Michael Jordan for all of us young players,"
Lambert said.
Sixteen years later, Lambert, a two-time indoor Olympian,
found himself playing alongside his role model. Kiraly teamed
with Lambert last season to win three tournaments and finish
second twice. They were named the AVP's Team of the Year.
"Getting the call to play with him, I was like, 'Wow.'
It was kind of a dream come true," Lambert said. "...
It's one of my best memories volleyball-wise, playing with
him at Manhattan Beach, which is like Wimbledon for us. It
was my first victory ever. It was so storybook."
Of course, storybooks end.
Changes
It's the body's give and take for choosing one type of volleyball
- the indoor game can be hard on the knees, the ankles and
the back; the beach game can destroy the shoulders.
Because Kiraly is older, he gets most of the opponents' serves,
which means he takes most of his team's swings. While he's
had nothing more than an ankle sprain or groin pull, he's
now had a shoulder surgery every four years, starting in 1996.
The latest surgery last fall left him struggling to come
back at the beginning of this year with Lambert. He even had
a scare in the season-opening Fort Lauderdale Open, where
he thought his career might be over. It turned out he had
just aggravated the repair area, nothing serious. Still, with
two ninth places and a seventh in the first three tournaments
this year, he gave Lambert an out with their partnership.
"I said, 'I feel like I'm letting you down. I'm pretty
sure I'll be playing better in the next month or two. If you
have the patience to wait until then, let's keep playing together.
If you don't, I respect your decision to play with someone
else,' " Kiraly said.
It was an amicable breakup, and Kiraly now partners with
Adam Jewell, with whom he finished fifth in San Diego June
12. While he's 19th in individual points this season, he said
he's starting to feel like he could get to the level he was
at last year.
'So hungry'
Trainer Mike Rangel said he's met Kiraly on Christmas Eve,
New Year's Eve and birthdays for training sessions Kiraly
affectionately calls "45 minutes of Hell." He never
misses his twice-a-week sessions of 30 minutes of stretching,
45 minutes of plyometrics (exercises where the muscle is stretched
before it's contracted) and two and a half hours of intense
scrimmaging, which is what Rangel said has him playing better
than he has in maybe 10 years.
"I'd put him up against any athlete in the world as
far as conditioning," said Rangel, who started working
with Kiraly in January 2003 and also trains Lambert, Misty
May and Kerri Walsh. "He also has an ability to focus
at a higher level unlike any athlete I've ever seen."
Kiraly will be the first to tell you he doesn't jump as high
or move as fast as he once did, but his tournament experience
and the fact that he's "got the book on everybody,"
according to Nygaard, are what have kept him around.
"Physically I'm not as strong as I was, but I try to
make up for it mentally," Kiraly said. "It's a big
challenge, and I relish it, competing with guys half my age."
That drive is what makes the pink hat, no matter how faded
or outdated, still an alarming sight.
"In an important game on Sunday, when it's 17-all in
the deciding set, that's when he comes alive," Lambert
said. "He's like a blooming flower. He just loves those
situations. You can see his eyes through his sunglasses, as
wide as can be. So hungry."
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