Lanikai’s Grass Beckoning VB Players

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Lanikai Open tournament player Dean Troberg (left) goofs around with friend Ed Chun at Lanikai Community Center. Photo by Nathalie Walker, .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).

In some cases, the venue makes the event. Indeed, as the inaugural Lanikai Open volleyball tournament gets ready to play out July 10, there can be no doubt that the backdrop will make an impression.

More than anything, the Lanikai Open was designed with everyone in mind.

“It’s for all walks of life,” said tournament director Ed Chun, whose company, Yessah International, will put on the event in conjunction with Phiten, one of its major sponsors. “We’ll have different divisions - a lower division for recreational players and an upper division with a lot of your better players, and it’s within walking distance of the most beautiful beach in the world.”

Chun expects approximately 40 teams to take part at Lanikai Beach Park venue. In fact, 28 teams signed on nearly two weeks before the event. While he hopes to keep the field at around 40 in future years, he expects to attract teams from all over the world as word continues to find its way into the volleyball communities.

What makes the Lanikai Open unique and perhaps more accessible to teams stocked with novice players is that it will take place on grass.

“Hawaii is the place to play grass volleyball,” Chun said. “It always has had a following, and it’s easier to play on grass. Volleyball players usually play indoor or beach volleyball. Indoor players often have a hard time playing on the beach, and beach players don’t always find it easy to play in a gym. Grass volleyball being the medium, we decided to try to capitalize on that.”

Footwear is optional for grass volleyball, after all. “Believe it or not, there are some people who go out there and play in their slippers,” said Chun. “I am one of those people. I call them (slippers) my (Air) Jordans.”

Chun and Yessah International ran a smaller tournament earlier in the year - the Peter Smith Memorial Tournament - which was a resounding success, and the Lanikai Open always will run the Saturday after the Fourth of July, he noted.

In the Upper Division, a number of high-profile players have already committed to the tournament, including Taylor Crabb, who was the Most Valuable Player at last month’s state high school volleyball tournament after leading the Buffanblu to the title with a win over Kamehameha. Crabb has signed a letter of intent to take his talents to Long Beach State later this summer.

Also expected are Iolani grad Brad Lawson, who helped lead Stanford to the NCAA Division I national title this year; former Hawaii player Tara Hittle and Taylor Sander of Norco, Calif., who is rated as the third best prospect in the country for the prep class of 2010. Sander will attend BYU next month.

A former coach at both Kalaheo and Saint Louis, Chun graduated from Kailua in the late 1990s. He went on to Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa to play volleyball, where he still holds the school record for digs in a season. He travels frequently to play volleyball and will be in Boston over Labor Day weekend to play Chinese, 9-man volleyball. His loyalties, however, remain with the community he was raised in.

“We’re working hard to make it nice for the community, and we’d like to go international like the Great Aloha Run,” he said. “I’d like Hawaii to be the Mecca of grass volleyball. We want to shoot for the stars.”

In addition to Phiten, sponsors include JACO, Plane Sun and Vitamin Water. The tournament runs from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.