Beach Volleyball Legend & Top Spokesperson

by Rick Capone

For Release: July 18, 1998

NEW YORK, N. Y. - Sinjin Smith. Beach volleyball legend.

He has been on the beach playing the game of beach volleyball for what seems like forever. When people and beach volleyball fans think of beach volleyball, Sinjin Smith's name is usually the first name they will think about.

He and his partner, Randy Stoklos, played together for 10 years and set the standard for which other beach volleyball players and teams will be measured for years to come. Together they won 115 matches, a record that may never be broken because players rarely stay together that long anymore.

But even before they were a team, Smith was on the beach winning.

He played his first career beach open in 1977 with another beach legend, Ron Von Hagen. He won his first career open in 1977 with Mike Norman. In 1979, he won his first of four Manhattan Beach Open titles with Jim Menges and the following year he won with Karch Kiraly. He would win two more with Stoklos. In 1979 he also won the first of five U.S. Championships with Kiraly and would win one more with Kiraly and three others with Stoklos.

Through the 1980s and into the 1990s, Smith and Stoklos were the top team on the Association of Volleyball Professional (AVP) tour and Smith wore the unofficial crown as "King of the Beach" for most of that time. In the early 1990s though, he had somewhat of a falling out with the AVP though, and decided to play on the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour.

While on the FIVB tour, Smith also helped get Beach Volleyball into the Olympic Games and was a member of that United States team that played in the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. And there, with his best playing days "supposedly" behind him, he and his partner, Carl Henkel, finished in fifth-place.

Smith and Henkel also gave the Olympics and Beach Volleyball one of the greatest moments as they played in what is arguably the best beach volleyball game of all time against the eventual gold medalist, Kiraly and Kent Steffes. Even though Smith was supposedly "over-the-hill," he played like he was a kid again, making some incredible digs and shots that people didn't think he could make anymore. And even though he and Henkel lost that match, they showed people how great and exciting beach volleyball could be. He also regained the respect of a lot of the elite United States volleyball players once again, including Kiraly, who admitted after that match that he might have underestimated his opponent.

Now in his early 40's and with his playing career winding down, his spirit and dedication to the sport of beach volleyball seems to grow stronger every day.

Along with continuing to play, as he will in these Goodwill Games with his latest partner, Ricci Luyties, Smith is President of the Permanent Committee of the FIVB's 1998 Beach Volleyball World Council. In this position, he continues to help grow the sport around the world.

Smith continues to work to publicize the sport. He conducts numerous clinics each year, teaching people how to play the game and showing them how great a sport it is. He is the sport's greatest spokesperson, talking about the sport to anyone who will listen.

And even though Smith has not won a tournament since 1992, he keeps playing on. He can still compete with the best players in the world, which he proved again this season as he and his partner, Luyties, played a number of AVP tournaments, the first time Smith played AVP events since he left to go to the FIVB tour. They were competitive at each event they played and their best finishes were ninths at three events.

Coming into the Goodwill Games, the five-time world champion and his partner, Luyties, are ranked 22nd. They have played in three FIVB events together in 1998 so far and have had disappointing results, finishing ninth or lower.

But their results don't seem to matter to the fans. You will still find the area around a court where Smith is playing filled with fans trying to watch him play. It is not everyday that you get the opportunity to watch a legend, and in watching Smith play, that is exactly what they are getting the opportunity to do.

No matter how he places at the Goodwill Games, one thing you can count on. Smith will play his hardest every minute he is on the court and the fans will cheer him on. And with another matchup against his long time rival, Kiraly, another great match like the one at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics Games gives the fans a chance to witness another piece of history.

Sinjin Smith is one of the greatest beach volleyball players to ever play the game and he continues to be its most vigorous and most eloquent spokesperson. The sport could not have asked for a better representative.