AVP Beach Volleyball Athletes Respond To Coronavirus-Related Tour Cancellations

The AVP might be facing its biggest stuff block yet. The long-standing professional beach volleyball tour joins the list of sports pausing due to coronavirus concerns. The AVP announced in a March 17 statement on their website how they are altering their upcoming tour. 

“The AVP is committed to conducting its 2020 Pro Tour in a safe and responsible manner. Due to the universal uncertainty of the COVID-19 situation, we have made the difficult decision to reschedule the Huntington Beach Open and the New York City Open, and cancel our events in Austin, TX and Seattle, WA. Our top priority is the health and safety of our AVP athletes, partners, spectators and staff. This decision comes following the guidance of medical professionals, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), as well as a risk-management assessment of each market. We will continue to monitor the COVID-19 situation daily and we urge everyone to follow the guidelines and protocols put forth by public health officials.”

With two fewer dates and a delayed start, the AVP hopes enough time will have passed to safely conduct their tournaments. The news wasn’t exactly a surprise for their athletes. With professional sports on hiatus, tour veteran Ryan Doherty felt the delay was the right decision.

“I kind of saw it coming,” Doherty said via telephone shortly after the AVP’s announcement. “The NBA is getting shut down, and all of these other major sporting events are getting shut down. It didn’t seem super prudent that the AVP would just host their inaugural events without a hitch early in the year. I think it’s a smart move by them.”

While the AVP staff is taking measures to protect their athletes, other players are uncertain how long the coronavirus will affect their livelihoods.

“I think more things are pending and impending,” Mark Burik said during a telephone interview. “I’m usually really optimistic, but I don’t know if people are feeling the full weight of what this is going to do.”

In the beach volleyball epicenter of Hermosa Beach, current regulations have left players without a place to practice. Doherty explained how the restrictions to slow the spread of COVID-19 has stopped their beach volleyball training.

“Our Mayor, [Eric] Garcetti just put out rules that say like no formal or informal groups that playing sports on the beach,” Doherty said. “It’s going to be very difficult to even get four guys to practice and train on the beaches out here.”

Garcetti’s new rules cut much deeper for Burik, who makes his living coaching and training aspiring beach volleyball hopefuls through his Better at Beach program. Normally, he could compensate for the missing tour dates by adding more coaching sessions; however, the sudden halt has amplified his profession’s fragile nature.

“It’s really rough as a beach volleyball player,” Burik said. “It’s rougher as a beach volleyball coach because there are only a few unique individuals who actually make their living playing on tour. But for a lot of us, we’re also working side jobs. Some of us are a little bit more prepared with our work, but a lot of AVP players and coaches are people who rely on group interaction. And it’s not like a beach volleyball player had some kind of pension or backup plan; the majority of us just play for the love of the sport. And that has left all of us so vulnerable right now.”

Burik has responded to these rapid changes by dedicating his energies to his online platform. Any focus he had on playing has shifted to doing whatever is necessary to keep the lights on.

“There is no focus right now on beach volleyball because after being in debt with no work for however many months, it’s just not,” he said. “We’re trying to make a quick pivot. … This is just the impetus to make it happen within a couple of days instead of allowing ourselves to do it over the course of months. … This might be the time where I have to pivot careers because I don’t know what people are going to do for paying rent.”

Staring down a dark road into uncharted territory, Burik will rely on his fighting athletic spirit for guidance. At this point, it’s all he can do.

“I’ve been in places where there are no answers, and you just put your head down and do the work,” he said.

“Every time you don’t win a tournament, or a match, you’ve just gotten you’re a— kicked. You’ve put everything into the world, and the world has told you, ‘no.’ And your only response has always been as an athlete your whole life is to go back and do the work. It will get better. So that’s what I have to subscribe to, right? Now that’s what I hope a lot of people choose to subscribe to. … The world handed you an a— kicking. Now it’s up to you to go back, reassess, work in a new direction, or just work harder and see what you can come up with.”