I was flipping through channels when I saw an AVP beach volleyball tournament. Having played and coached volleyball for many years, I settled on that channel. The score display said:
Gibb/Rosenthal 4, Wong/Olson 4
(Flickr photo credit: [sara b and Andy Jou])Guess which Asian is the professional Volleyball Player!
Wong? One doesn’t see many names like that on the beach volleyball circuit. Kevin Wong is a 6-7 professional beach volleyball player (who says that Asians aren’t tall and aren’t athletic?), as is his brother Scott. Kevin went to Hawaii sports powerhouse Punahou High (like Barack Obama), and played at UCLA where he was a three time All-American and his team won 2 NCAA volleyball championships. He partnered with legend Karch Kiraly in 2007 during Karch’s last year of volleyball. Not being one dimensional, he scored a perfect 800 on his math SAT, got a degree in economics, was selected by People Magazine as one of the most beautiful Olympic athletes in 2000, and was honored by the Chinese Historical Society of Southern California which was celebrating Chinese Americans in Sports.
Wong and Olson ended up losing that game, taking second in the Manhattan Beach Open, but Kevin Wong has inspired me to play volleyball again (took a break to let my knees recover, as I find that playing volleyball on sand is much harder on my knees than running). I hope to see more Asian Americans on the beach circuit, especially if they are as well-rounded, goodlooking, and successful as he is.
