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American seashore legend Tim Hovland and one of the vital versatile gamers to ever choose up a volleyball, Brazilian Ana Paula Henkel, are the headline picks for the 38th Worldwide Volleyball Corridor of Fame (IVHF) induction class.
The very good crop of 2024 inductees additionally embrace three-time Olympic gold medalist Regla Bell of Cuba; the Italian terminator, Andrea “Zorro” Zorzi; and Brazilian coach Jose “Ze Roberto” Guimaraes.
The foremost Para Volley coach on the earth, Iran’s Hadi Rezaei, referees Juan Angel Pereyra (Argentina) and Sue Lemaire (USA) and Italian chief Giuseppe Panini may also be honored by the IVHF on the annual gala ceremony in Holyoke, Massachusetts, the birthplace of volleyball, on Saturday, October 19.
There are 4 particular award winners for his or her contributions to the IVHF and/or the game of volleyball: Legendary USA Volleyball determine John Kessel (Mintonette Award); the late Invoice Kauffman and Ed Chan (Inaugural Award for Media Excellence); and nonetheless to be named, the Mayoral Award. Kauffman was the longtime USA Volleyball public relations director. Chan was a volleyball photographer with few equals and, on the time of his dying in 2021, co-publisher and photograph editor of VolleyballMag.com.
“We’re thrilled to announce this yr’s class of Corridor of Fame inductees, a bunch that actually displays the variety and world attain of our sport,” IVHF govt director, George Mulry mentioned.
“These exceptional people come from assorted backgrounds and have made important contributions to volleyball in numerous components of the world. Their distinctive tales and achievements exemplify the spirit of inclusivity and excellence that defines our sport. We hope your entire volleyball group will come collectively to expertise their enshrinement, whether or not in particular person, or on-line, as we honor their legacy and have a good time their influence on the volleyball world.”
Hovland (honored as a male seashore participant) was one of many best characters to ever set foot on the sand. “The Hov” and his longtime accomplice, Mike Dodd, had been the “hearth and ice” mixture that grew the seashore recreation from a strictly Southern California South Bay/Westside curiosity to a world enterprise.
Hovie/Dodd had been often known as the “Large Recreation Hunters” for his or her capability to step it up when it mattered most.
“I respect it. I put in a variety of onerous work, we gained a variety of Opens, and I like all of the names which can be on there and it’s my honor to be put there,” Hovland mentioned. “We grew the sport — (Ron) Von Hagen, and (Jim) Menges received the ball rolling.
“Hovland, Dodd, (Sinjin) Smith, (Randy) Stoklos, Karch (Kiraly) took it to a different stage within the 1980’s, after which it began cooking on the worldwide stage. My accomplice Mike Dodd had loads to do with this, being the glue that stored all of it collectively. We’d go right down to Marine Avenue darn close to each day for six or seven hours. Sideouts may final 45 minutes earlier than you’ll rating a degree. You needed to be in insane form.”
The mixture of Dodd and Hovland gained a whopping 53 tournaments, fourth all-time.
Hovland started his profession at Westchester Excessive Faculty within the mid-Nineteen Seventies and was a three-sport standout in soccer, basketball and volleyball. Many will argue he was one of many best all-around athletes ever to return out of the town of Los Angeles. He was an NCAA indoor champion at USC in 1980, and runner-up in 1979 and 1981.
Though “The Hov” was not on the USA Olympic gold-medal-winning indoor group in 1984 — he selected to remain on the seashore — there are some who really feel he was the perfect indoor participant on the earth from 1981-1983. In 1984, Hovland led Kappa Turin of the Italian Serie A1 to its league title and was named MVP, turning into considered one of two People to ever accomplish the double feat. His coach on that group, Silvano Prandi, was inducted into the IVHF simply final yr.
Hovland was an prompt winner on the seashore. On the age of 20 he gained his first Open with Kiraly in Hawaii. That was the primary of 59 titles gained over the span of 15 years. However it was the “high quality” of titles that Hov gained: 5 Manhattan Seashore Opens, two World Championships, and a USA Championship (the latter two occasions had been held sporadically in any other case the trophy cupboard would in all probability have boasted extra {hardware}).
Hov’s and Dodd’s rivalry with Smith and Stoklos helped burnish the game within the consciousness of the typical American sports activities fan. Hovland turns into the 13th male seashore volleyball participant to be inducted into the IVHF, and the ninth American. In 2023, the IVHF inducted one other USA seashore nice Phil Dalhausser.
Henkel, like Hovland, excelled on each the seashore and indoors. On the hardwood, she was a key member of the Brazilian nationwide group that gained a bronze medal on the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta (she additionally represented Brazil indoors on the Olympics in 1992 in Barcelona). In 1994 she was named the MVP of the celebrated World Cup.
On the seashore, Ana Paula gained FIVB World Tour gold medals with a whopping 5 completely different gamers. Whereas partnered with Shelda Beda in 2008, the mix was named FIVB group of the yr. A depraved server, Ana Paula gained that class amongst gamers 5 years operating between 2003-2007. A two-time seashore Olympian, Henkel was fifth in Athens in 2004, and fifth once more in Beijing in 2008, when she was a last-minute substitute for the injured Juliana Felisberta Silva, and partnered with Larissa Maestrini, additionally an IVHF choice in 2023.
Ana Paula was the highest vote getter by far within the public fan vote for this yr’s Corridor class.
“I began to shake like I used to be 15 years outdated,” she mentioned when Mulry knowledgeable Henkel of the IVHF’s Board of Administrators’ resolution.
“My legs had been shaking,” Ana Paula mentioned. “My face was burning. I couldn’t management myself. Plenty of faces got here to my thoughts about individuals who helped me get up to now. My father, he isn’t with us (anymore), and he was at all times my primary fan and my mentor. He believed in me greater than my very own goals. He mentioned each day ‘you’ll do it!’”
Ana Paula turns into the 12th feminine seashore volleyball inductee and the sixth from Brazil.
“Zorro” Zorzi was a fearsome reverse for the Italian nationwide group. He was a part of a bunch that gained two consecutive World Championships gold medals in 1990 and 1994, and was part of three Italian groups that gained European Championships, in addition to an Olympic silver in an epic last in Atlanta in 1996, gained by the Netherlands 17-15 within the fifth within the outdated sideout scoring format. Zorzi was additionally an Olympian in 1988 and 1992.
Zorro was the MVP of the celebrated World League competitions in 1990 and 1991. He was additionally declared the world’s greatest participant by the FIVB in 1991. Moreover, he made an enormous impression on USA audiences on the 1990 Goodwill Video games in Seattle the place he led the Italians to the gold medal. He performed with a sure panache and stood out on an Italian group that features 4 different IVHF members (Lorenzo Bernardi, Andrea Gardini, Andrea Giani and Samuel Pape) and their coach Julio Velasco.
Bell, an outdoor hitter, was considered one of 4 Cuban teammates to win three consecutive Olympic gold medals from 1992-2000, two of whom are already Corridor members, Regla Torres, and Mireya Luis. Bell’s resume additionally consists of two World Championship golds (1994 and 1998) and an unbelievable 4 World Cup titles. The southpaw was the MVP of the 1993 FIVB Volleyball Ladies’s World Grand Champions Cup.
Ze Roberto is among the most embellished coaches within the historical past of volleyball. Underneath his steerage, the Brazilian girls have been one of many world’s greatest handful of groups since he took over the senior nationwide group in 2004. He led them to the nation’s first ever indoor gold medal on the Olympic Video games in 2008 in Beijing, after which repeated the accomplishment 4 years later in London in 2012. In the newest Video games in Tokyo (2020), the Brazilians took the silver. Within the World Championships his groups captured silvers in 2006, 2010 and 2022.
Earlier than he took over the Brazilian girls’s program, Ze Roberto, 69, guided the Brazilian males to the gold medal on the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona. As a participant, the diminutive 1.77m setter was a member of the 1976 Brazilian Olympic squad.
“Perhaps that was the rationale why I grew to become a coach,” Ze Roberto mentioned. “The setter is that participant that retains contact with all of the group. It’s simpler for him to get used to the assault model of different gamers, who provides him a greater imaginative and prescient of the sport and creates a more in-depth relationship between the setter and the coach.”
Hadi Rezaei, like Ze Roberto, is a training legend. The 63-year-old has led the Iranian sitting males’s volleyball group to an unprecedented 4 golds and two silver medals on the final six Paralympics. As a participant, and group captain, he gained three golds as part of the Iranian nationwide group within the 1988, 1992 and 1996 Paralympics.
Extra detailed historical past and backgrounds on all of the inductees will publish right here earlier than the IVHF ceremony in October.
For extra on the Worldwide Volleyball Corridor of Fame: https://www.volleyhall.org/
And click on right here for tickets to attend the 2024 particular weekend: https://www.volleyhall.org/induction-tickets.html
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