Pro Beach Volleyball - 8/24/97

NOW. I don’t want to be starting any rumors here, but I heard the most interesting tidbit this afternoon. Samantha Shaver (a member of the Bud Light Pro Beach Volleyball League, 2nd year as Team Norelco’s captain) , told my husband, Russell (a newly hired member of Team DataHouse Inc. in Honolulu, Hi), that the players in the Bud Light Pro Beach Volleyball League hadn’t been paid for the last 5 stops of their tour. I was shocked! Not only by this news, but also by the clippings of hair that were stuck to my husband neck and sticking out of his ears. (You’ll understand later.)

I studied my 1997 League Official Program. According to their schedule, this meant that the players hadn’t received any winnings since sometime around mid-July. I found this to be rather disturbing. In about 15 minutes Russell and I were going to watch the Women’s Finals of the Bud Light Pro Beach Volleyball League. Their last stop just happened to be in Honolulu, Hawaii, where Russell and I just happened to move exactly 10 days ago. Timing is everything, my friends. Diane Shoemaker, captain of Team Paul Mitchell was going to play the game with a broken hand. It seemed to me that this was quite a risk. If she further injured her hand, couldn’t she jeopardize her career? I don’t think I would be willing to jeopardize my career if I wasn’t even getting paid!!!

I do have to confess that I have no proof or anything solid really to back this up. I only have a conversation relayed to me by my husband. It seems that the Paul Mitchell sponsors were feeling kinda promotional today and giving "Professional Haircuts" for 10 bucks. Russell’s new job starts tomorrow (Timing). My husband knows a good deal when he sees one. He decided to take advantage of this offer. Sitting next to him, getting her hair cut was Samantha Shaver. They got to talking and she revealed what a mess this tour has turned out to be. As I understand it, the person or persons responsible for organizing the event, NOT the sponsors, have plum run out of dough. So, no prize money. According to Samantha, (I can call her that. She’s seen my husband getting his hair trimmed. It’s an intimate thing.) the players are hopping mad but are continuing the tour because of the strong support from their fans and they don’t want to let down their sponsors.

Hooray for the players.

Boo to the people responsible for this tour.

Don’t they know, that besides timing, you have to do a little planning?