AVP returns to Belmar

Ball in Belmar's court

After two years, volleyball tournament returns

By FRAIDY REISS
COASTAL MONMOUTH BUREAU

Seaside who?

"I never even heard of Seaside Heights," said Vicky DeTample of Morrisville, Pa., as she lounged on the Belmar beach Tuesday morning. "I don't know where it is or how to get there."

Behind her, a crew of some 30 workers rushed around the sand, preparing for the AVP Crocs Tour Belmar Open, scheduled to run Friday through Sunday. After being played in Seaside Heights for the past two years, the tour is returning to Belmar this year — the 16th time the borough has hosted the national volleyball tournament.

DeTample probably will attend the event, now that it has returned to one of her favorite beaches.

"Belmar is the place," the 18-year-old said.

Similar Seaside Heights-bashing sessions echoed all along the boardwalk and beyond.

"If we are doing a better job of keeping (AVP), we deserve it," said Maureen Read, 70, a borough resident who lives close enough to the Atlantic Ocean that she can see it from her house. "Nothing is as pretty as this" beach.

Belmar marks the eighth stop in the 2008 AVP Crocs Tour, which began in April and will have visited 18 beaches by the time it ends in September.

The tour bypassed Belmar during the last couple of years because of scheduling conflicts, Mayor Kenneth E. Pringle said. Tournament officials wanted to hold the Belmar event in July, when the borough's inns and restaurants already are full and the tournament only would drain borough resources.

Belmar brings in enough money from the tournament to cover its expenses, not to earn a profit, the mayor said. So volleyball benefits the borough only during the "nonprime" part of the summer, when the tour brings thousands of customers to local businesses, he said.

After two years in Seaside Heights, AVP officials asked if they could return this year to Belmar, provided they stick to a June date, Pringle said.

"We said, "sure,' " he recalled. "But if they would be looking for a July date next year, we'd wish them well."

Tournament officials hope they are back in Belmar to stay, said Leonard Armato, commissioner of the AVP Crocs Tour. The borough boasts an "upscale, trendy, hip beachfront area" that draws hundreds of thousands of spectators over the weekend, he said, and the tour's stop in Belmar long was considered "the East Coast event with the most prestige."

"Hopefully, it's a move we'll never make again," Armato said. "Nothing against Seaside Heights."

John Camera, the Seaside Heights business administrator, said he was "really bummed" that AVP had pulled out of his borough in favor of Belmar, but he was not taking the decision personally. The tournament simply made more money in Belmar, he said.

However, Seaside Heights still is "willing to take them back," Camera said. With time, he predicted, AVP would make as much money in Seaside Heights as it does in Belmar.

"It's not like we're trying to steal (AVP) from Belmar," Camera said. Perhaps AVP could stop in both Shore towns in future years, he suggested.

"Best beach on East Coast"

An AVP crew has been on the beach here since Sunday night, building enough bleachers to seat 4,000 people in four volleyball courts and setting up the tents that will house the tour's sponsors.

Scott Moore, the crew's boss, said he was glad he was once again setting up in Belmar.

"This is definitely our best beach on the East Coast," said the Florida resident, who serves as director of operations for AVP.

Seaside Heights is fun, Moore said, but Belmar's beach is cleaner. And Belmar's oceanfront is "huge" and "flat," he said, with soft, deep sand that reminds him of California beaches.

"Deep sand," Moore said Tuesday morning, as he labored on the sun-soaked beach. "Hard to work in, good to play in."

Across Ocean Avenue, Nick Fuccilli also was glad — or, in his words, "beyond thrilled" — that an AVP crew once again was milling about Belmar's beach. Fuccilli owns La Dolce Vita restaurant and the Casa Vittoria pizzeria, both of which sit in direct view of the volleyball bleachers and the hungry people who soon will sit in them.

"It can't be more perfect," Fuccilli, 31, said.

He compared AVP and Belmar to a husband and wife who were together for a decade and a half and grew tired of each other. Belmar wearied of the traffic and garbage the tournament inevitably brought to town, and AVP wearied of Belmar's ban on alcohol at the beach, he said.

So AVP began viewing Seaside Heights, which allows alcohol on its sand, as "the younger woman," Fuccilli said. In truth, though, volleyball belongs in Belmar, not Seaside, he said.

"Now they've both realized they're perfect together," Fuccilli said. "Hopefully they'll have a happy future together."

"Aggravation"

Not everyone was happy to see AVP trucks parked near the boardwalk Tuesday morning.

"It's more aggravation than anything else," Lou Saulino, 58, said as he stood outside his oceanfront condo and listened to the beeps of the trucks reversing on the beach.

He was relieved when AVP relocated to Seaside, he said. But he figured he would gain nothing by stressing over the move back to Belmar.

"In 10 days, it will all be gone, and everything will go back to normal," Saulino said. "Until next year."

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------