University of Central Florida
Dalhausser will make 3rd Olympic beach-volleyball appearance
alum Phil Dalhausser will make his third Olympic appearance next month in Rio, aiming for his second gold medal.
Standing nearly 7 feet tall, Phil Dalhausser is one of the most successful athletes in UCF history even though he never wore an official Knights uniform.
There was no opportunity for Dalhausser to play beach volleyball — or indoor volleyball, for that matter — at UCF, but that didn’t stop him from reaching his sport’s pinnacle. He captured the 2008 gold medal for the United States in beach volleyball.
The 36-year-old Daytona Beach Mainland High alum will make his third Olympic appearance next month in Rio, aiming for his second gold medal alongside his partner and Florida State alum Nick Lucena.
Dalhausser is recognized as one of the most prolific beachvolleyball players in the history of the sport. From 2005-2010, he led the AVP tour in blocks.
In addition to his two world championships (2007, 2009), Dalhausser was named the FIVB’s Sports-person of the Year in 2008, earned best setter and blocker honors six times apiece, won offensive player of the season four times and claimed
the most outstanding player award three times.
Dalhausser talked with the Orlando Sentinel about overcoming challenges during his career and his future.
Question: You didn’t start playing volleyball until your senior year at Mainland. How did you discover the sport and get into it?
Answer:
“My 11th-grade math teacher was the coach [of indoor volleyball] and his name is Todd White. He was saying I should come out and try out the sport. I said, ‘Man, I don’t know. That’s kind of for girls, isn’t it?’ He said it was a lot of fun and so a couple of buddies were on the team, so I was like, ‘Why not give it a shot?’
“The first day of tryouts, everything came super easily to me and I think it was because I grew up playing tennis. The two sports are very similar, where like the serve is the same like an arm swing and a lot of the footwork is the same. I fell in love with the sport right away and I guess the rest is history.”
Q: When did you make the transition to beach volleyball?
A:
“Our coach [White] always liked us to play beach, so he told us to go down and play on the beach because it would make our indoor game better and I just liked the beach game better because you touch the ball on almost every point.
“On indoor, you can go like five or six plays and not touch the ball and that was kind of frustrating for me. So you’re just more involved in beach and you’re on the beach, which is better than being in a gym.”
Q: UCF doesn’t have a program for beach or men’s indoor volleyball. How did you maintain your game once you came to college?
A:
“Well, they had sand courts on campus and Orlando had a nice little volleyball community and almost every night those courts were packed. So I would be at the courts probably more often than when I was in class.
“Any time I could get a game in, I’d be down there playing. I guess you could say I was obsessed with it.”
Q: When did you know beach volleyball would go from a fun hobby to a career?
A:
“Well, when I graduated from school in 2002, I was playing with Nick Lucena, who was going to Florida State, and I knew I wanted to pursue it. …
“We were invited to move up to Myrtle Beach, S.C., to live and train with this professional team. But I had to wait for Nick to graduate and he graduated in the spring of 2003.
“So I just worked with a line-striping company and just waited until he graduated. We tried to qualify for the professional tour, the AVP, and we made it on there five out of six times. In 2004, we had a great start in the season and that was good enough to keep us in the main draw and in Hermosa Beach, Calif. That year we got a third-place finish, we made it to the semifinals and then I realized maybe this could turn into a career for me. Before, I was just delaying the inevitable in not getting a ‘real job.’ ”
Q: What would you say has been the biggest challenge you’ve faced in your career and how did you overcome it?
A:
“Probably in 2012, two months before the Olympics, doctors found two blood clots in my left shoulder and I was in the hospital for five days. … I was on blood thinners for a month and they said I shouldn’t play, 100 percent I shouldn’t practice, just in case I’m chasing the ball and run into a pole and hit my head, I could burst a blood vessel in my brain or whatever and that would be the end of me basically.
“So really all I could do was just work out and do cardio and just practice kind of lightly and then a month before the Olympics, we went back out on the world tour and I tried to get back into playing shape. It wasn’t ideal because you try to peak at optimal times and obviously that was August during the 2012 Olympics and that whole month taking off put a wrench in our plan.”
Q: I know your wife, Jennifer Corral, is a professional beach volleyball player as well and can relate to that journey. How was she able to support you during those struggles?
A:
“We were actually at a doctor’s appointment for her knee; it was all banged up. At the end of the appointment, she said, ‘Hey, can you check out my husband’s arm?’ It was really swollen and the blood clots made my whole arm, my fingers and my hand super swollen and the doctor was like, ‘Oh, I know exactly what this is and we need to get you to imaging.’ I went to imaging, and of course they found the two clots and they sent me off to the hospital.
“But she was great. She was by my side the whole time at the hospital even though I told her to go home and get some sleep, but she wasn’t having it. She was my rock during that time.”
Q: Do you have any concerns about your safety in Rio?
“I can’t say that I’m not concerned. We were in Rio for two weeks in February and one of the U.S girls got the chain ripped right off her neck in broad daylight. So it’s just … there’s a lot of little petty crime and then on top of all that, the whole Zika [virus] and the political unrest. It seems like every Olympics, the two Olympics I’ve been a part of, in Beijing everyone was worried about pollution and in London everyone was worried about if they were gonna get everything done in time and they were scrambling last minute. This year, there’s a lot of things going on. They’re scrambling. Apparently they’ve run out of money, so it’ll be interesting to see if they get it all together.”
A:
Q: There’s been talk about a super bacteria being found in the water and body parts washing up on the beach where volleyball will compete. How much will you all scout that area before you get on the beach?
A:
“We played on the exact same spot we’re going to play on in August, and on any beach you never know what you find in that sand. One time we were playing in Coney Island in New York and a player stepped on a needle. So you never know what you’re going to find.
“But that’s pretty crazy they found a foot in the sand in Rio. I’m sure they’ll sift through the sand and get everything out before the games. “
Q: How many more Olympic runs would you like to make?
A:
“Oh, I don’t know that I could do 2020. I have two little kids at home [Sebastian and Sofia] and every time I leave them, it gets harder and harder and harder. So I don’t know how much longer I could travel.”
Q: What do you want your legacy to be in this sport after you are done competing?
A:
“I don’t think about it that much, but just a humble guy that just happened to be pretty good at beach volleyball, I guess. One thing that I hope people remember about me is someone that didn’t let success get to my head.”