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06/22/2006: "Catching On ... Like Wildfire!"

As a SoCal guy, I've been watching beach volleyball tourneys my entire life. The sport has gone up and down in popularity, usually based on the competance of whomever is running the tour at the time, but it's always been big here. We locals often wonder why it is that the rest of the country hasn't figured it out, especially when you see how wildly popular it was at the recent Athens Olympics.

Anyway, I'm apparently not the only one wondering, as there's a nice first-person piece on ESPN.com. Their writer was on the sand with us in Hermosa, but she obviously had better access than I did, since she got to ask my girl Rachel Wacholder why she thought the sport had such a tough time catching on outside of SoCal ...

"I don't know!" she said, frustrated. "It's such a great sport, it's challenging and sexy, I just don't get it!"

"What's the catch?" I asked E.Y.

"Maybe that's it," Youngs said. "Maybe it's too sexy for people to legitimize. Maybe all people see are bikinis and bare backs and think it's a big barbecue out here. Who knows?"

I guess that's what a press pass gets you. I try to ask questions and all I get is a restraining order ...