(Photo courtesy of Holly Stein)

Here are some great articles about Holly that appeared in print publications for your reading enjoyment. 

Article #1

The Power of One

by Don Patterson
Dig Magazine

It's was a fun run. Fun, unless you're a competitive runner. Or unless you're Holly McPeak.

This was back in 1980s, when McPeak was in high school. She signed up for the Manhattan Mile, and she hadn't trained, but she decided she had to win. So in a field crowded with cross-country runners, she sprinted every step, pounding away on the pavement, passing people, holding off others. In the end, she finished second. Truth is, she couldn't believe someone had actually run faster.

For a whole week afterward, her body ached, and that sent her a message that she couldn't ignore. When it comes to competition, she simply isn't wired to play for fun.

"I don't run races at all anymore," she says. "We have a hometown 10k run. I'm in good shape. I could run it. But I can't go out and have fun, so I don't. I just cheer for people. And everyone says: 'Why aren't you out here?' and 'Hey, run with me. We'll have fun.' That's not fun to me -- just cruising. It's not fun. It's a race."

In her 14th season as a pro, McPeak is still sprinting on the beach. Her career victory total stands at 66, one shy of the all-time mark of 67 set by Karolyn Kirby, who retired in 2000. From the time she set foot on the pro tour, she was confident she could do well, but she never expected to do this well.

"I thought I could have a good career," she says. "But to have this type of career? No. I can't believe I've won 66 times."

Over the years, she has disproved a lot of people who didn't think that talent, skill and determination could overshadow the limitations of topping the height chart at 5-6 3/4. That was true even in high school when she heard that you had to be at least 5-8 to set on a Division I team. It unnerved her. Not because she thought she couldn't set at that level but because she worried she wouldn't get a shot. To be safe, she told everybody she was 5-8 and ended up getting all the offers she wanted. But the week she planned to commit to UCLA, the coach, Andy Banachowski, signed a 6-foot setter from Chicago, and despite Banachowski's assurances to her that she was still his top choice, she changed her mind and accepted an offer to play at Cal Berkeley.

If there is a recurring theme in McPeak's career, it's this: she takes action when knocked backward and usually turns it to her advantage. At Cal, she was one of several players -- another was Lisa Arce, her friend and fellow AVP Pro Beach Volleyball Tour player -- who had major differences with the coach, Dave DeGroot. After her junior year, DeGroot told her he didn't want her to return for her senior season, so she transferred to UCLA, beat out a taller setter -- Jennifer Gratteau -- and led the Bruins to an NCAA title, their first in six years.

On the beach, she was dropped three times by her former partner, Nancy Reno, who was at her side for a fifth-place finish at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics and 20 tournament victories. In 2000, after the third dumping from Reno, she moved on to Misty May, who was a rookie and had no FIVB qualifying points. Given the late start -- and given May's inexperience -- a lot of people doubted they could make it to Sydney, but it wasn't long before they were beating higher ranked opponents, including the dominant Brazilians. Much to everybody's surprise except their own, they did qualify, and many who were in Sydney say they would have won a medal if May hadn't suffered a severe abdominal injury two months before the Olympics.

"Misty's injury slowed them down," says Sinjin Smith, who represented the U.S. at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta and has 139 career beach victories. "I'm convinced that if Misty was at full speed, they would have won the gold."
You can be sure that even with Misty's injury, McPeak wasn't aiming for anything less than gold. It's safe to say that she is not a believer in moral victories, even if all indications are that a true victory is improbable. In 1995, after she was cut loose by Reno the first time, she turned to Arce, who she'd played with at Mira Costa High School in Manhattan Beach, Calif. Arce was new to the pro tour, but when she and McPeak talked about signing up together for an FIVB tournament in Puerto Rico, McPeak made it clear she wasn't viewing it as a warm up.

"She was like, 'We're playing in Puerto Rico and we're winning,'" Arce says. "And I was like, 'Well, this is my first time playing with you, and I've never won a tournament, and she said: 'We're winning.' And we did win."

Winning -- or the pursuit of a win -- was a big part of McPeak's childhood. She has a twin brother, Gary, and they would do things like sprint out of the grocery store to the car to see who could get there first. When she talks about it now, she doesn't mention anything about it being fun. She says: "It was good for me."

Her mom is competitive, too. A couple of years ago, she and Holly were in a ping pong tournament. They ended up playing each other. When the ball started flying back and forth over the net, the two of them were going at it so hard that everyone stopped to watch. Holly won one game, her mom another. It went to a tiebreaker -- yes, Holly eventually pulled it out -- and at one point, when they switched sides, her mom held up her hand for a high five, and Holly left her hanging.

"I was like, 'You're my opponent, I'm not giving you five," Holly says. "She said: 'Yeah, but I'm your mom.' I said: 'I don't care.'"

And yes, she was serious.

"Yeah, I was serious," she says. "I'll give her five at the end of the game. I was pissed that the game was that close."

Mixed into her ultra competitive childhood environment was another element that has surely contributed to her athletic triumphs: discipline. McPeak says her father is "one of the most disciplined people I know. Too extreme, as far as I'm concerned." But certain things were expected, she says. You went to school every day no matter what. You weren't late. If you were on a soccer team, you went to practice. Every practice. You didn't miss a game for a birthday party.

"That's how I was brought up," she says. "To me, that's normal. But it's not normal for everybody."

It's an attitude she has carried into adulthood. Her workouts have been known to be so long and rigorous that she has given up doing them with her partners and now trains on her own. Recently, she was asked if she ever has a day where she wakes up and doesn't want to practice, and she responded: "No. I don't. Because I still have things I want to achieve in my career."

Off the court, she is equally diligent. When Misty was her partner, Misty's dad, Butch May, said one of the great things about playing with Holly was knowing that she would take care of every little detail. If a form is due on a certain date, he noted, Holly "has it in five days ahead of time."

When you e-mail her, you will always get an e-mail back, usually the same day, often within hours, always succinct and to the point, covering just what you need and no more. Ask her to get something for a charity function, she does it. A while back, she was contacted about tracking down a Shaquille O'Neal signed basketball for a young boy -- a Lakers' fan -- who had been diagnosed with a brain tumor. Inside of two weeks, the ball was in the boy's hands, signed by Shaq. Ask her for an interview, she'll do it. Unless she has a conflict. And if she has a conflict, she'll tell you she has a conflict. Never, ever, does she say she'll do something and then forget about it or show up late or call you at the last minute to cancel. This is just the way she thinks things should be done, the code she has always lived by.

"I can't stand flakes," she says. "That's my pet peeve. I cut them out of my life for the most part. Because I don't need it. Who needs people who are going to show up an hour late, who are irresponsible and who don't do the things that they're supposed to do? I'm really not tolerant when it comes to that kind of stuff.

"I mean, we play beach volleyball for a living. How lucky are we? We need to do everything we can to set a good example."

Sitting in the shade of the players' tent at the AVP tournament in Tempe, Ariz. in late April, McPeak, who was a few weeks away from her 35th birthday, was asked about her pursuit of Kirby's record. Like most players chasing a milestone, she has often downplayed it, explaining that focusing on a record can detract from your attention to what's most important: the point you are playing at that moment.

She began telling the story of her first pro tournament. It was in Austin, Texas, in 1990, and she had no money in the bank. She charged the trip on her credit card.

"All I could think about was the money," she said. "And I sucked. I couldn't play the game. It was the difference between 900 and 500 bucks, and when you have nothing, that's huge. But that was a lesson I learned. If you focus on something other than the next sideout and being aggressive, it doesn't work."

Still, she said the record is in the back of her mind. More than anything, it's a testament to her proudest accomplishment: winning consistently over a long, long time, and doing it with different partners.

It isn't going to be easy. It isn't as if she'll be able to walk to 67 victories from where she is now. Winning on this season's tour is arguably as tough as it's ever been, a grind through the early rounds, then a battle in the later rounds with two world class teams: Kerri Walsh-Misty May and Jenny Johnson Jordan-Annett Davis. Against both, McPeak has to put the ball away against a towering block.

Her confidence remains, though. As always, she believes.

"And I believe there's life after Elaine Youngs if she were to dump me," she says as the afternoon sun casts a buttery glow on the courts. "I love playing with Elaine, but guess what? It's not the end of the world if she doesn't want to play with me.

"I'll win with somebody else."

"Reprinted with permission from DIG Magazine. Call 1-800-999-9718 to subscribe and read new articles."

Article #2

Still at her (Mc)Peak

Pro beach volleyball’s all-time leading lady brings her game to Hermosa, and on to the Olympics

The scene repeated itself hundreds of times in the South Bay of the late 1970s: a car, alone in a solitary driveway, or with others in a crowded parking lot, and three, four or sometimes five people, three of them children, shopping bags in hand, or perhaps beach chairs, or wearing their Sunday best, racing towards the auto. Because getting there first was all that mattered.

Holly McPeak is the all-time winningest woman in beach volleyball history because she refused to be beaten to the car. Not by her twin brother. Not by her younger sister. Not by her ultra-competitive mother. Not by anyone.

The story was the same with ping-pong, where young Holly and her mother would spend hours beating that little white ball back and forth across the net.

“It was to the death,” McPeak said. “She never beat me, but came pretty darn close…Too close for comfort.”

Any sport the McPeak family played, they competed to the end. “I hate to lose,” she said. “If you’re going to do something, it’s a waste of time if you don’t give it your all. Even when my stepsons were young, I would not ease up on them playing ping-pong. Now, our youngest, Elio, is so good that I’m scared to play him.”

Scared? That’s got to be a joke. Or else McPeak is simply being gracious. Because the Holly McPeak who will set foot on the sand in Hermosa starting tomorrow, to try to win the AVP Hermosa Beach Open with partner Elaine Youngs, isn’t afraid of anything or anybody.

There simply is no other way to explain her unprecedented success when, at 5-foot-7, she’s given up several inches to everyone she’s played against the last 14 years, and, at 35, she’s still at the top of her game at an age when others have long since hung up their Bolle’s.

Manhattan living

These days McPeak lives on The Strand in Manhattan Beach with Leonard Armato, her husband of almost three years, and stepsons Anthony and Elio, both aspiring beach players.

Though Strand living began only in her 20s, McPeak has always been Manhattan Beach, from her days at Center School, where she learned the fundamentals of the sport from Anita Drennan; to Mira Costa High School, where as a setter she literally assisted the Mustangs to state and national championships her junior year.

She left the South Bay briefly, to play college ball for UC Berkeley, where she was Pac-10 Freshman of the Year in 1987; but returned after transferring back to UCLA for her senior season, one which culminated in a national title for the Bruins and an all-time NCAA single season record assist total (2,192) for McPeak.

She says she’ll be content to live in Manhattan Beach for the rest of her life.

“I’ve been all over the world and there’s no place like Manhattan Beach. It just has a sparkle about it.”

Emotional win

That’s why her win at the Manhattan Beach Open June 6 was so special. Teaming with Youngs, McPeak bested Annett Davis and Jennifer Johnson Jordan to win her 68th career tournament on the beach, passing Karolyn Kirby for No. 1 all time. McPeak, usually stoic behind her dark sunglasses, was very emotional for a lot of reasons.

“I played very injured in Manhattan,” she explained. “I’d strained a small muscle in my shoulder the week before but I didn’t know how serious it was. I was scared about how it would affect me going forward.

“Breaking the record in Manhattan Beach, it doesn’t get any better than that, in front of friends and family. I have played all over the world. How lucky am I that I get to win No. 68 two blocks from my house?”

What made No. 68 even more memorable was the journey. In 2002, McPeak and Youngs won nine times worldwide, making it look easy, as McPeak pulled within two of tying Kirby for the all-time record. McPeak might have broken the record in 2003 except for a “slump” that saw McPeak/Youngs win only once, in June in San Diego.

“We were struggling all of last year,” McPeak explained. “We just couldn’t get over the hump. Second place, Second place, Second place. I was stuck on 65 for a long time.”

The team sticking it to McPeak and Youngs, and the rest of beach volleyball for that matter, was Misty May and Kerri Walsh. The young duo had the best year in AVP history in 2003, fashioning a 39-0 record and winning every domestic event in which they were entered and most internationally as well. There simply was no other room at the top for anyone, including McPeak.

That dominance continued into 2004, as May/Walsh extended their consecutive win streak to 89 before Davis and Johnson Jordan beat them in the Manhattan Beach semifinals, opening the door for McPeak/Youngs, who’d also won in China the week before (May/Walsh skipped China to play, and win, the AVP event in Huntington Beach).

McPeak said she’s not disappointed the record breaker didn’t come against her new nemeses.

“I always want to beat Walsh and May,” she said. “I’ll beat them sometime again in my future. It was meant to happen the way it did.”

Hitting the sand

In 1991, after graduating from UCLA, McPeak was ready to tackle the beach. She had no peer defensively, but knew that she would have to excel at passing serves and hitting to succeed. “I thought I could do well,” she explained. “Did I think I could win more tourneys than anyone ever? No.”

Watching the best players, McPeak figured out what it would take for her to get to the next level. At the top of the list was staying in peak physical condition. “She’s a great jumper and 100 percent committed to her body,” said Dae Lea Aldrich, the Mira Costa high school coaching legend. “She is an athlete, pure and simple, and so smart. I don’t believe there’s any person, male or female, who knows more about the beach game than Holly McPeak.”

By 1993, McPeak thought she’d absorbed enough from the game’s greats to begin making a place for herself among the elite. “I thought I should be able to win every tournament,” she said. “I always said if someone’s not winning by the third season, it’s rare they’ll ever win or be dominant.”

Driven to excel

In McPeak’s third season, she won 11 times on the AVP Tour with four separate partners. Over her career, she’s won with seven different players and is in the top 10 all-time in team victories with three different partners, including Youngs, with whom she has won 15 times. “I take pride in making my teammates better,” McPeak said.

Not that she’s content with just winning.

“Holly is probably one of the most driven athletes I’ve ever had an opportunity to work with,” said Aldrich. “She’s just non stop. Just winning isn’t enough. It’s got to be consistent.”

As if to illustrate Aldrich’s point, McPeak referred to a list she drew up on the plane to the AVP event in Belmar, New Jersey, two weeks ago (which she and Youngs won). It was two to three pages single spaced, and contained suggested areas of improvement for herself and her partner. This, just days after they’d clinched a spot on the Olympic team and in the midst of winning five titles in seven events!

“I’m always looking to get better,” she said. “There are so many things we can do to get better to win. I’ve always made short lists. To be the best for Athens, which is our focus, I just felt I needed to write down things we need to improve on to win Gold. Elaine hasn’t seen it yet.”

Olympic dream

McPeak once described playing in the Olympic Games as a “once in a lifetime opportunity.” In three weeks, she will fulfill the dream a third time.

“I’m pretty darn amazed,” she exclaimed. “That’s pretty good that I’ve been able to qualify three times with three different partners. I’m really proud of that fact.”

The Olympic experience may have created indelible memories for McPeak, but she focuses publicly on the star-crossed results: two fifth place finishes, far short of her “nothing less than Gold will be good enough” mentality.

In 1996, McPeak had the misfortune of playing with Nancy Reno, whose torn rotator cuff severely hampered her ability. Four years later, McPeak experienced déjà vu with May, whose torn stomach muscles hadn’t healed sufficiently by the Sydney Games for the team to play to its full potential.

With Athens looming, McPeak is thrilled not only that her team is playing its best ball of the season, but that they don’t seem to have the injury issues that affected her teams in the past (and are plaguing the world’s top teams at present).

“I know it seems like such a little thing, but it’s not,” she said. “It makes a huge difference having a healthy partner going into it. I can focus and train.”

In a story that ran in Easy Reader before the Sydney Games, McPeak said that only a gold medal would be good enough for her.

“I’m coming to win,” she said at the time. “That’s the type of athlete I am.”

Though the competitive fire still burns as strongly, McPeak has softened her stance this time around, perhaps because of the presence of Walsh/May, the overwhelming favorite to capture gold if May’s strained obliques heal sufficiently.

“What I really want is to play the best volleyball I can play and whatever happens happens,” said McPeak. “I would love for it to end in a gold medal. I know if we play the best, we’re capable of winning gold.

“We’ve been working since January on a bunch of different parts of our game. I just think we’re getting better and better at it. We’re playing better volleyball individually and together. We’ve been gaining confidence and getting better all season with the hopes of getting even better in August.”

AVP resurgence

McPeak met Leonard Armato back when he was running the AVP the first time and she was a high school player dating an AVP player. Over the years, as Armato transitioned to superagent (basketball star Shaquille O’Neal was his biggest client), McPeak and Armato would exchange pleasantries at Laker games. It wasn’t until 10 years ago, sparked by the vibe at the venerable Hibachi Restaurant on Manhattan Beach Boulevard (now Rock N Fish), that they became a couple.

Soon after they started dating, the AVP ran into financial trouble. The women’s domestic tour was in even worse shape and went on hiatus for a year. A call went out for Armato to jump back in. “Please don’t do it for me. Do it because you believe in it,” McPeak told Armato.

“It was his idea to bring the tours together,” she said. “The women’s tour never had someone with the right vision. He thought the platform they could create between men and women would be great.”

Through Armato’s guidance, the AVP has regained some of the swagger it had in the late 1980s, when purses were enormous and sponsors flocked to the AVP and its celebration of the California lifestyle. The women’s tour is flourishing like never before, with marketable stars like Walsh and May, and McPeak, the all-time career wins leader.

Facing forward

At 35, McPeak is often asked how much longer she’ll play and whether she and Armato have plans to add to their family. She doesn’t know the answer to either question.

“I’ll play as long as I continue to enjoy it,” she said. “I still love going out, working hard, going to the gym. I love tournament day. I love the competition.”

As for following friend and AVP veteran Barbra Fontana into motherhood, McPeak said that she’s happy with her family right now.

“When I’m done playing volleyball, we’ll have to discuss it,” she said. “I want to focus on volleyball and the family I already have.”

Whether McPeak wins gold in Athens or ever adds another title to the 71 she already has, it’s evident that she has become a titan in the sport of beach volleyball. While she knows it’s true, it’s still something she sometimes finds hard to believe.

“The sport has changed and I’ve been able to evolve,” she said. “I still think of myself as a little grommet who does the best that she can.”

Story reprinted courtesy of the Easy Reader. (http://www.easyreader.hermosawave.net and http://www.hermosawave.net).