Former Malibu Pepperdine student, Dain Blanton, brought back some Olympic gold from the recent 2000 Olympics in Australia.
Blanton teamed with Eric Fonoimoana to capture the beach volleyball gold medal. They upset the team of third-seeded Ze Marco de Melo and Ricardo Santos of Brazil by a 12-11, 12-9 count on Sept. 26.
Blanton and Fonoimoana rallied from 4-1, 10-7 and 11-8 deficits in the first set. The Americans had not beat the Brazilians in their four previous matches.
The Brazilians were an especially tough team to beat. One team member towered more than 6 feet 8 inches, and had a reach as high as 11 feet.
Blanton, a native of Laguna Beach, was a member of the 1992 national championship team with Pepperdine. Their win in Sydney ensured the Olympic beach volleyball gold remained with the United States, as Americans won the inaugural men’s competition in the sport in the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta.
Pepperdine’s indoor volleyball coach, Marv Dunphy, 52, was in Sydney serving as an assistant coach to the indoor U.S. Olympic volleyball team. He is a ’74 graduate of Pepperdine and has been a coach for 17 seasons.
This was Dunphy’s second tour of duty as an Olympic coach, having previously served as a coach at the ’88 games in South Korea, where there were three Pepperdiners on the team.
On his return from Sydney, Decker Canyon resident Dunphy reminisced with The Malibu Times about his former star student.
“Blanton was real tough,” he said. “In fact, he was the toughest guy I ever coached.”
Dunphy defines “tough” as follows: “No matter what the score was, Blanton would keep on trying, always fighting for every point. He wasn’t the biggest guy, maybe 6, 2, or the strongest guy, but he had that quality of elite athletes that, if there is even the slightest chance, they keep on fighting.
“A good player doesn’t make mistakes,” said Dunphy. “And he doesn’t beat up on himself.”
Olympic beach volleyball rules have two men per team, unlike recreational beach volleyball in the United States where there may be four on a team.
“It’s very competitive,” observes Dunphy. “If you play beach volleyball casually here at the beach and decided to go up against an Olympian, it would be over real fast.”
Dunphy wishes his whole indoor team could aim for the next Olympics, but names two he has the most hopes for — Scott Wong and Brad Keenan.
“I’d like to see them aim for it,” he said. “But the problem is that you have to almost be a professional athlete to keep in shape for the Olympics, which means putting off life in the meantime. You’d have to love it.”
Blanton became a professional athlete after leaving Pepperdine, competing in circuits in the United States, which offer prize money. “I wouldn’t be surprised if he is signing some endorsement deals as we speak,” said Dunphy.
Dunphy was flat bowled over by Olympics coverage on Australian TV.
“There were 36 channels devoted to it and 24-hour a day coverage,” he said, surprised at the lack of interest he heard U.S. viewers gave the competition.
Dunphy had three Pepperdiners–George Roumain, Kevin Barnett and Chip McCaw on his indoor team.