July 18, 2006

Friends and foes of Kathy Gregory could always agree on one thing: her tongue was just as sharp as her cut shot.

Gregory, the original matriarch of women's beach volleyball, was the queen of the women's game for much of the 1960s and 1970s. She displayed an intensity rarely seen in today's game and an on-court dialogue that would intimidate the NBA's top trash-talkers.

"She definitely was one of the most competitive people I have ever met," says Nina Matthies, who played Luke Skywalker to Gregory's Darth Vader. "She had the ability to bring out the best in her partners. And if she didn't, the partners didn't last long."

Gregory's longevity is unequaled, even by today's marathon standards. All-time victory leader Holly McPeak is in season No. 20, an impressive number. Gregory celebrated her 40th birthday in 1986 playing in an open tournament in Marine Street, and nobody even considered billing it as a retirement party. At the time, rivals joked: "This is only the halfway mark." They weren't far off.

Gregory, now 60, won the world championship in Pismo Beach later that summer and earned her AAA rating at the age of 51. In all, she played 23 seasons from 1968 to 1990 with at least 24 different partners, winning with 11 of them.

Intimidating to those not close to her, Gregory is known as a generous friend and a compassionate counselor to her inner circle. During the height of the Women's Professional Volleyball Association run in the late 1980s, rivals would solicit partnership advice and seek tips on ways they could improve their games. Even McPeak, who played against Gregory very early in her career, sought her out for advice when the tour visited Santa Barbara in May.

"I think Holly was off to a frustrating start," Gregory says. "I told her that nobody was going to train as hard as her and to just accept that. She just needs to keep playing hard and she'll be fine."

Gregory sits at third on the all-time domestic victory list with 50 behind only McPeak and Karolyn Kirby. Her career prize money, a paltry $13,900, reveals the level of passion she maintained for the sport.

"I think today's game is great," she says. "But money has an impact on how people play, and it's not all positive. The players are in great shape, and they train to get strong and look good, but on the court they're worried about the score too much. They just need to play and not worry about the score and how much money they're going to get if they get 5th or 7th."

Gregory had success with many different partners, winning 14 times early in her career with Miki McFadden, 13 with Nancy Cohen, 12 with Kathy Hanley and six late in her career with Janice Opalinski. She also won the Laguna Open with Misty's mom, Barbara May, creating another link to today's game.

"I love watching Misty and Kerri Walsh play," she says. "They are two quality people with a level of humility that speak highly of their character. They have given back to the game. They're not just taking the money and worrying about themselves."

Gregory sees much of Barbara May in Misty. "People don't realize what a tremendous competitor and fighter Barbara was," said Gregory. "Misty is old school like her mom, and I think that's why she knows how to win."

Hanley, who is now a special education teacher in Santa Barbara, says her tenure as Gregory's partner has had a lifelong impact. "She was great to play with in many ways because she pushed you so hard to win," Hanley says. "She helped my confidence, and it's something I have been able to utilize today working with young adults. Now I can tell them they don't have to settle and can do anything they want if they work hard enough. That's something I learned from Kathy."

Gregory wasn't always patient with players that she didn't think were meeting her high standards. She played with 17 of her partners in only one tournament, and when anyone on her side dinked when they should have hit, she didn't keep it bottled up. She let them know.

Then again, Gregory wasn't all business when it came to volleyball.

"I enjoyed the atmosphere of the tournament, watching other games and rooting for different teams," she says. "You don't see that much today."

Gregory lives in a neatly manicured home a few deep rainbow shots away from the UC Santa Barbara campus in Goleta, where she spends her down time walking on the beach with her dogs, Regan and Kona. She doesn't get on the court anymore, but when she walks by East Beach she says it's "like Cheers because everybody yells, `Hey, Kathy.'"

She has taken her Gaucho team to the post-season in all 31 of her seasons as the head women's coach but never to the Final Four. There have been many who have expressed surprise that no women's coach has ever won an NCAA Division I title, especially with Gregory grinding for so many seasons.

She said she's matured as a coach, perspective overtaking winning percentage as the priority. "I'm not frustrated by not being to the Final Four," she says. "I'm not going to let my winning percentage define me as a person. I'm recruiting players I want to coach and I know want me to be their coach."

Gregory is one of the few Division I coaches who still teaches physical education classes to the general student population, which is part of her contract. "Teaching those classes is motivating," she says. "I have engineering students taking 23 units and working part-time to pay their way through school, but they never miss my beginning volleyball class. That humbles you. Even when I give up coaching, I'll keep teaching those classes."

Many of Gregory's ex-players have gone on to play on the beach, including current AVP pros Brooke Niles and Courtney Guerra. "The college girls who want to play on the beach need to learn to play the game before they graduate," she says. "What happens is that they graduate, see the pro tour and say, `That looks like fun. I don't want to work.' But they should have been practicing in the summers when they were still in school."

Like most beach legends, Gregory doesn't have to think long when asked if she could compete in her prime against today's super teams.

"We've never seen a team like Misty and Kerri," she says. "But you have to believe in yourself and have confidence or there is no reason to play. I don't see people brushing sand off themselves as much as they used to. A lot of players aren't going for balls they could get. I'm convinced my cut would still go down 90 percent of the time. If you're not breaking for the cut, you aren't going to get it."

Story reprinted courtesy of DIG magazine.