Olympics Seaside
October 17, 2024
That is one in a collection previewing the inductees going into the Worldwide Volleyball Corridor of Fame in Holyoke, Massachusetts, on Saturday.
This yr there are 9 inductees, two indoor gamers in Italian Andrea Zorzi and Cuba’s Regla Bell; two seashore gamers in American Tim Hovland and Brazilian Ana Paula Henkel; Brazilian coach Jose “Ze” Roberto and ParaVolley coach Hadi Rezaei of Iran; two officers in Argentinian Juan Angel Pereyra and American Sue Lemaire; and Italian Giuseppe Panini, who’s going in as a frontrunner.
There are additionally three particular honoree classes acknowledged this yr: John Kessel is receiving the Mintonette Medallion of Advantage Award; Invoice Kauffman and Ed Chan are being honored posthumously with the inaugural Award for Media Excellence; and Michael Kane, Mike Knapik, Aaron Vega and Don Humason are receiving the Mayoral Award of Excellence.
On this period of specialization, it’s profoundly onerous to fathom simply how nice an accomplishment it’s to have made it to the head of each the seashore and indoor disciplines of our sport. More durable nonetheless, even to think about an athlete doing it in Brazil, the place their girls’s Olympic groups since 1996 (when seashore was launched as an Olympic sport), have gained extra complete medals mixed within the two disciplines than some other nation (13, the USA has gained 12).
After which there may be Ana Paula Henkel. She made TWO Olympic groups in EACH sport representing her native nation. She not solely straddled these two disciplines successfully, but additionally made the transition on the seashore from facet out/massive court docket, to rally scoring/small court docket in a meritorious profession that spanned 19 complete years of world-class volleyball. And there’s extra, way more. She will be able to throw a depraved roundhouse punch AND she is likely one of the foremost political commentators in Brazil.
We are going to get to all of that.
Is it any marvel then that Ana Paula was the highest fan vote getter by far of any member of the 2024 induction class to the Worldwide Volleyball Corridor of Fame? Whereas Henkel is being inducted as a seashore participant, like fellow ’24 IVHF class member, Tim Hovland, she lower fairly a swath within the indoor sport, as effectively.
“I began to shake like I used to be 15 years previous,” Henkel mentioned, when George Mulry, govt director of the Worldwide Volleyball Corridor of Fame, knowledgeable her of the IVHF’s Board of Administrators’ resolution. “My legs had been shaking.
“My face was burning. I couldn’t management myself. A number of faces got here to my thoughts about individuals who helped me get up to now. My father, he isn’t with us (anymore), and he was all the time my No. 1 fan and my mentor. He believed in me greater than my very own desires. He mentioned daily ‘You’ll do it!’ ”
A 6-foot center blocker, Henkel made her first Olympic staff in 1992, at simply 20, and helped the Canarinhas end fourth, to that time the best inserting ever for a Brazil girls’s staff within the quadrennial spectacle. 4 years later, she was a bona fide star on the staff that gained a bronze medal, Brazil’s first ever at a girls’s indoor Olympics. The semifinal match, with a spot within the championship on the road, proved to be particularly thrilling and contentious.
“Every part was positive with them (Cuba) till we began to beat them,” Ana Paula recalled. “We had been the No. 1 and a couple of groups on the planet on the time of the ’96 Olympics. However even earlier than then, they began to yell issues throughout the online at us (to attempt to intimidate us).”
Brazil and Cuba had been seeded to fulfill one another within the gold medal match. However Cuba misplaced twice in pool play, as soon as to Brazil, after which unexpectedly once more to Russia.
So, the 2 volleyball powerhouses met within the semifinals as a substitute. Cuba gained the final two video games, and the match, 15-13, 15-12. After which it acquired REALLY attention-grabbing. A spew of vitriol was adopted by a bodily confrontation exterior the adjoining two locker rooms.
Mayhem ensued.
“Sure, I landed a number of punches,” Ana Paula laughed when she recalled the chaotic scene that was lastly damaged up by U.S. Marshals who had been stationed with the Cuban staff.
An impressed Holly McPeak, a seashore Olympian that yr, was one who took notice.
“Ana Paula proved she was a fighter after they performed Cuba,” McPeak mentioned. “When she got here out on the seashore, she had a big effect together with her stable all-around sport and measurement on the web! Ana Paula may do all of it!”
Earlier than she headed to the sand although, Ana Paula was not performed with indoor. She was voted the MVP of the 1994 World Cup earlier than Atlanta, and was an integral a part of three Brazilian FIVB Volleyball World Grand Prix (the precursor to what’s now the VNL) indoor title groups in 1994, 1996 and 1998. Henkel was awarded greatest blocker in ’96, after which two years later was tabbed as the highest spiker and blocker.
And but in spite of everything that success, on the age of 27, Henkel made her main pivot to the sand in 1999.
“My sport was plateauing,” Ana Paula mentioned. “The bodily price was too excessive. Stress fractures in all places, knees, shins and toes. My backbone and discs had been misplaced. In 1998 I wanted a knee surgical procedure after the World Championships. The physician steered doing rehab on the seashore. I had by no means performed on the sand earlier than that.”
On the time, the reigning Olympic champion Jackie Silva wanted a apply associate. And Ana Paula was more than pleased to oblige.
“Doing heavy coaching on the seashore, I felt like my physique was 10 years youthful,” Henkel mentioned. “I felt like I used to be 20 once more as a result of I used to be enjoying on the sand.”
Silva was duly impressed with the beginner, and how briskly she picked up the intricacies of the seashore sport. It led them to play some tournaments collectively beneath the watchful eye of Marcos Miranda, the supervisor of the Brazilian indoor nationwide staff who additionally served because the nation’s seashore coach as effectively. Miranda was satisfied Ana Paula had all the abilities to play seashore. He additionally taught her one thing that grew to become her most deadly weapon.
“I got here from completely no person as a soar server indoors. I served beneath the online half the time!” she mentioned with fun. “I grew to become one of the best server on the seashore due to the those who educated me (together with Miranda).”
Ana Paula had no bother discovering world-class companions. After Silva, in 2000 she attached with Atlanta silver medalist Monica Rodrigues, and in simply her second full yr on the FIVB World Tour, Ana Paula netted her first win with Rodrigues in Cagliari, Italy.
Three years later, in ’03, Henkel teamed with Silva’s Atlanta gold medal teammate Sandra Pires, they usually barnstormed the world, showing in eight finals out of ten tournaments, successful 4 of them, and capturing the coveted honor of FIVB Tour Champions. Ana Paula additionally gained the primary of her 5 consecutive awards because the Finest Server on the Tour.
That 2003 marketing campaign appeared like an ideal setup to a wonderful run at an Olympic medal in Athens. However it was to not be. The bugaboo of all nice athletes, accidents, compromised Ana Paula and Sandra’s run to a medal. A stunning pool play loss to Germany, was adopted by a loss within the quarterfinals to their Brazilian compatriots, Shelda Bede and Adriana Behar, 15-13 within the third.
“(Main as much as the Video games) Sandra had a calf damage and couldn’t soar correctly. I had a stress fracture in my proper wrist so I couldn’t flip my wrist to leap serve or handset. However as a result of we had been attempting to qualify for Athens (2004 Olympic Summer time Video games), we didn’t cease, and it acquired worse and worse.”
Bloodied, however unbowed, Ana Paula continued ahead. Her nice reward was adaptability. In Henkel’s 11-year professional seashore worldwide profession she gained with 5 completely different companions, most ever amongst feminine OR male gamers. Along with Rodrigues and Pires, Henkel additionally gained with Leila Barros, and each of the Bedes, Shelda and Shaylyn.
And it was that versatility that performed a task in Ana Paula’s beautiful return to the Olympic Video games in Beijing in 2008. The dominant Brazilian staff on the time was Juliana Felisberta Silva and Larissa Maestrini. That they had locked up the primary of the 2 spots on supply effectively forward of time and had been formidable challengers on paper to Kerri Walsh Jennings and Misty Could-Treanor the defending Olympic gold medalists. In the meantime, Renata Ribeiro and Talita Antunes locked up the quantity two Brazilian berth. That choice was made earlier than Ana Paula and Shelda gained the ultimate two pre-Olympic tournaments, in Gstaad and Klagenfurt, two of essentially the most prestigious stops on tour. Nonetheless, they had been on the surface wanting in.
Besides, possibly not. A wild flip of occasions ensued. Juliana, the blocker, injured her anterior cruciate ligament in a event in June in Paris, two months earlier than the Video games, however continued to play in pre-Olympic tournaments.
“Juliana had acquired a knee brace from Germany and was all set to play within the Olympics,” Ana Paula recalled. “In the meantime, I had been partying since I had gotten again to Brazil from Klagenfurt.”
It was three days till the beginning of the Olympics.
“At 6 a.m. my sister was shaking me and yelling ‘Rise up, rise up. There’s a federation particular person on the door saying you must go to China!’ ”
It turned out that Juliana in reality was too banged as much as play, and unexpectedly Brazil’s No. 1 staff was quick a blocker.
“I arrived in China and went straight to the technical assembly at 2:30 pm the day earlier than competitors was to start out,” Ana Paula mentioned. “I had by no means practiced with Larissa, by no means even exchanged a phrase together with her, and now we had been teammates and roommates.”
Contemplating all the drama main as much as first serve, Henkel and Larissa acquitted themselves fairly admirably, ending fifth in Beijing.
“After the Olympics, Larissa despatched me a gorgeous heartfelt letter that I’ve saved ever since,” Henkel mentioned.
Ana Paula continued to play for a pair extra seasons on the FIVB World Tour along with branching out and enjoying on the AVP in America.
And shortly thereafter, the third act of the Ana Paula Henkel story started.
“My father was a principal at an American college in Brazil, and was often called a real drawback solver,” Henkel mentioned. “There was a trainer’s strike, and he mentioned to himself out loud: ‘What would Reagan do?’ ”
That began Ana Paula on a path that finally led to a brand new flourishing profession.
“I puzzled, who was this man my father was calling out to for steering,” Henkel mentioned. “Who’s ‘this Reagan’ and my dad began telling me who ‘this Reagan’ was.”
“I began to voice my opinion extra about Brazil after I moved to the US,” Henkel continued. “I fell in love with American historical past. And I needed to use a few of these teachings and learnings to Brazil.”
Ana Paula first began to put in writing opinion items on Fb. It didn’t take lengthy for Brazilian mainstream media to take discover. Estadão, the third largest newspaper in Brazil, gave her the platform, and that was only the start.
In the present day she is a commentator/author for the multimedia web site “Revista Oeste.” It’s a web site with 24/7 information, and Ana Paula additionally has a YouTube present airing 5 days per week for 2 hours at a clip, that reaches greater than half one million viewers day by day. And in her spare time, what little there may be, she is writing a guide about…Ronald Reagan in fact!
She does all of this work from the South Bay, California, residence that she shares with husband Carl Henkel. If that identify seems acquainted, it ought to. Carl made the USA Seaside Olympic staff with associate Sinjin Smith in 1996, and their quarterfinal match in opposition to fellow Individuals, Karch Kiraly and Kent Steffes, is certainly one of, if not the, best seashore volleyball match in USA historical past.
Nearly as wonderful, within the remaining pre-Olympic event in Ostende, Belgium, 4 years later in 2000, Henkel enjoying with Smith once more, completed in second, forward of all three groups that may finally sweep the medals a bit over a month later in Sydney on the summer time Video games. The authorized occupation’s achieve, although, was seashore volleyball’s loss as Carl transitioned to a profession within the legislation full-time in 2003.
Each Ana Paula and Carl have youngsters from prior marriages and Carl’s daughter, Victoria, is a 5-11 freshman on the LSU seashore volleyball staff.
Ana Paula expresses gratitude for all components of her life, each on the court docket and off, and doesn’t let any of the accolades, reward or accomplishments get to her head.
“For something in life, if you win, win, win it may be addictive,” Henkel cautions. “However it could additionally cover a number of traps that you just don’t see.”
Looks as if Ana Paula has performed a outstanding job wanting round these corners her complete life.
