Volley Girls

By Mario Sarmento
SPORTS EDITOR

The “VolleyGirls” were introduced last year to bring a little excitement to tennis at the Delray Beach ITC last year, and they were so successful that they have returned in a bigger role this year.

The VolleyGirls feature women ages 21-31 representing as many as seven countries: Yugoslavia, Russia, Romania, Germany, Jamaica, Colombia and the United States.

But a closer look reveals many of the girls are hometown products from Boca Raton and Delray Beach.

Alina Galan, Paola Sanchez, Ulrike Unger, Gordana Runjaic and Marissa Beckerman all live in Boca Raton, and Lindsay Michael and Katie Stephens reside in Delray Beach.

On Jan. 17, the VolleyGirls were introduced to the public at Martier on Atlantic Avenue during the Art & Jazz on the Ave festival.

Sanchez, Beckerman and Stephens were among the girls who were in attendance, modeling Martier clothes for an audience outside the store. Afterwards, all of the girls went up and down Atlantic Avenue to meet the public.

Sanchez, Beckerman and Stephens are close friends, and they were also VolleyGirls last year when the concept first started, and they have seen it take off.

Sanchez and Stephens heard about the VolleyGirls through a friend named Angela Wheeler, who was doing an internship at the ITC. They decided to come aboard and told some of their friends about the idea, like Beckerman, who soon joined the VolleyGirls as well.

Stephens is a lifelong Boca resident, having attended Addison Mizner, then Boca Middle School and Boca Raton High. She was part of a dance studio that performed in New York shows while she was at Boca High. As a result, she didn’t have time to join the dance or cheerleader teams there, making this her first real cheerleading experience.

Beckerman also has a dance background, while Sanchez never had any formal training but loves to dance in her spare time.

Stephens and Sanchez have known each other since elementary school. Stephens is now a junior at FAU and studying pre-med, as she wants to become a dentist someday.

Sanchez is studying art and design at FAU also, and Beckerman moved down from New Jersey and is looking to get into acting, modeling and dancing. She currently studies advertising and public relations at FAU, which she said is her fallback if theater and acting don’t pan out.

Last year, Sanchez said being one of the VolleyGirls “was so much fun.”
Beckerman said, “We kind of had free rein to put it together ourselves. But we had direction from Angela and everyone else working at the ITC and John (Butler).”

The girls knew from the start they were on to something.

“People were always happy and excited to see us,” Stephens said.

Last year the girls handed out fliers and made their way up and down Atlantic Avenue with some of the players, including James Blake. They also threw T-shirts and other items to fans from the stadium court during the tournament.

By the end of the ITC, the VolleyGirls had caught on, and the girls were told they would be brought back for a second year.

“This year we have Martier helping us out, clothing us,” Beckerman said. “They’re trying to put a new spin on it, trying to get a bigger fan base.”

The girls say they have a string of radio shows and interviews lined up this year, and there are now 12 girls instead of the six who were on the team last year. Sanchez, Beckerman and Stephens anticipate the VolleyGirls will continue to grow in the coming years.

“We just want to have more and more people coming,” Beckerman said. “Get some people that weren’t interested in tennis interested now.”