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 12 months 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 12 months: 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 arduous 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. Tougher 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 received extra whole medals mixed within the two disciplines than every other nation (13, the USA has received 12).
After which there’s Ana Paula Henkel. She made TWO Olympic groups in EACH sport representing her native nation. She not solely straddled these two disciplines successfully, but in addition made the transition on the seashore from aspect out/massive courtroom, to rally scoring/small courtroom in a meritorious profession that spanned 19 whole 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 recreation, as properly.
“I began to shake like I used to be 15 years previous,” Henkel mentioned, when George Mulry, government director of the Worldwide Volleyball Corridor of Fame, knowledgeable her of the IVHF’s Board of Administrators’ choice. “My legs have been shaking.
“My face was burning. I couldn’t management myself. A variety of faces got here to my thoughts about individuals who helped me get up to now. My father, he’s not 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 goals. He mentioned every single day ‘You will 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 received 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 wonderful with them (Cuba) till we began to beat them,” Ana Paula recalled. “We have been the No. 1 and a couple of groups on the earth on the time of the ’96 Olympics. However even earlier than then, they began to yell issues throughout the web at us (to try to intimidate us).”
Brazil and Cuba have 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 received the final two video games, and the match, 15-13, 15-12. After which it acquired REALLY fascinating. A spew of vitriol was adopted by a bodily confrontation exterior the adjoining two locker rooms.
Mayhem ensued.
“Sure, I landed just a few punches,” Ana Paula laughed when she recalled the chaotic scene that was lastly damaged up by U.S. Marshals who have been stationed with the Cuban staff.
An impressed Holly McPeak, a seashore Olympian that 12 months, was one who took observe.
“Ana Paula proved she was a fighter after they performed Cuba,” McPeak mentioned. “When she got here out on the seashore, she had a huge impact along with her stable all-around recreation and dimension on the web! Ana Paula might do all of it!”
Earlier than she headed to the sand although, Ana Paula was not executed 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 finest blocker in ’96, after which two years later was tabbed as the highest spiker and blocker.
And but in any case that success, on the age of 27, Henkel made her main pivot to the sand in 1999.
“My recreation was plateauing,” Ana Paula mentioned. “The bodily value was too excessive. Stress fractures all over the place, knees, shins and toes. My backbone and discs have been misplaced. In 1998 I wanted a knee surgical procedure after the World Championships. The physician urged 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 follow companion. 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 taking part in on the sand.”
Silva was duly impressed with the beginner, and how briskly she picked up the intricacies of the seashore recreation. It led them to play some tournaments collectively underneath the watchful eye of Marcos Miranda, the supervisor of the Brazilian indoor nationwide staff who additionally served because the nation’s seashore coach as properly. Miranda was satisfied Ana Paula had all the talents 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 underneath the web half the time!” she mentioned with fun. “I grew to become the very best server on the seashore due to the those that educated me (together with Miranda).”
Ana Paula had no hassle discovering world-class companions. After Silva, in 2000 she attached with Atlanta silver medalist Monica Rodrigues, and in simply her second full 12 months 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, and so they 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 received the primary of her 5 consecutive awards because the Greatest Server on the Tour.
That 2003 marketing campaign appeared like an ideal setup to a wonderful run at an Olympic medal in Athens. Nevertheless 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 have been making an attempt 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 present was adaptability. In Henkel’s 11-year professional seashore worldwide profession she received with 5 totally different companions, most ever amongst feminine OR male gamers. Along with Rodrigues and Pires, Henkel additionally received with Leila Barros, and each of the Bedes, Shelda and Shaylyn.
And it was that versatility that performed a job in Ana Paula’s gorgeous 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 properly forward of time and have been formidable challengers on paper to Kerri Walsh Jennings and Misty Might-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 received the ultimate two pre-Olympic tournaments, in Gstaad and Klagenfurt, two of probably the most prestigious stops on tour. However, they have been on the skin trying in.
Besides, perhaps not. A wild flip of occasions ensued. Juliana, the blocker, injured her anterior cruciate ligament in a match 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, stand 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 rapidly 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 along with her, and now we have 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 phenomenal 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 taking part in 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 known as a real downside 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 questioned, who was this man my father was calling out to for steerage,” 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 wished to use a few of these teachings and learnings to Brazil.”
Ana Paula first began to write down 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.
Right now 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’s, she is writing a e book about…Ronald Reagan after all!
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 companion Sinjin Smith in 1996, and their quarterfinal match in opposition to fellow People, Karch Kiraly and Kent Steffes, is considered one of, if not the, biggest seashore volleyball match in USA historical past.
Virtually as wonderful, within the ultimate pre-Olympic match in Ostende, Belgium, 4 years later in 2000, Henkel taking part in with Smith once more, completed in second, forward of all three groups that will finally sweep the medals a bit of over a month later in Sydney on the summer time Video games. The authorized occupation’s acquire, 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 kids 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 elements of her life, each on the courtroom and off, and doesn’t let any of the accolades, reward or accomplishments get to her head.
“For something in life, whenever you win, win, win it may be addictive,” Henkel cautions. “However it will probably additionally conceal lots of traps that you simply don’t see.”
Looks like Ana Paula has executed a outstanding job trying round these corners her total life.
