Mr. Fundamental.
That’s how the beach volleyball world has come to know Bill Kolinske. Everything about the 6-foot-6 34-year-old from Big Bend, Wisconsin is fundamental, beginning with the fact that, well, he’s from Wisconsin, a state not exactly known for flash and pizazz, but just getting things done, however they need to get done.
Kolinske gets things done.
However they need to get done.
Looking for a bounce? An Instagram highlight? Trash talk? A big staredown? A play that’s going to make a crowd go bonkers, the type that will have fans talking about it for days and weeks to come? You’re not going to get it from Kolinske – not likely to, anyway – and he doesn’t really care, to tell you the truth.
He’s here for one reason, and one reason only: To win volleyball matches. He doesn’t need the pop and sizzle to win. He just needs good, solid fundamentals.
Good luck finding someone with a more effective block at any height, let alone 6-foot-6 – undersized on the World Tour. Good luck finding someone who makes less errors, the type of plays that can be labeled as a brain fart. He makes the plays he should make. Controls what he can control.
And he wins a lot of matches because of it.
He has a third place finish in Manhattan Beach because of it – coming out of the qualifier.
He has wins over virtually every top team in the United States because of it.
He’s the sixth-ranked team in USA Volleyball because of it.
Bill Kolinske just gets things done.
“I’ve been trying to play on the FIVB basically since I started playing,” said Kolinske, who made his first AVP main draw in 2013. “It was so hard to get into if you weren’t one of the top 6 teams.”
Now he is one of those top six teams. With Phil Dalhausser and Jake Gibb retiring after the Tokyo Games, vacating the top two American blocker positions, he has a genuine shot at the Paris 2024 Olympics.
“I’m definitely excited to play at that level,” Kolinske said. “I feel like that’s the best way to learn is to play against [the best] first hand. I feel like you can put people on a pedestal and then you play them and it’s ‘Ok, we can play with them.’ You can always train against better players and you’re going to get better a lot faster. I’m glad they’re bringing in the best in the world and that’s my goal, to get as good as I can.”
