Evan Cory didn’t know that one of Jon Mesko’s defining traits of an Eric Zaun Award recipient is a certain doggedness that allows a player to put in double-, often triple-days on the beach. The kind of individual who not only has trouble saying no to extra practice, but struggles the temptation of scheduling more and more and more of them.
Cory arrived in Hermosa Beach from New Orleans on Tuesday afternoon. On Wednesday, he practiced from 8-10 with Logan Webber, Adam Roberts and Travis Mewhirter, 11-1 with Webber, Cody Caldwell and Jake Urrutia, and then from 2-3:30 with Roberts, Mewhirter, and Taylor Crabb.
One full day in California.
One triple-day in the books.
A true Eric Zaun Award recipient. (true to form, Webber was one of the first recipients of the Eric Zaun Award, and has put in three consecutive double-days with Cory).
This year marks the third year that Mesko, Katie Spieler, and Mewhirter have given out the Eric Zaun Award. We have selected four winners this year. Two were awarded late on Thursday night, at the Hermosa Beach Pier, in what can only be described as a Road Dog Baptism.
Yes, yes, that’s another defining trait that must be met: To win the Eric Zaun Award, one must be a true Road Dog.
Zaun lived a life with little wants or needs, just a zeal for good people, stories, experiences.
Like jumping off the Hermosa Pier.
It’s a monthly tradition Katie Spieler and I began shortly after Zaun died. We sought something that would provide enough of an adrenaline boost to flood our systems with endorphins, giving us that natural high that would briefly band-aid the slowly-healing wound left by our friend’s passing. It’s something we look forward to every month we’re able to take the plunge, bringing in new friends each time.
On Thursday night, those new friends were Cory, and Seain Cook.
Two of this year’s Eric Zaun Award recipients (the other two will be announced at a later date).
They’re excellent choices, plucked from a large pool of worthy candidates. Spieler, Mesko and I observe the beach scene closely throughout the year. We note who’s traveling to tournaments, who’s progressing, who’s showing the potential to crack through the ranks on the AVP and FIVB.
And who’s doing all of that with tremendous character, spirit, enthusiasm, a certain zest for life, both on and off the court.
Cory and Cook embody everything we’re looking for in an Eric Zaun Award candidate. Cory may have played in more beach volleyball tournaments in 2020 than anyone in the United States. I understand that I exaggerate quite a bit, but I do think that’s actually close to being true.
Since the AVP shut down operations due to COVID, Cory has played in 24 AVP America tournaments, and who knows how many non-AVP America tournaments. He won nine of them, and recently won Fuds, the right-side anchor of our four-man team.
I also believe it bears mentioning that he was his high school valedictorian, and the first NVA/AVCA All-American in Lincoln-Memorial history.
Far from a beach bum.
Cook, meanwhile, may be a beach bum, but in the best sense possible. He’s on the sand, all day, every day, either coaching or playing or yelling things in languages you or I or his teammate, James Shaw, or coach, Mark Fishman, cannot understand.
A native of Perth, Scotland, Cook moved to Southern California only recently, coaching for Spieler’s East Beach Academy in Santa Barbara. He’s finally settling into a crowd of the best players in the country, regularly working in with Avery Drost and Sean Rosenthal, Tri Bourne and Trevor Crabb, Chaim Schalk and Theo Brunner.
It was Schalk and Brunner whom Cook and Shaw upset in a Cancun tune-up tournament in Hermosa Beach. Cook played almost perfectly, digging balls off his chest, bombing in transition, making plays that had Casey Patterson chattering from the sidelines.
“Wow! That was so cool,” Patterson said, laughing after Cook’s chest dig to transition putaway. “I wish I could do that.”
And, like Cory, it is Cook’s character we love. He’s humble, self-deprecating, hungry. He and Shaw are putting in the hours, all the while keeping a high spirit, forever a positive light on the beach.
At the end of the day, that’s our intent with this award: To shine a light on this beach community. To provide a small stimulus to the players with a certain zest for life, stories, experiences, good people.
This morning, Cory woke up in my guest bedroom. A little slow to get out of bed, but you can forgive him.
He has another double-day scheduled.
