One of my goals for Season 5 of Conversations with Sports Fans was to feature fans of Olympic and/or so-called non-revenue sports. It was a goal born out of earnest interest to discover how and why some become fans of college athletics that don’t receive nearly the media coverage or notoreity as their siblings on football fields and basketball courts.
I’ve been a bit perplexed as to why it’s been challenging for college media and communications’ staff to put me in contact with such fans (or even respond to my inquiries, for that matter). Neither was the case for UCLA’s Beach Volleyball program.
The Bruins won their third NC Beach Volleyball Championship in Gulf Shores, AL, in early May when they defeated top-ranked Stanford, 3-0. I was delighted to hear back from UCLA media contact Liza David almost as soon as I’d contacted her. She suggested Erkki Corpuz as the fan to speak with.
Erkki grew up a UCLA fan in Oxnard and ultimately attended the Westwood campus for business school. That’s when he began attending football and basketball games. It was not until he was eventually hired at the business school and finding himself on campus regularly, that he began attending some non-revenue sports. Chief among those was traditional volleyball.
When the athletic department decided to elevate Beach Volleyball from club to varsity status, Erkki and other volleyball fans were invited to the beach in hopes of creating an initial fan base.
In his case, it worked.
Erkki’s been a regular on the sand to watch the Bruins ever since.
In this episode, Erkki shares not only his journey as a sports fan from Oxnard to UCLA’s campus, but also some background on what college Beach Volleyball is (and isn’t) and how it differs from what most casual fans see every four years during the Summer Olympic Games.