The best beach volleyball players in the world couldn't contain Solvang's Olympic hero in Beijing this week.

And neither could the Santa Barbara Municipal Airport on Saturday. At least not his fans.

One hour before the small plane landed, containing Todd Jonathan Rogers of Solvang, a small gathering formed along the baggage claim - fans old and young alike waiting for America's gold medal winner, one half of the world's greatest beach volleyball tandem.

“His mom called the department yesterday to get the word out about today,” said Scott Flanders, the UC Santa Barbara men's volleyball sports information director. “So we fired up the e-mails.”

Message received.

A large crowd was forming, brimming with anticipation, with pride - with recent memories of 6-foot, 9-inch Phil Dalhausser, of Ventura, leaping into Rogers' arms after his emphatic block, sealing the gold medal over Brazil. The local contingent - having watched Rogers grow up in Santa Barbara, attending San Marcos High and UCSB - wasn't about to let him lumber to bed, not after his 20-hour flight from Beijing.

Flag bearers, small children, coaches, friends, media members - they kept coming until one thing was clear: Baggage claim wouldn't work.

Advertisement

The Gate 6 courtyard - in essence “Plan B” - would have to do, its lawn funneling to a small door leading to the runway. There would be no escape for Rogers.

Sharon Schneider, a physical therapist at Performance Fitness in Solvang, is partly to blame for this scene, that resembles a political rally.

She was there ...

“Because we're Solvang!” she proclaimed. “We tried to call the papers and people. This is huge! And we didn't know if anyone else thought of it.”

More than 150 showed up.

Schneider addressed her partner in crime.

“There's Sandy,” she said, pointing off into the distance, which was a moot point with all the commotion. “She's a jazzercise instructor and she's babysitting Todd's kids ... She's the one passing out flags for all the kids and she's wearing the red, white and blue shirt. Her daughter's mortified she wore that. But it's like, this is the USA gold medal. Come on! ... And I wore gold!”

Rogers, when he's not working out at the UCSB Intercollegiate Athletic Center or training with Dalhausser on East Beach in Santa Barbara, does his “bebop” workout at Performance Fitness.

“You see him in the weight room, and from time to time in practice, and then you can drive 15 minutes to East Beach and see two Olympians playing volleyball pick-up games,” former UCSB volleyball player Aaron Richman said. Richman is one of the players Rogers recruited to UCSB from Santa Ynez High when he was an assistant coach.

“It will be interesting to see how people acclimate with Todd and Phil returning and with the AVP coming up. It's a million-dollar prize. They'll be a lot of pride, they put them up on a pedestal. They're world champions,” Richman said.

They responded with a mighty roar when the small plane touched down Saturday.

“We love our country!” yelled one fan.

The Boeing doorway opened, and Rogers, gold medal draped around his neck, stepped out - shell-shocked by the reception.

He got to the small courtyard gate. At least an hour-and-a-half later, Solvang's dreary-eyed champion was still there, signing away. A recreated Wilson - the volleyball counterpart to Tom Hanks in the film “Cast Away” - made an appearance and was signed. So were flags, press clippings and even a young boy's forehead.

Richman gave his coach a bearhug. Thanks to Rogers' instruction at UCSB, Richman may have a chance to play in Europe. Former teammates Evan Patak and Theodore Brunner recently signed with Austrian and Greek teams, respectively.

And current Santa Ynez boys volleyball standout Jon Bridgeman also gave his mentor a “congrats.”

When current Pirates boys and girls coach Chip Fenenga underwent therapy for cancer, missing an entire year, Rogers and his wife, Melissa, coached the girls team. And Bridgeman is one of the select boys players at Santa Ynez who received Rogers' golden touch.

“He has a beach volleyball court in his backyard,” Bridgeman said. “It was a really good workout. It's pretty close to the one at the beaches. Probably the same thing.”

Rogers didn't expect the beach scene to greet him at the airport.

“To see this entire courtyard full of people, and flags and cheering,” Rogers said, stumped for words. “... you know when I was in Beijing, just walking around, no one saw me. They see Phil, a tall, big bald guy, and kind of give him a look. But here, yeah, it kind of sunk in once I got off the plane. I'm not usually an emotional guy, but it definitely pulled at my heartstrings.”

How tired is he?

Before he even answers, a former coach interrupts. “Do some stretches Todd! Hit the bed,” he says.

“That's my JV coach!” Rogers yells with delight.

He tries to regain his thoughts, opens his mouth ...

“You achieved the impossible!” yells someone named Freddie.

That's how tired he is.

“There was the ‘Today Show' and you do that for however long. Run to NBC News. Then EuroSport. Then here. I got to bed at 1 a.m. that night, and not because I was raging. It would have been fun. I had half a beer at most. It's not the time to do that stuff. I jumped on the plane this morning.”

And it doesn't stop here. Next weekend he has an AVP Tournament in Cincinnati. And then a California swing. It doesn't end until October.

He'll continue to team with one of the world's most dominating men at the net - “The Bald Bullet,” “The Thin Beast,” “Mr. Clean,” Mr. Dalhausser.

Dalhausser was set to arrive at 4:45 p.m. - at the same airport. Many fans opted to recreate the rally for Ventura's finest.

The joke was that Rogers was actually losing ground, getting closer and closer to his plane, pushed back by the crowd.

The airport could hardly contain the throng of patriots Saturday, but they sure had Rogers contained. The world's best might both still be there.

August 24, 2008