Santa Barbara honors a local living legend
SANTA BARBARA, Calif. -- One of Santa Barbara’s most successful volleyball players got immortalized Saturday. John Hanley is a volleyball player who grew up and went to high school here in Santa Barbara. It was at the East Beach volleyball courts where he grew up playing and honing his talents leading him to a successful volleyball career.
Hanley remembers his first volleyball bumps and hits nearly five decades ago. "Sure bliss right when you're a kid," said Hanley. "You've got no worries in the world. You don't know about anything except for to come down and go play, whatever you're playing. So I was lucky enough to come down here and go play."
His childhood friends have fond memories with Hanley on East Beach. One is now the U.S. Women's Olympic Volleyball coach, Karch Kiraly. He said of his summers with Hanley, "[We'd] hold court, win the most games. Of course he killed me in that one he set the bar, the all-time record between the two of us of winning 13 games in a row in one single day in East Beach, we couldn't get enough."
And Hanley kept winning. He won the High School Championship in 1978 with Kiraly. He played college volleyball at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. He went on to win 16 titles as a pro. Then was inducted into the California Beach Volleyball Hall of Fame.
In honor of Hanley's contributions to the sport love, Hanley's home court will now have a plaque with his picture on it and Court #15 will be known as John Hanley Court.
"I never thought there would be a court with my name and picture on it," Hanley said. "It's pretty awesome. To have the rest of the family and friends came today that I hadn't seen in so long, so it's pretty great.
And Hanley said he'd proud to have made a lasting impact on the city and sport he loves.
"This game is so fun, that if you get bitten by it, and it looks like a lot of people have down here." Hanley continued, "maybe we did something right back in the day and a lot of people are getting bit."
After the court naming ceremony, Hanley played in the first game at the newly dedicated John Hanley Count.
