By Kevin Wilkerson, PubClub.com San Diego Blogger
There’s quite a bit of mojo around San Diego and I got a bit of it myself recently.
It came from attending a game of the San Diego Mojo, the city’s professional women’s volleyball team. Yes, San Diego has a women’s professional volleyball team. This is not the AVP tho, for rather than being a weekend tournament on the beach it is an indoor team playing in a pro volleyball league – yes, there is a pro volleyball league – in city-vs-city matches, home and away.
I arrived curious. I mean, what kind of crowd would it attract and how lively would the place be for a second-year team in a second-year league? I figured what, a few hundred at most and a place so quiet you could hear a volleyball drop.
Yet I left impressed. The 12,000-seat venue was about 1/4 filled, there was a DJ, a drum section banging away after key points and a surprisingly enthusiastic and knowledgeable crowd. The thump-thump-thump of a volleyball being hit, the vocals of the players going after a ball, the distinctive whack from the forceful slapping of a hand hitting the ball on a spike and the sudden thunk of a block at the net were all sounds that filled the air. There was lots of Mojo indeed.
The San Diego Mojo play at Viejas a Arena on the San Diego State campus (another atmosphere bonus) and I was inspired enough to go to a game. Before moving to San Diego, I lived up the coast in the birthplace of beach volleyball and home of the “Wimbledon of Beach Volleyball,” Manhattan Beach. So I know the sport, the culture and history behind it. As a result, I have spent time around many of the sport’s biggest names: Kerri Walsh-Jennings (who would often practice in front of a beach house I rented); Karch Karai,who is now coach of the U.S. Women’s Olympic team and beach volleyball legend Sinjin Smith.
The indoor game is different than the beach version, of course. For one thing, there are six players to a side rather than two. You often get longer rallies with more people per side so there are players diving to the floor to make a save, a setter setting up a big hit, a dig to keep a point alive, a block at the net and so forth. If you enjoyed watching indoor volleyball at the Olympics, then you would love going to a Mojos match.
It’s cheap entertainment, too. In fact, the price of a ticket ($15) is less than that of a beer ($18 for a San Diego craft). The Mojo play 15 home games from January thru early May and, as the ol’ entertainment saying goes. good seats are available. Note that Tickemaster shows the cheapest ticket at $23 but the team is advertising $15 seats. Matches are best 3-of-5 and games go to 25 points, win by two.
The Mojo are part of the 8-team Pro Volleyball Federation (PVF) which, in only its second season, seems to have its act together. The games are done in a professional manner, the quality of play is very good, the teams’ uniforms and warmups are snappy (they certainly don’t look as if they were purchased at a second-hand store, a sure sign of a league that doesn’t have its finances intact) and some players make $175,000 a year in salary. This is no fly by night league.
There are three Olympians on the Mojo roster and if there is a star it is Middle Blocker Leyla Blackwell who is from San Diego and commanded by far the biggest roar during player introductions on my visit. The coach is 2024 Pro Volleyball Federation Coach of the Year Tayyiba Haneef-Park, a three-time U.S. Olympian and two-time silver medalist. Last year the Mojo made it to the league semifinals.
The official San Diego Mojo website has all that information, plus the schedule and game previews.
Going to a game is good for your San Diego mojo.
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