Kent Steffes, half of the best beach volleyball team on the planet, is on a roll. Not about some dude he just dispatched or a party he's been to, but about a closed-end fund in the Czech Republic he's invested in.
"It can't get more obtuse than that," said Steffes, who rattles on about the good return he's getting.No one has spiked the image of the beach-bum volleyball player more decisively than Steffes. Sure, he was one of People magazine's 50 most beautiful people last year. A bronzed, 6-foot-4, 220-pound muscular body will do that.
Away from the beach, though, a day in Steffes' life wouldn't be complete without doses of the Wall Street Journal, C-SPAN, and maybe some William Buckley or Milton Friedman. And he's thrilled that he's been asked to put on an exhibition at the Republican National Convention in San Diego in exchange for four tickets and floor access.
"Yeah, he's got some diverse interests and that sets him apart," said Karch Kiraly, a two-time indoor volleyball gold medalist who hopes to hit it big again in precious metals, this time with Steffes in beach volleyball's Olympic debut.
Beyond knowing that Steffes is one of the most disciplined players at working out and preparing for matches, Kiraly isn't sure what makes his partner tick.
"I don't know if anybody's figured that out yet," Kiraly said. "I don't know if that's part of my job."
For one thing, Steffes is a guy in a hurry.
"For the Generation Xers that figured it out, the world is wide open," he said. "You don't have to get in line and wait for 20 years for things to happen. You can have it all now."
A member of the MTV generation who is brash, smart and driven, Steffes is the son of a rocket scientist. His dad, Jackson, worked on the "Star Wars" missile defense system.
At 13, Steffes asked his father to set up a $1,000 account so he could play the stock market.
"My dad was pretty amazed," he said. "My grandfather, instead of taking me to a baseball game, would send along stock tips."
By the time Steffes graduated from high school, he was not only the national high school volleyball player of the year, but his portfolio was worth $17,000.
Even as he was finishing an economics degree at UCLA with a 3.6 GPA, Steffes attained the No. 1 ranking on the Association of Volleyball Professionals Tour. In his ninth season on the beach, he's only a few tournament paychecks away from joining Kiraly as the only $2 million man in the sport.
For Steffes, timing was everything in landing what to him is the perfect career.
"I am the first athlete in my age group that is 100 percent, fully professional," Steffes said. "The day I started playing beach volleyball is the day the tour went from a few sites, a little bit of money, to a lot of sites, a lot of money."
Steffes turned pro in 1988 after the NCAA declared him ineligible at UCLA because he had played in beach tournaments for which his partner, an assistant coach at UCLA, took prize money.
In 1990, Steffes hooked up with Kiraly, considered the best player in the world. Although their initial union dissolved when they couldn't consistently beat Sinjin Smith and Randy Stoklos, they reunited in 1991 and quickly became the team of the '90s.
They've won 72 of the 110 tournaments they've played in, with 18 seconds. In 1992, they tied the all-time record with 13 straight wins. Overall, 35-year-old Kiraly has 118 career victories and Steffes 84, ranking them third and fourth all-time.
Although Steffes missed much of 1995 following shoulder surgery, he was back on Kiraly's side of the court when the 1996 season opened. This year they've won eight of 15 tournaments, with four seconds.
Steffes' use of a training coach and video to scout opponents set him apart.
"I think he is the first truly modern beach volleyball player," said television commentator Chris Marlowe, captain of the 1984 gold-medal winning indoor team and a former beach player. "He's not particularly interested in hanging out and having fun all the time. He's more interested in his career afterward."
That's why Steffes is just as inclined to pick up a book on financial theory or investments as he is the latest Tom Clancy novel.
"I have a lot of interests and not a lot of time," said Steffes, who likely will become a financial planner once his playing days are over.
And the opinionated Steffes certainly has done his part to liven an already fast-paced, glamorous sport.
"He came on tour a very cocky young guy," Marlowe said. "He got good in a hurry and when you get good in a hurry you rub the old guys who were good the wrong way."
As a rookie, he got into shouting matches with Stoklos, one of which escalated into a shoving match in a hotel.
"Occasionally he'll say something that's taken out of context, or which goes straight from brain to mouth with no filter," Marlowe said. "But I think it's good."
So does Steffes.
At the U.S. Olympic Trials last month, Stoklos stepped on a ball during warmups and twisted his ankle. Informed of the injury, Steffes was quoted as saying: "Good . . . maybe he broke it."
Steffes said the context of the quote was twisted, but he's not quibbling.
"Karch is so milk-and-toast sometimes that I think they (the media) need to have a little spice when it comes to their articles," Steffes said. "But it's fine, though. It made a good story. We got bigger print. People remembered it. It made something out of what was an otherwise boring trials."