Fifteen years ago, with Mount Rubidoux as the inspiration, the AVP Tour held a one-of-a-kind, one-time tournament in the Inland Empire
Phil Dalhausser goes up for a block during an AVP beach volleyball tournament April 17, 2009, in the parking lot of the Riverside Convention Center. RIVERSIDE — Fifteen years later, it may still be the coolest event to ever take place in downtown Riverside, and possibly the entire Inland Empire.
So maybe a beach volleyball tournament in Inland Southern California, part of what then was an emerging trend of taking the sport to non-beach cities, was always going to be a one-of-a-kind event. Beach volleyball is played in the shadow of Mount Rubidoux during an AVP tournament held April 17-19, 2009, in the parking lot at the Riverside Convention Center.
Williams was hesitant, but he went. And the first thing Bailey did when he greeted the AVP official was to drive him up to the top of Mount Rubidoux. After that, the impromptu tour went to the city’s college campuses, drove down historic, tree-lined Victoria Ave. and then returned downtown to see the Mission Inn, the Convention Center a block away, and the adjacent parking lot that could house the tournament.Williams, who passed away from cancer in 2013, told me in a 2011 interview that on the way home, “I called Leonard Armato and I said, ‘We’re going to Riverside.
Remember, this was during an era when Riverside was falling behind its neighbors, thinking small and acting accordingly. Ontario opened the area’s largest arena; Riverside had nothing even close until California Baptist opened its own arena in 2017. San Bernardino, Rancho Cucamonga and Lake Elsinore opened new minor-league ballparks and had thriving Class A teams; Riverside lost two minor-league clubs because neighborhood pressure prevented them from getting licenses to sell beer.
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