Feuer comes clean after all these years as beach volleyball world heads back to Rosarito

The Mexico International Volleyball Tournament takes place this week in Rosarito, Mexico.

And I need to come clean and apologize for something I did 42 years ago at this event.

In 1981, I was guilty of perhaps the most unscrupulous, egregious act in the history of that or any other tournament.

Now I am coming clean for the first time.

About a mile and a half south of Rosarito lies the quaint town Quinta del Mar, the site of the 1981 version of the Rosarito tournament known at the time as the Cuervo International Volleyball Championship. Many of the same principles apply today as in yesteryear. A weighted blind draw, except in 1981 players would self-rate as an “A” or a “B.”

I just have to tell you this: So, there we were in tiny Quinta del Mar, in the summer of 1981, on the same sand, the actor Larry Hagman, Olympian Pat Powers and …Tom Feuer?!?

Let’s say you can bet on it.

Starting with a six-man tourney at State Beach

The origin of this story begins at a six-man tournament that I stumbled upon at State Beach in Pacific Palisades, California, on a “June Gloom” typical early summer day in 1976.

I had not yet started playing myself, but I marveled at the athleticism on display. The two players who made the biggest impression on me that day were Gary Sato and Pat Powers. Sato was this whirling dervish, just 5-foot-10, who Hoovered up every free ball around. Powers, was a gangly 18-year-old, fresh out of Santa Monica High School, who, at 6-5, towered over most everyone, but was coordinated and had a hitting and blocking game to match.

Five years later our paths would cross in an unlikely way in Quinta del Mar.

In the intervening time between that 1976 State Beach six-man and the 1981 Cuervo International Championship, Powers, the “Peeper” as he was known back in the day, emerged as first, an elite indoor college player, then one of the top players, period, nationally and then internationally, as well. The ark of his progression was swift and stunning. Within five years that gangly kid had become a fearsome presence in the gym. He won an NCAA Championship in 1980 with USC and was a two-time NCAA all-tournament selection.

Powers would loom large in my volleyball future.

But for yours truly, the intervening five years were, shall we say, far less noteworthy.

My future prospects were expressed by one of my teachers at Palisades High School,…