Santa Barbara beach volleyball great Todd Rogers is going into the International Volleyball Hall of Fame as a member of the Class of 2021.
Rogers, the 2008 Olympic gold medalist in beach volleyball, two-time Olympian and 2007 World Champion, joins American indoor stars Clay Stanley and Logan Tom and five international legends in the induction class. They’ll be celebrated in a ceremony at the Hall of Fame in Holyoke, Mass., on Oct. 15-16.
Stanley is a three-time Olympic team member and a gold-medal winner, and Tom is a four-time women’s Olympian and a two-time silver medalist.
“It is great to be opening up in the U.S. and it is even better that we will get to meet in-person later this year in Holyoke to honor this amazing Class of 2021” said IVHF President Steve Bishop, also the President of the Florida Region of USA Volleyball. “After a pause in 2020 due to the pandemic, we have expanded our 2021 class to recognize even more legends in our sport and continue this annual tradition.”
The other volleyball greats being inducted are four-time Olympian and two-time gold medal winner Giovane Gavio (Brazil); four-time Olympian, two-time gold and two-time silver medal winner Sergio Dutra Santos (Brazil); two-time Olympic gold medal winner Taismary Aguero (Cuba/Italy); six-time Olympian and a gold, silver, and two-time bronze medalist Sergey Tetyukhin (Russia), and former President of the European Confederation and Second Executive Vice President of the FIVB Andre Meyer (Luxembourg).
Rogers, who starred in indoor volleyball at San Marcos High and UCSB, started rising to stardom on the domestic AVP and international FIVB beach volleyball tours in 2006 with 6-foot-9 partner Phil Dalhausser. The pair won eight AVP events and one FIVB event in their first year together.
In 2007, they dominated the AVP Tour, winning 10 events, and captured the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships, the first U.S. men’s team to accomplish the feat.
The 2008 season was epic. Rogers and Dalhausser won eight AVP tournaments and three international Grand Slams, and capped the year with the Olympics gold medal in Beijing, China.
They won a bronze medal at the 2009 World Championships and earned a earned a second Olympics berth in 2012. They lost in the round of 16 in London.
Rogers won several FIVB awards in his career — World Tour Best Setter (2005), Best Defender (2006-2008, and 2010) Most Inspirational (2008) and World Tour champion and Team of the Year with Dalhausser in 2010.
After retiring from playing in 2013, Rogers went into coaching and has become one of the top collegiate women’s beach volleyball coaches in the country at Cal Poly.
In his sixth season, he guided the Mustangs to a second straight Big West championship and second straight NCAA Tournament appearance. They also won their first NCAA Tournament match. He was named Big West Coach of the Year for the second time.
— Noozhawk sports editor Barry Punzal can be reached at bpunzal@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk Sports on Twitter: @NoozhawkSports. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.