It's a steamy, late-August Wednesday night in Kansas City, and an ocean breeze is a thousand-mile-away dream. The sun is down, but there's no relief. Just the same, the weather hasn't stopped hundreds of people from spiking balls at one another on 13 sand courts behind this south Kansas City bar. The view from Holmes gives a peek of the action going on behind the Courtside Bar and Grill. Stadium lights illuminate the yellow-and-white volleyballs rocketing through the blue night sky. The front of the bar is nearly hidden by the cars clogging the parking lot. Inside, the bar is empty but for a few souls playing touch-screen games. Out back is where the action is, where lights glow on the sand volleyball courts, where hundreds of tanned men in shorts and women in T-shirts and shorts sip beers and mixed drinks and wait for their matches. This is Volleyball Beach, a massive operation that must look like the Olympic tryouts —if the judges allowed performance-enhancing booze. For the past 18 years, Volleyball Beach has given the not-so-competitive and the ultracompetitive a sand-volleyball fix — and passers-by whiplash.
