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HERMOSA BEACH, California — Last month's AVP Players Awards was certainly fun for all who attended, except if your name is
Billy Allen. A recent article on
avp.com listed Billy fourth on a list of six candidates for the 2007 Rookie of the Year.
The AVP defines a rookie as "a player who has reached the main draw at least five times in one season." This year's best rookie is Will "Sticky" Strickland, who teamed with Nick Lucena and Canyon Ceman to notch nine top-ten finishes and over 1,200 points.
Strickland won the award, but who deserves 2nd-Place? "I think that there are a couple other rookies who are close to as good as me, but I'm definitely the second-best," Allen said Wednesday. "And I'm the youngest player in consideration."
Allen, a Venice Beach resident and San Diego native, turned 26 recently. Fellow rookie
Vince Robbins is approaching his 28th Birthday and
Eyal Zimet is an astonishingly old 31.
Age has never been a criterion for ranking rookie accomplishment, but Allen has proposed that it should be. "In the NFL, rookie seasons aren't 'created' when a player makes it into the starting lineup after years of special-teams! Eyal has been sitting on the bench for two years, partner-to-partner, and then he and (Eyal's partner) DiPierro take a 9th-Place? That doesn't count. Their seed was too high! It's like a quarterback throwing a pass off the receiver's chest and Eyal, the defender, happens to be standing right there and catches the deflection and runs into the endzone. Touchdown, yes, but Rookie of the Year Runner-Up? No."
Allen's bitterness towards the Zimet/DiPierro team may stem from an up-and-down season with season-long partner
AJ Mihalic. "DiPierro only played with Zimet after I told him I was sticking with Billy. So I think that's why Billy is grumpy. He doesn't think Eyal deserves Dippy," noted Mihalic.
Robbins has a different story. A Colorado native, he went the entire season and was exempt from only a single qualifying event. In 2007 Allen doubled Robbins's exemptions. "I lost to Vince in Long Beach but he had nothing to do with it," Allen explained. "Roberts (Robbins's partner) got lucky and blocked me on match point. I don't even think Vince was on the court."
Strickland may not have even reached rookie status if long-time teammates Casey Jennings and Matt Fuerbringer hadn't split up at the start of this season. Nick Lucena began the year by carrying Strickland and his catch-and-throw setting technique to one 5th-Place and two 7th-Place finishes. Many say that success was premature following Strickland's modest three 17th-Place finishes the prior year. "If there were an award for Most Underrated Player then Lucena and DiPierro would win in a tie," a visibly upset Allen remarked. "And I had more main-draw appearances than any other rookies except for Will. Does that count for nothing??"
In today's game where players specialize in defensive assignments, Allen is a begrudged throwback. While Zimet spent his defensive time digging behind huge blockers and Vince blocked for great diggers, Allen was forced to do both. Though Mihalic is one of the best blockers in the country, he insisted that he also play defense this year. The 6' 2" Allen, who admits he hates blocking and isn't very good at it, commented that "I had to put up with the whole 'Big-Guy wants to play a little defense because I wanna prove everybody wrong about my skills' thing, which was annoying. I think we could have gotten at least one 7th-Place and maybe even a better finish if he would have just blocked the whole time."
Allen qualified in his first AVP event ever while attending California State University at Northridge in 2004. He and Ty Tramblie, the shortest player on tour, qualified using the split-blocking technique. In 2006 Allen qualified with fellow rookie Jon Mesko. "If you've ever seen Mesko play defense then you know how good I had to be to make up for it. That's all I'm saying," said Allen.
While Billy Allen enjoys reflecting on the past, he's also excited about what the future holds, especially if it holds a partner who will block full-time. "I'm looking forward to not blocking and showing the world that I'm awesome. I'd like to play with Will Strickland. He's my roommate, so I'll be in his ear from now until March, at least."
Allen also wanted to note that he was a Creative Writing/English major in college, not a Communications major like BvBinfo says. "Who wrote that and why are they making stuff up? Creative Writing is a WAY cooler major than 'Communications'!"