Jerry Kukuruda

M50-59
Jerry Kukuruda
Volleyball
Wichita, Kan.

For Jerry Kukuruda, 2007 looked like a repeat of 2006. The 51-year-old middle hitter led his 50+ team to victory at the 2007 USA Volleyball Adult Open Championships for the second straight year. He also won his second consecutive most valuable player award in his age bracket.

The competition was Kukuruda's 20th USA Volleyball Championship, the medal was his ninth gold in the tournament. Kukuruda now holds gold in every age group in which he has competed. Apparently, the repetition is anything but monotonous for the father of three, who plays in tournaments almost weekly during volleyball season.

"I used to play in a semi-pro baseball league, and I just got bored standing in the outfield for two hours when you'd get the ball maybe three times," said Kukuruda, who lives in Wichita with his wife Christina. "Volleyball is never boring because you're always touching the ball."

Over the years, Kukuruda has shared the net with some of the greatest players in the game, including Olympic gold medalist Karch Kiraly. "He was on the team with me when we won the 1985 USA Open Championships," Kukuruda recalled. "That was a highlight."

Kukuruda, who is 6-feet, 2-inches tall and 205 pounds, got hooked on volleyball as a freshman at North Allegheny High School outside Pittsburgh. He went on to become an All-American at the University of Hawaii. The team won the Western Collegiate Volleyball Conference in 1980 and several of Kukuruda's collegiate records still stand, including most solo blocks in a match, most total blocks in match, and most blocks per game average.

He transferred to California State in 1981 and spent the next 25 years living and working in California, where he played beach and indoor volleyball. Since moving to Wichita for his job as a business operations manager at LSI, a data storage systems manufacturer, Kukuruda said that it's been harder to find high caliber players, but the volleyball scene is still competitive.

In his spare time, Kukuruda coaches the girls' varsity team at Collegiate High School in Wichita. Recently, when a high school sports magazine article gushed that Kukuruda could still jump 30 inches, the girls he coaches challenged him to prove it.

He obliged, clearing 34 inches.