Eric Fonoimoana (born June 7, 1969) is an American former beach volleyball player of Samoan descent who paired with

Dain Blanton Dain Blanton (born November 28, 1971 in Laguna Beach, California) is an American beach volleyball player who won the gold medal in Beach Volleyball in the 2000 Olympic Games, with partner Eric Fonoimoana. He returned to the 2004 Olympic Games i ...

to win the gold medal in

beach volleyball Beach volleyball is a team sport played by two teams of two or more players on a sand court divided by a net. Similar to indoor volleyball, the objective of the game is to send the ball over the net and to ground it on the opponent's side of the ...

at the

2000 Olympic Games The 2000 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXVII Olympiad and also known as Sydney 2000 (Dharug: ''Gadigal 2000''), the Millennium Olympic Games or the Games of the New Millennium, was an international multi-sport event held from 1 ...

. He has played professionally for more than 16 years and has entered over 200 tournaments. Fonoimoana won at least one tournament for seven straight years between 1998 and 2004. He is a former AVP Most Valuable Player and is in the top 10 in terms of all-time tournaments played. He has earned over 1 million dollars playing beach volleyball.

Biography

He was born in

Manhattan Beach, California Manhattan Beach is a city in southwestern Los Angeles County, California, United States, on the Pacific Ocean, Pacific coast south of El Segundo, California, El Segundo, west of Hawthorne, California, Hawthorne and Redondo Beach, California, Red ...

, and attended

Mira Costa High School Mira Costa High School (MCHS, "Costa") is a four-year public high school located in Manhattan Beach, California that first began operating in 1950. It is the only high school in the Manhattan Beach Unified School District. The school's athletic t ...

and then

UCSB The University of California, Santa Barbara (UC Santa Barbara or UCSB) is a public land-grant research university in Santa Barbara, California with 23,196 undergraduates and 2,983 graduate students enrolled in 2021–2022. It is part of the U ...

, where he became a member of the

Sigma Chi Sigma Chi () International Fraternity is one of the largest North American fraternal literary societies. The fraternity has 244 active (undergraduate) chapters and 152 alumni chapters across the United States and Canada and has initiated more tha ...

fraternity. 2002 was Fonoimoana's peak year in which he reached the AVP finals six times and won four titles with then-partner

Dax Holdren Dax Holdren (born September 4, 1972 in Santa Barbara, California) is an American professional male beach volleyball player. Holdren is currently on the AVP tour playing with Jeff Nygaard. Holdren was a late-comer to the sport of volleyball a ...

. In this same year, Fonoimoana was named the AVP's Most Valuable Player by his peers. In the spring of 2000, Fonoimoana founded the non-profit Dig for Kids 501-C3 children's charitable education foundation which helps kids in

inner cities The term ''inner city'' has been used, especially in the United States, as a euphemism for majority-minority lower-income residential districts that often refer to rundown neighborhoods, in a downtown or city centre area. Sociologists somet ...

excel in school, volleyball and other athletics. Dig 4 Kids has helped over 3,465 children learn the importance of education and physical fitness. As CEO of D4K, he personally helped raise over $1,038,000 for under-served children. Fonoimoana is now a real estate professional in the South Bay area of Los Angeles, California. He still remains active in the volleyball community as a coach/owner o
Elite Beach Volleyball
and the varsity head coach of Mira Costa High School. Mira Costa Beach Volleyball is 87-0 with 6 IBVL Championships and 2 State Championships under coach Fonoimoana. EBV has helped over 88 girls achieve Division I Beach Scholarships saving families millions of dollars in college tuition.

Awards and honors

* Athlete of the Year Mira Costa High School 1987 * Olympic Gold Medalist Sydney, Australia 2000 * AVP Most Valuable Player 2002 * UC Santa Barbara Hall of Fame * Sigma Chi Fraternity – Significant Sig * CBVA Hall of Fame

References

Association of Volleyball Professionals

External links

*
Eric Fonoimoana

Dig 4 Kids Charity website

Eric Fonoimoana Volleyball Videos

Eric Fonoimoana Real Estate
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Fonoimoana, Eric 1969 births Living people Beach volleyball players at the 2000 Summer Olympics Olympic beach volleyball players of the United States Olympic medalists in beach volleyball UC Santa Barbara Gauchos men's volleyball players Sportspeople from Manhattan Beach, California American men's beach volleyball players Medalists at the 2000 Summer Olympics