Misty May-Treanor is making a mockery of the word “retirement.” Six years after the three-time Olympic gold medalist and NCAA champion announced the end of her playing career, the Long Beach resident is keeping more than busy with family, coaching at Long Beach City College, and starting a new volleyball club.
On the family front, May-Treanor and her husband, former MLB baseball player Matt Treanor, have three of their four hands full. That’s because May-Treanor gave birth to twin daughters, Mele and Mia, last November. That meant that their daughter Malia got two new sisters and Misty and Matt went from one kid to three.
“We’ve been lucky, the twins are so good,” she said. “They sleep through the night, so we’ve been very fortunate.”
May-Treanor said that as she’s been keeping busy with work, having kids has helped to keep things in perspective. At last weekend’s LBCC/Long Beach State beach volleyball exhibition match, she said, “Your life changes, and I tell the girls, there’s so much going on in the world, whether they win or lose today is minute by comparison.”
That being said, there’s been much more winning than losing at LBCC, where May-Treanor is the director of volleyball, overseeing the indoor women’s and beach teams which she coaches, as well as the men’s team. The Vikings’ beach team is 15-5, but that’s a misleading record—four of the five losses are to NCAA Division 1 programs like Long Beach State, CSU Northridge, and Utah.
The Vikings will host the South Coast Conference championships at Granada Beach on Friday beginning at 8 a.m. and are the overwhelming favorites to win there.
“We only have a few girls who are hitters indoors, we’re mostly DSs and liberos,” said May-Treanor. “We aren’t the biggest team, so it’s a puzzle for us to put the team together.”
In addition to coaching championship teams at LBCC, May-Treanor recently announced she’s diving into the world of club volleyball, opening a new program she’s calling Dream in Gold Volleyball. The world of club volley in Southern California is a crowded one, but May-Treanor said she’s hoping to bring something new to the field.
“I don’t want the club environment,” she said. “I want to bring the enjoyment back to the parents and kids—we’re going to make it small, we aren’t going to have three different 18s teams. We want to keep the expense down and educate parents and kids that it doesn’t have to be this animal that it’s grown into.”
May-Treanor said she’s recently secured a facility for the club, and more info will be available soon.
If parenthood, coaching, and business ownership don’t sound like enough, May-Treanor got back to her roots last week, partnering with LBCC assistant and fellow LBSU alum Tyler Jackson during the Vikings’ match against the 49ers. Because NCAA teams have an exhibition pair playing and the junior college level doesn’t, May-Treanor and Jackson faced off against LBSU and Utah’s exhibition pairs, sweeping both of them.
“Just trying to stay busy,” she said with a laugh.
