Riley Salmon, a former Creek graduate, recently represented the USA in men’s Olympic volleyball at the Athens games. Ironically, volleyball wasn’t always Salmon’s “court sport” of choice.

While at Creek, Salmon was looking for a pick-up basketball game one day, but stumbled instead into boy’s volleyball practice. Obviously, that mistake has worked to his advantage. The 6’6” outside hitter is not only a great indoor player, but is also outstanding at beach volleyball. He is so good, in fact, that he decided to play beach volleyball professionally. Between the years of 1998 and 2004, Salmon raked in $4000 worth of prize money with partner Jim Walls. Salmon attributes his beach volleyball beginnings to the sand courts in Galveston where many of the current players still compete in summer tournaments.

“The sand was perfect for me to fine-tune my indoor game, so both games really developed quickly for me at the same time,” Salmon told the Houston Chronicle earlier this year.

After graduating from Creek, Salmon packed his bags for California. He attended Pierce College where he played two years of varsity ball from 1994-96. As if California was not far enough away, Salmon decided to play for P.A.O.K., the professional volleyball league in Greece, and participated in numerous world tours.

After two years of high school experience, two years of junior college experience, combined with several years of indoor and outdoor play, Salmon joined the USA team in 2001. He took a brief rest he rejoined the team in 2002.

The US coach says of Salmon, “Most of our guys have been three and four time All-American players, so with him, to be where he is now speaks volumes. But we knew he was a different kind of player when we got him. And that’s exactly what I was looking for when I needed to regroup this team. He brings an intensity and energy that we really needed.”

2003 proved to be a good year for the US team and for Salmon. With a gold medal at the World Championships the team was thinking about the Olympics. In 2004 at the NORCECA zone championship in Mexico, high hopes were on the team to qualify. After days of intense play, the USA team persevered as the champions and paved the way to Athens.

The team entered the Greek stadium in August with dreams of gold, but their hopes were cut short after a heartbreaking game against Russia. The American men ended the Athens games in fourth place.

Here at Creek we are proud of Salmon and are very pleased that he stumbled upon the volleyball practice and has come so far. He joins a list of Creek grads who shine their light on us as their launching pad for success.