LJ b beach VB: Danish former tour player assists with Clairemont

Morty Fog wears his

Danish pro tour jersey

to the LJ-Clairemont

match Tues., Sept. 23.

(Photo by Ed Piper)

By Ed Piper

Morten "Morty" Fog was wearing his bright red "Danish BeachVolley Tour" jersey--offset by his blue trunks--at the La Jolla-Clairemont beach volleyball match at the back of the Chieftains' campus Tues., Sept. 23.

It was the lead-in to a conversation about the jersey, and additionally, Morty's experience on the Danish pro tour, which peaked in his being named the top middle player in 2015.

The conversation then lent itself to a lengthy discussion over just what a pro player is. "Does it mean I played at the top level? That I received money for playing?" Fog asked rhetorically.

His last name, Fog, was even memorable. A reporter said, "Like the fog rolls in?" "Yeah," the 6'4" former beach player said.

"I played for 20 years at the highest level," he said during the extended "what is a pro" debate. "I made pocket money" during his best years at the highest level.

The issue really comes up because, as the reporter and interviewee agreed, outside of North America, the rest of the world subscribes to a non-scholastic view of sports and clubs that compete in those sports.

For example, this reporter lived in Mexico City right after college to teach English and language arts in a small private school. It is there that he encountered this "non-scholastic" system, which he later learned predominates around the world.

Teams there in basketball, in his area of preference, aren't tied to any high school or college. In fact, pro soccer teams that are named "UNAM" (Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico) or "UAG" (Universidad Autonoma de Guadalajara) have nothing to do with those universities except the name, and athletes who populate their rosters are not students in those schools.

"We have an NCAA in Denmark," said Morty, bringing the discussion back to Scandinavia. "But it oversees teams that are unaligned with schools." In other words, that version of the NCAA isn't really "Collegiate", it would be a board that oversees the sports world in Denmark.

Fog is now 38 years old. He last played on the Danish Beach Volleyball Tour three years ago. He also played in Switzerland and, of all places--he laughed--Bangladesh.

The tour in Denmark has 10 to 12 teams. Four of them come from Copenhagen, the capital.