“Volleyball is a girls’ sport.”

Casey Patterson was convinced men and volleyball didn’t go together. That's what he told his mom when she urged him to try out during his freshman year in high school.

He wasn’t necessarily wrong. More than 61 percent of volleyball participants in the United States are females, according to a recent Superstudy of Sports Participation.

15 years after trying out for Newbury Park High School, Patterson is the 13th-ranked man on the AVP Tour. He spends an offseason afternoon babysitting four-month old son Cash, putting him in a jumper chair to develop leg muscles.

“He’s doing plyometrics,” Patterson half-jokes, half-brags. “I put him in there more than I should to give him a head start.”

With no prior experience, Patterson earned varsity playing time at setter as a freshman. It didn’t take him long to forget baseball and basketball, the two more macho sports of his past, and pursue his newfound talent.

Patterson attended a summer volleyball camp at Pepperdine, where he felt an ideal fit with the Waves’ coaching staff. The University of the Pacific recruited him as heavily as anyone. But after graduating as Newbury Park High’s all-time assists leader, Patterson chose a path that led him far from the coasts of California and into the South.

A member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Patterson spent two years in Little Rock, Ark., on his mission. Dedicated to his faith and his game, Patterson’s aspirations never wandered far from volleyball.

“I was running, sprinting up bleachers, doing a million pushups or however many I could,” Patterson says of workouts during his mission. “I knew I’d want to play when I came back.”

His best chance to play came on a club team, but not for long. One week into his career at Utah Valley State College (now Utah Valley University), Patterson led his team to a tournament championship. In the process, he caught the attention of Hector Lebron, “one of BYU’s best setters ever” in Patterson’s words.

Lebron was one year removed from leading BYU to the NCAA national championship as a senior. The former First-Team All-American, playing club for fun, lost to Patterson’s team in the finals. Lebron saw something special and helped recruit Patterson for the Cougars.

Patterson’s indoor skills opened the door to BYU, but it was there that a popular apartment complex caught his attention. It had a sand court where standouts such as Casey Jennings had trained in the past. Ironically, the Southern Californian developed interest in beach volleyball in Utah.

“There was a pool there, always a bunch of hot chicks in bikinis,” Patterson reflects. “I was like, ‘this is the place to be.’”

At least for a while, however, his place remained in the gym.

Lebron’s recommendation didn’t translate to sufficient playing time for Patterson. Seniors stood in line to start, but by his junior year Patterson thought he deserved more time on the court. With the versatility to play setter, outside hitter and libero, he brought his case to his coach’s attention.

“I didn’t feel like I was getting the playing time I should’ve,” Patterson says. “I didn’t feel like he gave me a good enough answer.”

Patterson’s answer was to skip his junior season, move to Hawaii, and train for beach volleyball.

“I went there with about 45 dollars in my pocket,” he remembers. “It was a fly-by- the-seat-of-your-pants situation, but that’s what I wanted. I was over school and the ritual of going to class and practicing.”

Patterson went to Hawaii with Dennis Roberts, whose friend owned two homes. Patterson and Roberts stayed at one of the homes, remodeling it to earn rent. When they weren’t working on the home, they trained on the beach. Two months in, it paid off when Patterson took home $1,000 for his performance in a King of the Beach tournament.

“That gave me enough to eat,” he says.

But the prize money didn’t last forever. Four months after going to Hawaii, Patterson felt compelled to return to BYU and graduate from college before life got more complicated. He figured prominently into the Cougars’ lineup as a senior, starring as an opposite hitter and earning All-Tournament Team honors at the Outrigger Invitational and Hall of Fame Morgan Classic.

After his senior season, Patterson thrived in indoor professional stints in Puerto Rico and Sweden, winning a Swedish Elite Professional League gold medal with his team, Falkenberg, before hitting the sand again.

Crossing over to the beach presents a daunting obstacle for many players with indoor backgrounds, especially when it comes to ball control. Patterson, however, has soared 70 spots since starting 2007 ranked 83rd. He says the speed of the indoor game made him better because “when you go back to beach it’s almost slow motion.

“I was pretty good at adjusting to the beach and how I played. I could set well; I could play both sides of the court. I was comfortable with everything.”

As fans know, Patterson is comfortable showing as much emotion as any player on the Tour, along with partner Ty Loomis. Patterson considers his team’s fiery style of play a product of its confidence. Along with skill and true partnership, he says confidence creates a dynamic AVP duo.

“All those things came together to make it easier for us to be a better team,” Patterson says. “If you don’t have a partner you have chemistry with and athletically can’t do what you need in a partnership, you can’t do what you need to beat the top teams on the Tour.”

By knocking off top-seeded John Hyden and Sean Scott in the Coney Island finals for their first career wins this past July, Patterson and Loomis proved they can beat anyone.

“Winning that tournament was the coolest thing ever,” Patterson says. “We stayed after and signed autographs for two hours because we didn’t want to lose the moment.”

To maintain the moment, Patterson and Loomis filled their Barefoot champagne bottles from the winner’s podium with sand from the beach in Brooklyn—“a little trophy for ourselves, something we wanted to remember forever,” Patterson says.

Not that Patterson doesn’t expect to win again. Winning is “something we’re absolutely looking forward to doing every time we enter a tournament,” he says.

Looking forward to 2010, Patterson expects himself and Loomis to remain a top-eight team and qualify for Best of the Beach. Further, he expects to improve upon a 2009 campaign in which he earned more than $49,000 on Tour after previously winning a total of $11,350 in AVP prize money from 2003-2008.

Patterson also wants to play in FIVB events soon. He says he needs to learn more about the logistics of playing internationally but got a good taste of overseas beach style by returning to Sweden to play with the AVP’s Hans Stolfus during a Tour off-weekend this June. Patterson and Stolfus won the event, defeating a Swedish Olympic team in the finals.

“That was a real confidence-builder because I’d never played FIVB-style volleyball. It was much more of a business style than the lifestyle of the AVP,” Patterson says, noting strict regulations on team uniforms and a tight schedule. “You can’t even use the restroom without permission.”

He’s not joking about that last part. Nevertheless, it could have prepared him for a much bigger international stage. Patterson says he would “give anything to go and try to qualify for the Olympics.”

Coming from a guy who used volleyball as a way to survive four months in Hawaii, it’s possible.

Patterson’s climb toward the top continues with another trip this offseason. Next week he leaves for Puerto Rico, where he’ll play more indoor volleyball for two and a half months. Accompanying him this time will be his wife Lexi, Cash, and more than 45 dollars. Among others, Patterson will team up with Americans Matt McKinney and Nils Nielsen in Puerto Rico.

“I look at it as a good way to stay in shape and play at a high level of volleyball and get even better at beach,” he says. “It’s always nice to have some guys you know. That makes it a lot more fun.”

Fun seems to be a theme in Patterson’s life, and it shows on the court. His level and style of play show it’s more than just a girls’ sport, after all.