The Eric Zaun Scholarship is the up-and-coming tier of Chasing Gold, the athletes who are not yet competing on the World Tour but will. And soon. It is an eponym of the one and only Eric Zaun, a phenomenal player who committed suicide in June of 2019. His story, and our cause, are below.

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You could call the guy anything and he’d respond. Cookie Robinson. Danny Fahrenheit (because, as he liked to say, “it’s heating up!”). Lamb Rivermore. Midnight Verde. Greenhouse. If there’s one thing Eric Zaun loved — and he loved a great deal of things — it was a good nickname. Or a bad one, really. He didn’t care. So long as you didn’t call him Eric.

For whatever reason, he wasn’t a huge fan of his own name, hence the astonishing number of aliases that Zaun chose to go by. And yet, there is one that will have lasting power.

Eric Zaun was The Road Dog.

His time with us was too short. Yet the impact he made, on communities all over the world, from Vietnam to Cherry Hill, a little town in South Carolina called Gaffney to a booming metropolis in California called Los Angeles. Anyone who came into contact with Eric Zaun left better than they were before or, at the very least, had one heck of a story to tell.

That’s the mission of the Eric Zaun Scholarship: To ensure his spirit lives on in the sport of beach volleyball. Founded in 2019 by a group of beach volleyball players who had grown close with Zaun, the scholarship is intended to help those who embody the blue-collar work ethic with the adventurous mindset of a person who’s down to live in a van. It’s intended to aid those who need little and want even less. It’s intended to allow someone to chase their dreams of being a beach volleyball player while easing the burden of such a financially burdensome task.

It’s intended to help the Road Dogs in the sport, the grinders, the ones with character and gumption, the ones who don’t wither on a match point on stadium court but live for those moments, the ones who will say yes to adventures and figure the rest out as they go.

In 2020, Eric’s brother, Brian, added to the award. He formed a non-profit organization, dubbed the 1690 Initiative, that will work in conjunction with the Eric Zaun Scholarship to provide a little help to those under mental stress — funding beach volleyball players who cannot afford rent, sending care packages to stressed out college students, delivering ice cream to homeless in New Jersey and Philadelphia.The mission of the 1690 Initiative is to help improve the quality of people’s lives in our community by providing education, awareness and advocacy in the area of mental health.Morale will remain high!

How to donate

Head to our donation page and, when you donate, make a note so we know those funds should be directed towards our Eric Zaun tier of athlete and cause — mental health awareness. Your note could be anything in which we’d know it’s for Zaun — Road Dog, Zaun, EZ, Danny Fahrenheit, S10. Doesn’t matter. We’ll know. Thus far, we have raised more than $25,000, which has helped seven beach volleyball players pay rent, travel to events, win medals, buy groceries, and represent the United States of America as well as Canada.

You can donate whatever amount you’d like, and in return, you’ll have a tax-deductible donation, our extreme gratitude, and the appreciation and love of the beach volleyball community.

Previous winners

2020 Eric Zaun Scholarship Winners

• Andy Benesh
  • Andy Benesh is one of the most promising blockers on the AVP Tour. His career-high seventh-place finish in Hermosa Beach with Adam Roberts came on the heels of an upset over fourth-seeded Stafford Slick and Billy Allen
  • Was a four-year starter and All-American at USC
  • Has made four career AVP main draws
• Crissy Jones
  • A court-one blocker at Cal Poly, Crissy Jones made a splash at AVP Hermosa, where her and UCLA’s Zana Muno emerged from the qualifier to finish third
  • In 2020, partnered with Traci Callahan, Jones finished in the top 10 three consecutive events
  • In her first international event, in Cambodia, Jones and Callahan finished fifth, beating eventual gold medalists Sara Hughes and Lauren Fendrick in the opening round of pool play.
• Kelly Reeves
  • Bringing the Gucci Vibes to the AVP Tour, Reeves, the 2016 Rookie of the Year, is the consummate beach volleyball player, coaching when she’s not playing, playing when she’s not coaching
  • Won an NCAA Championship at UCLA
  • Has medaled in eight international events

2019 Eric Zaun Scholarship Winners

• Logan Webber
  • A Michigan kid, Webber made the move to California and made an immediate impact with his 6-foot-9 frame and impossibly long wingspand.
  • Competed in eight AVP qualifiers in 2019.
  • Has made four AVP main draws.
  • Highest finish: 13th at AVP Huntington Beach
• Megan Nash
  • Won a WCC Championship at LMU, the first in school history
  • Competed in her first professional event, an FIVB two-star in China. Made main draw with Alex Poletto.
  • Competed in three international events representing Canada, finishing with a bronze medal in the Dominican Republic.
• Kacey Losik
  • A 19-year-old who moved from Santa Cruz to Long Beach to train with the best
  • Competed in five AVPs in 2019
  • Made two main draws
• Aurora Davis
  • Supermom came straight from maternity leave and into four AVPs and a NORCECA
  • Made main draws at AVP Chicago and AVP Manhattan Beach
  • Won gold in her first NORCECA, in Bonaire with Allie Wheeler

Learn about Eric Zaun

• The McKibbin brothers did a phenomenal — phenomenal — video on our favorite Road Dog, with an introduction from Chris Geeter McGee

• Travis Mewhirter wrote a piece on Zaun for VolleyballMag that was recognized in the 2020 edition of the Best American Sports Writing, which you can read here.