Meet Joe Garcia, Wallyball's Creator, aka "Mr Wallyball"

   Joe Garcia began his love of sports right out of high school playing minor league baseball as a catcher with the Los Angeles Dodger organization. He never realized a baseball career and began a new life chapter in the US Air Force where he was Viet Nam Veteran and Air Medal recipient. 

Upon his honorable discharge, Joe moved to California to pursue an acting career and became a racquetball teaching pro. It was during the early 70’s that racquetball was extremely popular and there were thousands of clubs around the country but so was Jane Fonda and aerobics. Club owners quickly determined that aerobics on their courts would generate more income than 2 people playing racquetball. Club owners began converting racquetball courts to aerobics and fitness studios.

Witnessing the inevitable, Joe began experimenting with various sports and games to play on a racquetball court. Volleyball was a natural fit with 50 million Volleyball players in our country. A rope and volleyball net were cut to size and along with a leather volleyball and a few willing friends, Wallyball was conceived. The name came naturally as did the basic volleyball rules, skill sets and out of bounds were created to prevent it from becoming human pinball in the court. 

The next few years Joe spent developing custom hardware to easily put up and take down the net, creating a custom wallyball equipment package for clubs, developing collateral materials, seeking investors, sponsors, traveling to trade shows, and creating tournaments to showcase the sport. Joe also developed a relationship with legendary UCLA Volleyball Coach Al Scates who assisted in developing and refining the rules as well as adding credibility in the volleyball community.

At a sports trade show in California, Joe was approached by the R & D manager from AMF Voit. To this point, Joe was utilizing a leather volleyball and AMF Voit offered to develop a rubber Wallyball. AMF Voit was heavily invested in racquetball and Wallyball was a natural fit. This was the major turning point for Wallyball. 

Over the next several years, AMF Voit became a major sponsor and strategic partner. They provided collateral and sales materials, rule books, advertising, newsletters and assisted in staging a national Wallyball tour. The yearlong motor home tour consisted of clinics and demos at racquetball clubs all over the country and generated print and electronic media at each tour stop. It also generated the attention of Contemporary Books which published The Official Book of Wallyball. 

 As racquetball continued to wane in popularity and participation, racquetball clubs continued converting courts to fitness centers. Joe spent the eighties and early nineties staging tournaments, acquiring sponsors, attracting new equipment manufacturers, creating governing bodies, seeking financial partners, and finally building a portable glass Wallyball court. The court was utilized to showcase the sport in shopping malls, trade shows and other high traffic venues. In lieu of attracting players to the clubs, the court would attract players to the sport and the clubs.

 During a brief hiatus from Wallyball, Joe embarked on a new career as a business development manager in the telecommunications industry creating VOIP products. At a racquetball symposium, Joe met a Structural Engineer who shared his court-sports enthusiasm and during the next few years Joe and his partner began developing and refining a multi court-sports facility and toured the country promoting various concepts without any success. Joe stepped back from his entrepreneurial endeavors and is now living happily in Reno, NV with his wife Liesa and their dog Rico.