Cross & Crescent

I really don’t have some great story about Phil Dalhausser (Central Florida 2002). He had his moments. He was always the unassuming…never the one grabbing the attention. He was never the one leading the pack or getting up at chapter meetings.

He was a quite leader, one who led by example.

Phil was always there, doing the right thing. If you needed something he would always be there for you. There are all types of brothers, and he was a good brother in a different way than someone who is president of the chapter. That’s just Phil.

The first night I met Phil, he left an impression: you don’t meet many people that tall. I met him during recruitment our freshman year. We were both at the Lambda Chi tent, and the volleyball captain, Mark Moore, was recruiting both of us. Knowing I played volleyball, Mark introduced me to Phil. The first impression was that he was a nice, modest guy who was excited about playing volleyball and that was cool with me.

It was how our friendship started when we showed up to intramural practice together. I was a setter at the time and he was obviously a middle hitter. We ended up getting to the intramural championship and losing. Volleyball was the beginning of our friendship; obviously it has gone beyond volleyball since.

Central Florida Intramurals

We played intramural beach volleyball together one year. It’s one of the worst stories I can tell. I played volleyball with Phil Dalhausser and we lost. I guess you have to blame me. Him winning the gold in Beijing makes it bittersweet.

We had fun though. We were both pretty competitive people, though Phil doesn’t always show it. When he gets fired up on the court it’s pretty fun to see. The thing with Phil, he didn’t play organized volleyball his whole career. We didn’t have a coach or anything when we played indoors club. You notice the pure talent he had and he would raise his level to the competition — he just knew instinctively how to play. From watching him there was nothing that made me think he would be the top-rated player in world on the beach but there was no doubt he had the pure talent.

Phil was always around, always participating with the fraternity. He won athlete of the year after I won it. He didn’t just play volleyball; he played all kinds of sports. I can remember him dunking over someone in a basketball game and the whole crowd just going crazy. He always attended chapter meetings and was never the guy getting in trouble. He is the type of person you were looking for with little brothers. He was always good with them and got them involved.

Phil began taking volleyball seriously after we graduated, playing competitively in tournaments up the coast. It was the first time that I was “wow, he can do this.” We followed him as he progressed further and further into tournaments. This is real. The next thing we knew he is in California with a top-rated partner.

Gold Medal Match

We were all excited about him qualifying for the Olympics. Through my involvement with the Central Florida Alumni Association, I was able to get some people together through the chapter alumni website (http://cflxa.com/) to watch the gold medal match.

A small group of us picked a restaurant in the UCF area, thinking it would be fun to be close to campus. They reserved us a section in front of the big screen TV. Fifteen to 20 guys showed up. There were all recent graduates, anywhere between a couple undergraduates and five years out. It was a group of friends and brothers.

We were screaming at every point and people were looking at us. “Why do they care so much about volleyball.” Little by little we spread the word that he was a UCF graduate and our Fraternity brother. Through our enthusiasm, we got the rest of the bar excited and into the game as well. Right around game point we had the whole bar shouting “USA, USA!”

At match point the whole place erupted.

The feeling of seeing a brother attain that level of success is unreal. We were confident that he would win because we knew how good the team is and dominant he is. Watching him on TV though was just surreal.

I just sat remembering I played beach volleyball with him…I played beach volleyball with a gold medalist. I was real proud I had the opportunity to play with him. He deserves everything. He worked real hard. He took what God gave him and that’s awesome.

Phil keeps in regular contact with a number of Fraternity brothers. During the Olympics Phil was text messaging a brother we played volleyball with, John Cotch, about a fantasy football league. That just tells you how Phil is: real relaxed, down to earth and a true friend. You would never know the difference — it’s just Phil.