Dad's club leads to bonding for US men's volleyball team

TOKYO (AP) — Micah Christenson's Olympic preparation got interrupted for the best possible reason.

Christenson was playing a pre-Olympic tournament in Italy in June with the rest of the U.S. men's volleyball team when he hopped on a plane for a trip of about 8,000 miles to head home to Hawaii for less than 48 hours to be there for the birth of his second child.

“That was a bit chaotic,” Christenson said. “That travel was all a blur. I'm thankful my teammates and coaches supported it."

Family and fatherhood are an integral part of the U.S. team with five of the 12 players on the team being dads, including four who became fathers since the last Olympics in Rio de Janeiro in 2016.

With families unable to travel to the pre-Olympic tournament or to Tokyo because of the coronavirus pandemic, being on the road is a bit more challenging for dads.

“The emotional attachment to home is a little bit different now because I have my wife and my son there instead of just wanting to get home,” said U.S. player Matt Anderson, who got married and became a first-time father in 2020. “Having somebody there to go home to be around for a bit more, adds more to it, makes it a little bit more complex and more intricate."

Anderson and Christenson are part of the informal “dad's club” on the U.S. team in Tokyo.

Christenson became a first-time father in 2018 when his son Ezekiel was born and then Quinn joined the family in June. He got to spend about three weeks at home between the two tournaments with some bonding time he cherishes now that he's apart again.

Outside hitter Taylor Sander and setter Kawika Shoji also became fathers for the first time in 2018 and Shoji had a second daughter last year.

“I think it’s another of level of relationship that we can have with each other,” Anderson...