By Marc Raimondi

Ryan Doherty was once a star pitcher at Notre Dame and Arizona Diamondbacks farmhand. Now, he’s one of the top rising stars in the world of beach volleyball.

In between, the New Jersey native might have been the tallest pizza delivery boy of all time.

Doherty is 7-foot-1. When he first moved to California to pursue life as a beach volleyball player, he needed to pay his bills. So he picked up a job making deliveries on a bike for Z Pizza in Huntington Beach.

Imagine seeing a man the size of Shaquille O’Neal tooling down the road on a bicycle with a steaming pizza pie in tow. That’s a little ridiculous even by Southern California standards.

“People used to get a little freaked out when they answered the door and my head was above the door frame,” Doherty said. “I tried to stand a little further back.”

Doherty is pushing to the front these days. About eight years after picking up a volleyball for the first time in earnest, the 32-year-old is on the cusp of accomplishments as gigantic as his wingspan. Doherty and partner John Mayer already won an AVP tournament this season at the New Orleans Open, which added another victory to their 2015 Seattle Open title. Unfortunately, the duo won't have a chance to defend their title this weekend at the 2016 Seattle stop, as Doherty rolled his ankle prior to the tournament.

Given his relative inexperience, especially compared to some of the players on the tour, Doherty believes he has not yet hit his ceiling in the sport.

“I would say that I’m happy with the progress that I’ve made and I’m proud of myself for getting to where I’m at now,” Doherty said. “But I don’t want to rest on my laurels. I believe that I haven’t reached the best that I could be just yet.”

In 2007, Doherty was released by the Diamondbacks organization and had nowhere to turn. All he knew was being an athlete and competitor.

“That was real tough for me,” he said. “You’re a baseball player one day and then you’re not the next. It kind of blindsides you a little bit. I literally ran away and lived with a buddy of mine on his couch in South Carolina. It was a one-bedroom apartment and I just kind of crashed with him for a while.”

It was in Hilton Head, South Carolina, where Doherty discovered volleyball for the second time in his life. As a kid, Doherty set up nets for the Jersey Shore Volleyball Association in New Jersey, but he didn’t really take to the game then. His friend and then-roommate saw people playing on the beach in South Carolina and they decided to give it a try.

“We got beat every weekend by high-school girls, but it was a lot of fun and I absolutely loved it,” Doherty said.

Doherty was hooked. Soon after, he moved to Huntington Beach, where he could play every day against talented players. Humbled by teens in South Carolina, Doherty found himself humbled again in Southern California.

“When I moved out to California, I had a couple of years of just playing for fun under my belt,” Doherty said. “Once I got out here, I realized how not far along I was in terms of the skills of the game—passing, setting, knowing how to move on the court. The things that being really big help like blocking, hitting, I was always a little bit more inclined at those. Just getting lots and lots of reps at passing the ball and setting the ball and kind of seeing how everything works was real important to me in those early stages.”

Doherty turned pro in 2010, but did not really consider himself a professional beach volleyball player until two years later. Sand stalwart Casey Patterson picked up Doherty as his partner, and the pair defeated Olympic duo Todd Rogers and Phil Dalhausser to win the National Volleyball League title in Baltimore. 

Rogers and Dalhausser are legends. Dalhausser, a 6-foot-9 monster, was a player Doherty looked up to for many reasons. Doherty believes Dalhausser is the prototype for tall players on the beach.

“I try to watch everything that he does,” Doherty said. “In my mind, he’s the best beach volleyball player in the short-court era. Not of all time. But in terms of when they shrunk the size of the court down, he’s been the most dominant guy that we've ever had.

“He’s definitely been an inspiration for me and I think a lot of other tall guys. He’s the reason why there's a whole bunch of trees out there now.”

After that NVL victory, Doherty got a lot of props from family and friends. He felt like he finally made it. The most satisfying moment, though? Going to Z Pizza the next day.

“The other part was getting to walk into my job as a pizza delivery guy the next day and say, ‘I’m not gonna work here anymore. I’m a professional volleyball player now,’” Doherty remembered.

Four years later, Doherty is one of the best. Doherty and Mayer, a former Pepperdine star and current Loyola Marymount beach coach, are on the cusp of big things. After winning in New Orleans, they finished third in Huntington Beach and fourth at the FIVB Cincinnati Open. Last year, they didn’t finish below fifth on the AVP and had two second-place finishes to go along with the Seattle Open crown.

“I’ve never been that guy who sets concrete goals,” Doherty said. “Mine has always been, ‘I want to see how good I can be.’ I want to the best beach volleyball player that I can be. I don’t exactly know what that means. Maybe it means I get to represent the U.S. in the Olympics in 2020. Maybe that means that I never quite get to that upper echelon of the top couple players in the world. But you know, I get to do OK and whatever the end of that story is, I’ll be proud of myself as long as I know I pushed myself as far as I can get.”

Whatever happens next, Doherty can’t complain. Then again, he didn't mind pedaling a bike while schlepping pizzas a few years ago, either.

“The life I lead now is fantastic,” he said. “Walking down to the beach in the morning to play volleyball with some really good people. Getting to see how good I can be against the best players in the country, the best players in the world, it’s really a dream come true. But I loved the pizza delivery job as well.”