how it started
Surfside Volleyball Club began in 2001 with a single team and a simple goal: create a place where young athletes could learn, grow, compete, and fall in love with the game of volleyball.
Ironically, the club started because one young girl finally agreed to play.
Hayley Lawson grew up in a family of athletes. Her three older sisters all competed all played Division 1 Volleyball, and sports were a central part of family life. Her mother, Carolyn, was a member of USC's first-ever women's basketball team, and her dad, Rick, competed in track and field at UCLA. Despite her family's athletic background, Hayley had different plans. She wanted to be a dancer.
But after years of watching her sisters compete and spending countless weekends being carried from gym to gym, she finally agreed to give volleyball a try.
With that decision, Rick and Carolyn Lawson founded Surfside Volleyball Club.
our first team
The club's very first team consisted of Hayley, her eleven best friends, and her oldest sister as their coach. From the beginning, Surfside was built differently. Every player played equally in the first two sets of every match, and winning only became a factor if a third-set tiebreaker was needed. Development, teamwork, and enjoyment of the game came first.
That first team finished sixth overall in the SCVA, an incredible accomplishment for a brand-new club.
The following year, more friends wanted to play, and Surfside expanded to two teams. Year after year, the club continued to grow, providing local athletes with opportunities to learn the fundamentals of volleyball, compete at a high level, and develop a lifelong love for the sport.
As Hayley got older, she remained involved with Surfside as a coach and mentor. After graduating from Davidson College, where she was a two-year team captain and finished her career as the program's second all-time leader in assists as a setter, she knew returning home to help lead Surfside was not only inevitable—it was exactly what she wanted to do.
the growth
Just six months after joining her mother in running the club, Carolyn unexpectedly became ill. At only 24 years old, Hayley found herself taking over the day-to-day leadership of the organization.
What followed was a period of tremendous growth.
Under Hayley's leadership, Surfside expanded from six teams to as many as 36 teams across three locations throughout the Los Angeles area. Along the way, she also served as the varsity head coach at both Mira Costa High School and Harvard-Westlake School, helping develop some of Southern California's top volleyball talent. She eventually stepped away from high school coaching after the birth of her second son in 2021, allowing her to focus fully on her family and the continued growth of Surfside.
But growth, trophies, and rankings were never what mattered most.
At eighteen years old, after nearly a decade of playing volleyball, Hayley often found herself driving home from practice in tears, telling her best friend she wanted to quit because of the way she was being coached. Those experiences left a lasting impression. She made a promise to herself that if she ever had the opportunity to lead a club, she would create a different kind of environment—one built on positivity, encouragement, accountability, and genuine care for athletes.
She believed players could be challenged without being torn down. That athletes perform best when they feel supported. That confidence and character matter just as much as wins and losses.
That philosophy became the foundation of Surfside.
our mission
Over the years, hundreds of Surfside athletes have gone on to compete at the collegiate level. Thousands more have left the club with lessons that extend far beyond volleyball: resilience, teamwork, leadership, confidence, and lifelong friendships.
Today, while Hayley has stepped back from the day-to-day responsibilities of directing the club to focus on raising her two young boys, Surfside remains one of her proudest accomplishments. What began as a single team of twelve friends has grown into a community that has impacted generations of athletes and families.
The true legacy of Surfside has never been measured by championships, rankings, or trophies.
It is measured by the athletes who discovered confidence they didn't know they had. The friendships formed in the gym. The lessons learned through hard work and perseverance. The young girls who grew into strong women because someone believed in them.
More than two decades after its founding, Surfside continues to stand for the same values that inspired its creation: opportunity, positivity, development, and a genuine love for the game.
And while the faces in the gym may change, the mission remains the same—to help every athlete become the very best version of herself, both on and off the court.