He had never been punched before, let alone attacked. But for whatever reason, in May of 1997, that changed.

Outside a grocery store in Hawaii, Stolfus was sitting in the passenger seat of a Honda Civic, ready to exit the parking lot. Suddenly, a local Hawaiian sprinted to his open window and punched him in the back of the head.

Stolfus' head was left with a knot that lasted three weeks. His confusion would last longer.

“I thought, 'What is going on? What happened?' ” said Stolfus, 31, then a redshirt freshman for the University of Hawaii volleyball team. “I couldn't understand why somebody would rush a car and punch a passenger through an open window for anything, let alone if there was something I had actually done.”

The attack made Stolfus, an Iowa native, examine his volleyball options outside of Hawaii. Shortly thereafter, he transferred to San Diego State.

Now, 11 years since his transfer, Stolfus is returning to San Diego. Today through Sunday, the Association of Volleyball Professionals pro beach tour is here for the 2008 AVP Crocs Slam.

At Mariner's Point on Mission Bay, Stolfus will pair with former Hawaii teammate Jason Ring in the single-elimination tournament, comprised of two 32-team men's and women's brackets.

While Stolfus loves the game, his dreams lie outside the sandbox.

He dreams about making enough money so he can propose to his longtime girlfriend, Melissa Powers, and he dreams about finishing his novel and have it published.

The first dream is a work in progress. The second is a bit more complicated.

After graduating from SDSU as an English major in 2000, Stolfus spent a year in Taiwan teaching English and working on his novel, inspired from a conversation he had with former SDSU head men's volleyball coach Jack Henn about a banker who runs off with an illegal fortune.

In 2001, Stolfus returned to San Diego with 312 handwritten pages. When unpacking, however, he realized he had somehow misplaced the novel.

Stolfus waited until 2003 before restarting, this time typing it up on an Apple laptop. About 188 pages later, it happened again. Somebody broke into his car and stole everything he owned, including his novel.

“I don't think I had cried for about 15 years before then,” he said. “The first time it was devastating. The second time it broke me down.”

Now, he is again writing the novel by hand, and vows to keep it with him at all times.

Eleven years later, he knows his course in life was largely determined in that grocery-store parking lot.

“I've thought about it, and it's funny,” Stolfus said. “If I never would have transferred, I never would have gone to San Diego State, I never would have heard that story (from my coach). I never would have written that book. And right now, even though I've had the book taken away from me twice, it's still a huge part of me.

“Shoot, maybe someday I'll publish it and it will be a New York Times best seller. . . . Anything is possible.”

Michael Gehlken is a Union-Tribune intern.