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Misty May: Dancing With the Gatorade Stars!

Misty May: Dancing With the Gatorade Stars!

Dancing with the Stars fan favorite Misty May goes up for the block at the Gatorade Athlete of the Year luncheon (hosted by ESPN’s Stuart Scott) in Los Angeles on Wednesday (July 15).

Misty, 31, lasted only two weeks on the show before rupturing her Achilles tendon. Prior to the show, Misty and partner, Kerri Walsh, were best known as the greatest beach volleyball team of all time. Interview after the jump!

The Gatorade Player of the Year award honors high school athletes for their athletic excellence, academic achievement and exceptional character. Basketball star Skylar Diggins and football star Garrett Gilbert took home the hardware.

10+ pictures and exclusive interview inside of Misty May Dancing with the Gatorade Stars…

JJ: How was your experience with Dancing with The Stars?

MM: Short-lived experience! I want more!

JJ: Would you have a rematch after you heal?

MM: I would love to. I’m pretty much done with rehab, I’ve been cleared to do everything back and heal – I do hip-hop aerobics at the gym, so I would love another shot at it. Two weeks – you get a taste of the candy and then it gets taken away! I tried to convince my husband, like, “you’ve gotta take some dance classes…” in the tight black pants, come on.

JJ: Does he dance at all?

MM: We’re the first ones to sit down when a slow song comes on at a wedding, like, “oh, yep! Gotta leave the floor”.

JJ: I also saw you on Wizards of Waverly Place – how’d you end up on that show?

MM: They asked – I’d done Eve after the ’04 games (I had a cameo as Wonder Woman) and Wizards of Waverly came along. And when you get opportunities like Dancing with The Stars, you don’t know when they’re going to come around again and you’ve got to try everything – it’s like trying different foods.

And it’s just fun – it’s fun to see different lifestyles, to see behind the scenes how things work. That was a great show – all the kids were great, the production was one of the nicest. They actually got me a box for my medal ’cause I didn’t have a box for my medal!

JJ: What have you been doing with your time off?

MM: A lot of rehab. Rehabbing, trying to clean up around the house…when we’re on the road as much as we are, it’s just nice being in one spot and being able to take care of the little things you don’t appreciate, even cleaning! It’s so nice to blare music and just relaxing – it’s the first summer I’ve had off since I was 12 – take bike rides to the beach, really visit with family and friends and catch up.

JJ: Are you planning to return to the beach?

MM: We would like to start a family, so we’re trying that and I have the Achilles, but it’s nice ’cause something forced me to stop, like, “okay, take a timeout”. But I run a couple clinics – I have a clinic this weekend in South Carolina and I want to do more – we’re trying to start a foundation and do private lessons, so there’s different things that keep me involved, keep me going but it is, I’m not gonna lie, nice to have weekends for time off, to do other things – go camping and whatnot.

JJ: Are you surprised at the press you got when you offered President Bush a slap at the Olympics?

MM: We had this tattoo thing going on – we had been to the White House before the Games and we had to go in a line in the Oval Office, and introduce ourselves, say what we did, and Kerri went before me and he goes, “oh, you play volleyball?” and he did a spike motion.

When I went, he’s, like, “oh, what do you do?” and I said, “I play volleyball – I play defense behind her” and I bent over, giving him a sign. He said, “…you’re the one with the tattoos!” so it looked like he was hitting my tattoo but after, when he was leaving our practice that day, he was, like, “Okay, I’ll be back!”

I said, “Are you going to bring back one of these tattoos?” for him to put a tattoo, so he went like that (gestures) on my back but it looked like…something else.

JJ: Interesting.

MM: But yeah, we wouldn’t go there.

JJ: President Obama seems to enjoy basketball and he threw out the first pitch at the All-Star Game yesterday. What do you think about getting him in the sand?

MM: They have those pictures of him in the magazines with his shorts on, so he has the body! But you know what, he’s athletic – I’ve watched him on the basketball court – and usually basketball players make very good volleyball players, so it’d be fun. And especially if he grew up in Hawaii – come on! Everybody plays volleyball there. But it’d be fun if we had the opportunity to get him out there.

JJ: How about you and Kerri challenge President Obama and Vice President Biden?

MM: I’d serve Biden! I’d serve Biden every ball! (laughs)

JJ: How’s Kerri doing after having her baby?

MM: She’s doing good. She’s going to come back and play in a couple weeks.

JJ: She’s playing with Rachel, right?

MM: Yeah, Team Mom. Team Buggy.

JJ: What do you think you’ll be thinking when you see Kerri playing with someone else?

MM: Oh, nothing – I’ve already asked if they need help to hit balls, yeah! We’ve played with different people before so there’s no “argh, I hate her!” She’s going to go back, and she needs to do what she needs to do. I want her to do her best.

JJ: Cool, supportive friend. Favorite movie?

MM: I saw The Hangover, and I thought that was hilarious, so the music in there reminded me of The Hangover. But I would have to say overall favorite movie…one that always gets me is Hope Floats with Sandra Bullock. But then you gotta go, like, sports movie – good old Hoosiers.

JJ: Favorite song?

MM: I have too many! I was listening to country on the plane ride home but I would say favorite song right now would be…I always like Highway Man.

JJ: Favorite sport besides volleyball?

MM: Baseball – my husband plays baseball!

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