Last modified on 10-09-2007.
Adults: 2005 USAV Nationals -- From Our Teams' Perspective
The following articles were submitted by various GEVA teams that participated at the 2005 Open National Volleyball Championships in Denver, CO.
Last updated - 11 September 2005
Big Willy's made their second trip in a row out to Nationals in Denver. We were hoping to better our Silver winning performance of the year before. We avoided the dreaded play-in match, which was our downfall last year, by winning our pool with a 5-0 match record and 10-0 game record. That took a lot out of us as we were not the same team the next day. We came out flat and got knocked into the loser's bracket. We won the next match but lost after that. We hope to make another trip to New Orleans next year and better our finish again.
Playing volleyball in a national tournament is amazing for someone who breathes, thinks sleeps and loves to play volleyball. The National Tournament is an experience that is definitely worth the trip. It was very hard during the year to even contemplate us winning the gold medal based on our performance in some tournaments that we usually thrive in. Our team consisted of Rony Gilot, David Jack, Jason Octave, Neal Octave, Eugene Sutherland, Marcus Haynes, Ryan McNeil, Wilson Tran, Dimitri Edouard, Mark Schur and Sean Riley. We can't forget our coach and manager Eddy Malebranche, without whom Creole would not be in existence today. Our formal roster for nationals may have consisted of 11 players but we have some key contributions during the year from Collin Henry, Tony Bonilla, Kert Fernandez and Tarik Rodgers whom could not make it in order to take care of other personal matters.
We knew our first day was going to be rough. I guess being the defending champions we knew the teams were gunning out for us. We had to play 3 matches on Saturday, starting at 8am. Our first match went well but we lost a close one. The second match proved to be the same result. We lost a heartbreaker 15-13 in the final rally game. It was tough to lose but we knew that we could play with a lot of the teams here. The third match went over well, and we came away with a win. We were not happy, but we went back to the hotel to rest for up for Sunday. We had a team meeting and decided to find a way to turn the tables the next day. The amazing thing is that we didn't fall on the easy excuse considering that most of the team had just made it in early that very morning around 1:00 AM.
The second day we kicked it up a notch and snatched up 2 victories. The players on the team did very well individually but most of all we played together as a team. We didn't look pretty but we got the job done and finished at 3-2 in pool and actually made it into the Gold bracket. Amazing enough, our pool had 5 teams out of 6 with a record of 3-2; so to much of our dismay, we were only seeded second.
In the first round, we drew North Shore (a fellow team from our Garden/Empire USAV region). It was unfortunate that there had to be loser between us and our comrades, but we were on a mission and could not let anyone stop us. One thing that was very consistent throughout the tournament was our drive and discipline to get the job accomplished and that was to repeat as National Tournament Champions. That is the only goal when you get there, and the hard work was put in all year long - now it was time to reap the rewards.
We continued to win until the final winner's bracket match, where we got our butts stomped on by Buffalo. While we lost convincingly in the winner's bracket finals, we all had a sense of urgency. And we could not settle for silver. We rallied the troops and gave it one more effort and came away repeating with the gold medal.
One thing we have learned through the last two years as Champions, is that despite all adversities, if we play together we can overcome any obstacles. Individually we know we have talented players, but our losses prove that it can't be won without playing together. We are looking forward to New Orleans next to try and defend our title. We want to thank all the players who made this possible for us to be able to compete in this event. Hope to see you all next year.
There's No Crying In Volleyball!
Your plane was delayed and re-routed and you didn't get into Denver until the wee hours of the morning, and you had an 8:00 am game.
You had to try and save a buck and shared a bed with someone who tosses and talks to you all night as you watched the clock's minutes tick away your precious sleep.
Your roommates came in late and woke you up or wouldn't let you sleep because they really wanted to see the end of this really great TV show.
They dragged you out until closing time and you had to stay to be sure everyone got home safe. The whole experience gave you a headache.
You're not a morning person, not a late person, your games were too close together, and if only your games were not so far apart.
Remember, there's no crying in volleyball!
The trainer didn't wrap it the way you like it, or I guess you should have gone to the trainer. You ate too much and had a lead tumor in your gut, or you were so hungry you felt weak. You didn't play your best because you were so nervous.
You saw the other team during warm ups and they freaked you out because they hit so dang hard, or they looked beatable, and you underestimated them.
Your ankles are weak, your shoulders are sore, your wrist hurts, your finger is sprained, your toenails are falling off, your back is sore, neck muscles are tight, your knees are swollen, you have bruises everywhere.
You must forget it all, there's no crying in volleyball!
The other team should have been in the level above what they were… everyone could see that. Your team adjusted to the other teams pace, and you just couldn't win that way.
The referees made so many bad calls.
You lost it in the light, the crowd distracted you, you didn't take the timeouts when you should have, your defense was off, your passes were not on target, your blockers were late, sets too difficult to hit, hitters couldn't penetrate or went too long, and serves were weak or in the net.
It doesn't matter, there's no crying in volleyball!
There's no crying in volleyball until the last point of the last game of the last match you get to play before you go home. And only then, after you shake hands, and the sweat is pouring, when the adrenaline stops, but your body is still shaking … are you allowed to cry.
2005 Nationals - Denver, Colorado
It seems like every year we go to Nationals, always seems like the first time. This year was another great experience for KAPOW VBC. It was a pleasure to watch other GEVA teams compete and it was as much a pleasure to see some new teams and meet new people. Denver, Colorado was a blast and like one taxi driver told us, "you could experience 4 seasons in one day". Most of us made an early trip to Denver to see the sites and to get acclimated with the area. Some of us played reverse and regular coed. We also took a group tour at the Denver US Mint, the Denver Zoo, visited some museums and even took a drive to the Rocky Mountain Park, where we stalked a few elks and also ran into some snow. Go figure, SNOW in June!
This year, Kapow played the late session. We finished 4th in pool play with a record of 3-3 in matches and 6-8 in games. We then proceeded to play in a challenge match for Bronze/Copper and lost to find out we are now playing for the Copper division. It was a rough road, but we survived everything just to play a fellow GEVA team, Psycho Penguins in the finals of COPPER medal round and in the end we got COPPER! As we were getting ready to collect our wonderful medal, we got the news that the medals were never sent to the tournament, so they would have to mail them out to us.
It was fun while it lasted and the team is back home. I would like to take this time to thank a few people for making it possible for KAPOW VBC to have another successful and fun time at Denver, Colorado.
Special thank you to our sponsors:
100 Women Hedge Funds
Dr. Paul and Lydia Claridades
Dave Beneway - PEPSI
Shirley Schin
Ana Silveria
Ciara Beneway
And lastly, thank you to all our friends and family for being there every step of the way and helping us out.
I also want to thank John and Mike for being with us another season and always trying to be there for us. Thanks for everything that you did for us this year.
I am looking forward to next year and to meeting new players and going NEW ORLEANS for the next nationals!
It all began when I read on the USAVolleyball.org website that the 2005 National Championships would be held in Denver, CO around June of 2004. Having lived in Denver for about 10 years starting in the late 1970's and learning the doubles volleyball game while living there I was quite taken with the idea of returning to my old stomping grounds. The volleyball community in Colorado, the Rocky Mountain Region of USAV, has always been very active and supportive, of both the indoor and outdoor game, and the players are as rabid about the game as any I have ever met.
For example, on Tuesday and Thursday evenings all through the summer we would play doubles in Washington Park. Usually there would be some 40-50 privately owned nets set up and pick-up games were encouraged by the owners, even if that meant that sometimes they, themselves, might have to move to another net to play instead of wait. And then there were the doubles tournaments every weekend with 1,000 of my closest friends attending from May though September.
I had never been to a USAV National tournament and since the JSVBA planned to conduct fewer events in 2005, I decided to see if anyone else might be interested in playing in the 50 and over division at Nationals and taking a trip to my old home town.
I asked a couple of friends of mine, if they might be interested, starting with the previous 40 and over USAV National Champions Doug Emich and Eric Pavels and the response was, "If you can get a good enough team of 50 year olds, I will consider it." Not exactly the rousing response I had hoped for but it was a start.
I then saw Raphael Del Valle at the Long Beach Classic beach tournament and mentioned the idea in passing to him and asked about Omar Vargas. Raphael's reply was "Sure, I'll go, if Emich and Pavels go, and Omar would probably be interested too."
Ok, so now I have 4 absolutely, positively, maybes and me in July of 2004, I tell Doug about Raphael and Omar (leaving out the maybe part), then the idea begins to take hold with the boys. Emich calls me and says, Bobby Jackson and Jeff Stubblefield (both members of their 40+ National Championship team) want to play, and Arunas Kuncaitis out of Boston is interested. I tell him I have Wayne Michaelcavage and Paul Mehlin ready to go also. I later run into Karl Rossbach, while playing with George Fetz's Warren BB team and eventually ask him to go with us.
Sounds pretty good, right? So we decide to play a few warm up AA/A GEVA tournaments before going to Nationals. Raphael moves to Puerto Rico, so he's out. We pretty much get beat up at the AA tourneys going 0-8 all the time. Jackson bails to play with another team from California (last year's 50+ Champs). Paul Mehlin changes jobs and can't get the vacation time, so he's out. Omar calls a couple of days before Nationals to tell me he can't go because he needs surgery on his knees and is pretty much walking with a cane.
Good thing I loaded the team up with 13 -14 players before hand. We end up going to nationals with, Doug Emich, Eric Pavels, Wayne Michaelcavage, Karl Rossbach, Arunas Kuncaitis, Jim Vogel, Jeff Stubblefield, John Border, Dave Castanon, Jose Leal, Charlie Young and Michael Borga. I added Charlie Young on the last day of the free roster changes and Dave Castanon, the New England region commissioner a couple of days after that.
Even with the 12 player roster, some of our main players were fried when we got to the finals, but I am getting ahead of myself.
I get off the plane in Denver and rush to just make it to the afternoon check-in with the uniform so that they can check it and approve it because I have to be at the Coaches and Captains meeting that night which is at the same time as the later check-in and uniform approval. I have had it hammered into me that they don't want the officials deciding on the court whether a uniform is approved for play or not so make sure you get one there for them to approve beforehand or your team might not get to play. Charlie has already checked us in so I give them the uniform to approve. They give it back to me and say "We're not doing that this year, the ref's will do it at every match." So then Jose and I go to the Coaches and Captains meeting where we sit in the back of the room and listen to the usual stuff and then get the playing schedule for the team about 8:30 PM. There was one thing that they covered at the meeting that we would not have known and that was no alcoholic beverages were to be allowed on the bench, if they see it, you are gone, even though they were selling them right at the end of the court. You could have them in the spectator areas but not on the bench. Good info to know.
We play at 8 AM Wednesday against the number 2 seed in our pool, Fog Canada Masters, and promptly lose the first game 25-20. Not to worry though, as we come back to win 25-20 and 15-10. Next we play the number 1 seed in our pool E's Club at 10:20 AM where we win the first game 25-22, lose the second 25-20, win the third 15-9. This winning in three begins to look like a habit.
At 11:30 AM we play the Young Geezers, the only team seeded lower than us in the pool, and win in 2 and done for the day.
Thursday at 9:10 AM we play Six Rivers, a team I am concerned about but we win in 2, 25-14, 25-19. At 12:40 we play Senior Discount and I rest many of the starters, we win, 25-29, 25-16. Then at 1:50 we play Reno Masters, we rest virtually all the starters, and win 25-14, 25-21.
We go 6-0 in pool play and we get the bye into the Gold Bracket Winner's quarterfinals along with Kings Mountain Fog (last year's champs), Brazil and X-Macs. The other 17 teams have to play in to get to that point.
Our first match on Friday is at 4:10 PM and we end up playing E's Club again. In fact, 5 of the 8 teams in the quarters are all from our pool. We manage to win in 2, 25-23, 25-20 and move on to the semi's against Six Rivers, another team from our pool. That match ends in 2 with us winning 25-13, 25-17 moving us to the winner' bracket finals in the morning against Kings Mountain Fog.
After another evening of eating, the food in Denver was great, even the "Big-Time Corporate Chef" with us agreed, drinking, and walking around the 16th St. mall in downtown Denver we show up Saturday morning at 10:20 AM and play the game as if still asleep and lose the 1st game 25-12. That would be the equivalent of a 13-0 spanking in sideout scoring. But we come back and take the 2nd game 25-21 to force the 3rd, which we lose rather handily 15-10.
Now it's on to the Loser Bracket's final and the team from Brazil where we win the 1st game 25-21, then seriously stink up the court again in the 2nd and lose 25-15. 3rd game is a "must win" and we squeak by 15-9. The Brazilians just kept bringing the ball back up no matter what our hitters tried. Honestly, our lack of depth at the outside hitter position, as we really had no substitutes, had tired our big hitters out at this point, since we had to use them constantly.
Back to face Kings Mountain Fog again and we win the first game 26-24, but then we just didn't have the strength left and lost the next two, 25-19, 15-10.
Disappointed at finishing 2nd? Sure, but in retrospect, we did pretty well and next year we get to go to New Orleans!
Time Marches on
Years ago, going to nationals was about winning and having a good time. As a sexagenarian, goals have changed. Playing for hours, staying up late, and playing the next day-day after day, was taken for granted. Now pacing becomes of paramount importance. A four or eight day tournament becomes an exercise in better living through chemistry. One maintains the usual regimen of vitamins, glucoseamine, and prescribed medications. To this is added non-steroid anti-inflammatory agents and Tylenol. Liberal use of ice packs, pads, straps, and braces help with aches and pains. Discussions are likely to center around stretching routines and hot soaks instead of hot night spots. One thing that hasn't changed is having a good time. Old friends are seen again. New friends are made. Old stories and memories are relived. New ones are made. In the end , that is winning.
Jim Markworth
June 1st thru June 4th I participated in the USA Volleyball National Championships in Denver CO. with the Warren Six Pak Volleyball Team. Struggling to find our best line up we started slowly the first day but as we became more familiar with our new team mates the level of play increased. When the double elimination tournament began on the third day we were playing well losing two close matches eliminating us from play. It was a great experience to play at this level and one will never forget the evening meals with or new friends reminiscing over old volleyball experiences. Thanks to the USAV and George Fetz for allowing us to do this.
Tom
Thought you might all enjoy some pictures. Feel free to forward them to anyone not on the mailing list. I don't have everyone's email, so if you have them could you please send them to me--that would be Jack, Alan, Erico, and Ivan. Hope everyone has recovered from the nationals, I'm still out of breath and I still think that one was IN!!!! I had a lot of fun. It was a great group of guys, even you John.......
Have a great summer.
Ihor
I just got your urgent e-mail this morning; sorry that I can't furnish you with a story about the Nationals. I guess, it is difficult to create one especially when you participate in many and nothing worth mentioning happens. In general, my national experience is uneventful; anyway, writing one becomes pain in a neck. I suggest, for your sake and others who probably feel the same, we may want to share the cost with the team. We pay a little extra to cover what you get back from the Nationals. Thanks
Mehran