Last modified on 10-09-2007.
Adults: 2006 USAV Nationals -- From Our Teams' Perspective
The following articles were submitted by various GEVA teams that participated at the 2006 Open National Volleyball Championships in New Orleans, LA.Results for the Championships are available at http://usavolleyball.org/Adults/06openResults.asp.
[2006 Junior Olympics Perspectives]
This is the first year Creole Blue was in existence. So many players showed interest in joining our group. So we moved some players around to this team to give a more balanced attack. The National Tournament is an experience that is definitely worth the trip. We were not expected to well at all, based on our performances at some tournaments. Our team consisted of veterans Neal Octave, Collin Henry, Sean Riley, Mark D Schur, Mario Gonzalez, Kevin Nelmes, Dimiti Edouard, Danny Yin and Kevin Colucci. The newbies were John Caulderon, Danny Goncalves, Rich Carmelengo and John Ferrari. We can't forget our coach and manager Eddy Malebranche, without whom Creole would not be in existence today.
We took the court hoping we could turn our misfortunes around a little. We lost a few tough matches but we kept it altogether which we have not done all year long. While we lost convincingly in the beginning rounds of playoffs, we all had a sense of urgency. And we could not settle for nothing but gold. We rallied the troops and gave it one more effort and but we fell short of the goal. We did not make the gold bracket unfortunately but we were still determined to leave with a medal. Our coach Collin Henry pulled out all the stops. We came out victorious and won the gold in the Silver bracket. I would say not bad at all for a team which barely made it out of pool during the year.
We are looking forward to Austin next to try and try to take our title back. 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.
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 expected for us to win the gold medal based on our performance in some tournaments. Our team consisted of Rony Gilot, David Jack, Jason Octave, Luis Mendez, Eugene Sutherland, Marcus Haynes, Ryan Gano, Wilson Tran, kert Fernandez, Tarik Rodgers, Kevin Goncalves, Andrew Krikeby and Phillip gallagher. 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 13 players but we have some key contributions during the year from Collin Henry, Tony Bonilla 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 3am. Our first match went well. The second match proved to be the same result. The third match went over well, and we came away with a win. We were not happy as one of our key outside players Phillip Gallagher got hurt. 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.
While we lost convincingly in the beginning rounds of playoffs, we all had a sense of urgency. And we could not settle for nothing but gold. We rallied the troops and gave it one more effort and but we fell short of the goal.
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 Austin next to try and try to take our title back. 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.
As Labor Day approaches, it’s time to recap our 2005/06 indoor season. We played in a lot of tournaments this year and came close to winning most of them but often came short. We lost in the semis of the Pop Idell Invitational and quarters of the Maryland Extravaganza and made it to the finals of a couple of the regional tournaments. Finally our luck changed in the GEVA Regional championship. We came in first by defeating Northshore in the finals. It was a very close match that went to 3 games which could have easily gone either way. It was a much needed win for us. We needed it to boost our confidence going into the Nationals.
The Nationals was held in New Orleans this year. Fun city to visit in spite of the fact that mush more rebuilding was still needed. Most of the members on our team arrived on Friday so we had a chance to rewind and tour the town. The jambalayas and mufaladas were amazing! The tournament started on Saturday afternoon for our division. We won our first match but lost the next two. Not a great start for us. The next day we again had a late start. We knew we had to take both matches in order to be considered in the Gold bracket. We were 1-1 and finished pool play with a record of 2-3. Now we had to play a challenge match which will determine whether we end up in the Bronze or Copper division. We lost that match. So we fell to the Copper division. To win the division we needed 3 victories. The first team we faced was XVB. We had to put up a fight to put this team away in 3 games. At this point our chemistry started to come together. The next opponent was Too Much from the New England region which we played against numerous times during the years. We beat them in 2 games. Our final opponent was Team Boston, another team from the New England region that we played against at various tournaments. This proved to be an easy victory for us. Every one played well and we were happy to finish the tournament on a high note.
The USAV Adult Open Championships faced a bigger challenge than usual in hosting their annual event in New Orleans, a region still in recovery from Hurricane Katrina. Though 9 months after the disaster, the region is still overcoming many of the devastating effects of the massive flooding that occurred in August of 2005. The preparedness of the city to host the event concerned the Ensemble Volleyball Club Women’s B team which has attended 9 of the last 10 Nationals tournaments. But the USAV Nationals is a great athletic/social event where people of various levels of organized volleyball can compete and where those of us at lower levels can admire and try to absorb skills from those who are older-younger-taller-faster or just have better court sense than we have. The Ensemble players were anxious to have yet another opportunity to soak in the atmosphere and experience another “working” vacation. After all, competitive play is hard work. Given the frequent update information from the USAV website, the Ensemble team was reassured and pleased to contribute to the support of the hosting USAV Bayou Region and the recovery of the business region.
As a tournament, the only noticeable difference between the 2006 Nationals and previous years’ events for our team was a more difficult time in reserving rooms through the reservation service. This was sorted out and the tournament proceeded as usual. As a team that struggled all season and lost a fair number of sets by a close margin, the National tournament was no different for us. As luck would have it, our qualifying match was against a sister team from our own region, which we lost 16-14 in the third set. What a heartbreaker! While our final placement was not what we had hoped for, the whole experience was a positive one. The inspiration that one gets from watching the US sitting teams, Handicap teams, Special Olympics teams, Men’s 70’s and 75’s and Women’s 60’s is more than enough to keep us “in the game”!
On the social scene, though the region is still recovering and a portion of the businesses are still closed (mostly due to lack of housing for employees), there were enough establishments up and running to provide for meals, snacks, basic necessities and of course the famous French Quarter entertainment. The hotel staff was extremely helpful in locating the businesses that were open and functioning. As a team, we took a taxi ride to some of the more devastated parishes with an elderly driver and his wife who were kind enough to give us a two hour narrative on what the area is like now and what it was like in the days and then the weeks following the hurricane. During our stay we inquired of the local residents how Katrina had affected them, and there is no way in this article that we can do justice to the personal stories they shared with us. We were thanked by local residents for being a part of the convention and contributing with our tourist dollars to the recovery of the region. In retrospect, we are glad we went and have each profited in a personal way from the experience.
The Fruit Rags once again hit nationals with a reverse coed team. The roster was a bit different this year, with returning players Kristin Denninger, Vikki Zorilla, and Martha Walz, and new hitters Jen Roth and Hilary Clark. We had an all-new team of guys: Jeff McMillan, Jason Davidow, Francisco Martinez, and Bryan Shaffer. We won our first match before leaving the captains’ meeting Friday night, as most of No Floor Sportswear’s team got stuck in San Francisco when their flight was cancelled. They were going to be unable to get to N.O. before our 8am match the next morning, so they forfeit the match to us and we were able to sleep in a bit and have our first match at 9:10am Saturday morning.
We played well in our remaining pool play matches on Saturday, going 3-1 in matches and 6-3 in games, coming out 1st in our pool. The Gold bracket started Sunday morning. We won our first match in order to stay in the bracket but went on to lose our second match of the day. We had made it to the quarterfinals of the Gold bracket, which is the furthest the Fruit Rags have made it in reverse coed, so we were satisfied with our finish.
Our team, the Jersey Tomatoes, again went to enjoy the USA Volleyball Nationals, this time in New Orleans on May 29 until June 4, 2006. Our Tomato groupies accompanied us again; this year fans included parents, children, spouses, and babysitters alike. Moreover, our mean-looking coach, Erik, sported his cane, which he used hold him up as he watched our moments of triumph, and, er, moments of “challenge”. We were all so excited that Mike, our assistant coach, was able to play middle blocker for GEVA BB Team “On Wolf’ along with the husband of our borrowed player (Pete and Kristin Lynch). Since Mike was already a GEVA-registered coach, he could jump on their team and join them on the courts in New Orleans. He played extremely well and blocked many balls and even had a bunch of kills. We were so happy for him and proud of his efforts. We also enjoyed watching them!
When we saw the devastation around the city after Katrina, we could not believe that the very conference center that we were playing in was where all those poor victims of the disaster were chanting “help” after days had passed. It was like we were in the center of a historical site, where you couldn’t believe that the footage was from a part of the United States of America. We passed those infamous red doors where the dead lady was left in her wheelchair for days. Fortunately, they were repairing and revamping the whole center, not only to clean it up after the damage but surely to also blot out the horrendous images emblazoned in our memories. We noticed one cab driver was not wearing shoes when he got out of the cab to help us with the baby stroller. All the Bayou locals had pretty much lost everything, whether you spoke to a waiter, a cab driver or a casino employee. Despite this, we all realized that the only way to bring New Orleans back to its former state of grandeur was for groups like USA Volleyball to support its re-gentrification by hosting events there. We were both proud and humbled to take part in the support of the city’s business in that way.
Our team played very well, in fact some of our best play came in games when we were really outmatched. We fought valiantly against Tsunami, and each person really gave it her all. One highlight was Regina and Ali’s jig dance, and Electric slide. Nothing was more funny than when Elsa was yelling “Go Tomatoes” and doing cheers on the sidelines in her thick Colombian accent. All she needed was pom-poms and we would have been rolling on the floor. We will always remember the silliness and smile. Our setter, Ali, displayed her hackey-sack skills as we awaited our schedule for the brackets one night. We were impressed that her eye-foot coordination was as impressive as her eye-hand coordination is. The Jersey Tomatoes made it to the semifinals of the Copper division, and unfortunately we had to beat our sister GEVA team Get Over It in order to advance that far. All of the GEVA Women’s B teams were in Copper…Ensemble, Right Stuff, Get Over It, Penguins and The Tomatoes. At least we had good company!
We enjoyed ourselves thoroughly as tourists of the Big Easy as well as players. We walked down Bourbon Street, enjoyed beigners and coffee at Café Du Monde, listened at Mulates to the original New Orleans cajun Zydeco music, sampled the cuisine (including Crawfish of course) at Emeril’s flagship restaurant, and took in the view of the Mississippi at the Riverwalk. One of our teammates discovered a shop where they sold Tomato Mardi Gras beads and she treated the whole gang of us to a necklace as a special memento. On the two nights when we would not play the next day, Erik inhabited the Poker Room at Harrah’s Casino. He enjoyed the card games and the conversations from both the locals and the tourists.
Every year we are totally impressed with the folks playing in the upper age brackets. We sat with one of the 80 year old+ Men’s teams and found out that one of these fellas had been an Olympic Gold Medalist in Basketball! They were amazing athletes, some over 85 years old! We asked them to sign our booklet and they obliged us. The women’s over 65 group was unbelievable to witness playing as well. We can only hope that we make it that long!
The following week when we got home, the National Guard was called into New Orleans due to a terrible crime wave. Again the conference center was center stage in the news with the shootings going on, and the National Guard trucks parked outside, using it as an epicenter. Clearly, New Orleans is not out of the woods, but we hope only time and commitment to rebuilding it will heal its wounds.
New Season, New Team (JUST WANNA PLAY), New Adventures, New Memories for the KAPOW volleyball club this year…
What more can we say about NEW ORLEANS, besides having experienced some of the best times both on and off the court. Some of us had the opportunity to play all week long where Coed and Reverse Coed were played in the 1st session. The rest of us had time to see and experience New Orleans. Most of us walked all over the city exploring different attractions, including historical landmarks, churches, museums, and historic houses. Some stayed close to the hotel and enjoyed the cooking class at the River Walk and the Voodoo tour at the French Quarter. And everyone enjoyed the nonstop gaming entertainment at the Harrah’s Casino and the best restaurants in New Orleans.
It was a pleasure sharing all these fun memories with everyone this year. We looked forward to meeting new teams from different regions of the country and the chance to play against better teams from other regions. The level of play in the BB division has definitely gotten much better and it was just a blast watching every match we saw.
It was also great to see the other teams from our region competing and doing very well in their respective divisions. Once again, like last year, we were playing for the gold match of the Copper division against a team from our region, like last year. Unfortunately, unlike last year, we lost this time. CUBELLIS, who we still have to beat this year, came out the winner of the Copper division. Good job ladies!!!! It was a great time all the way around.
As for JUST WANNA PLAY, I’m sure everyone had a great time in New Orleans. Volleyball was great, the food was excellent, the bars were great, and New Orleans was AWESOME. Hope to see everyone in AUSTIN next year.
Nationals 2006 With The Just Penguins
The Just Penguins women’s B volleyball team competed in the 2006 Volleyball Championships in New Orleans, Louisiana. Along with a core of five players from our roster: Debbie, D.T., Cheryl, Penny, and Kathy, we decided to go with seven players and added Cynthia and Ann-Lee from Limelight. The competition was tough and we were disappointed with our results. We did play hard and for the most part felt we left everything we had on the court.
As a few of us got together over a month after getting back from Nationals we discussed what was termed “ the good, the bad and the ugly.” From when it all began a few months before getting to New Orleans, until our return flight back to New Jersey, here are a few final thoughts on our Nationals 2006 experience.
No feet on the seat.
Elevator issues for Cynthia (should have taken a lesson from Ann-Fay).
Wounded players (a toe, an ankle, a finger, and poor Cheryl, a scratch on her knee).
Orange traffic cones.
Red lipstick, nice red lipstick (right Paul?).
LOST: last eyelash, if seen contact aly@justpens.vb
Endless text messages (a full phone bill page to be exact).
Anger management “technique” backfires…
No!!!! Not another set, said the outside hitters.
Skipper and his little buddy Gilligan cheering us on with whistle straws and a few
Margaritas.
Although we did not come out with a winning record, we played hard. We also found out that Nationals is about good friends ands Popsicle sticks, lots and lots of Popsicle sticks.
Cubellis came into nationals after a great season in GEVA. We had won 5 tournaments throughout the season and even made it into the semifinals of an A tournament. We peaked as a team towards the end of the regular season and ended up with a pretty disappointing Regionals, but we were dedicated to practicing and having a great run at Nationals.
Everyone made it to New Orleans safely by Tuesday (with half the team arriving early to play in the coed tournaments), and we had a great dinner and hotel party on Tuesday night. Since we had afternoon session, some of us attended the player party and then continued on to Harrah’s, one of the highlights of our time in New Orleans.
By Wednesday afternoon, the team was ready to play, and we started day 1 of pool play. We had a 7-team pool, and our schedule had us playing 4 matches on Wednesday and 2 matches on Thursday. However, since we had the evening schedule, that meant that we were in the gym either playing or working until ~10pm each night, and we then had to go out to dinner in our smelly gym clothes.
Our first match got off to a fast start, with the other team playing a quick game and Cubellis struggling to keep pace. We lost that match 0-2, with the feeling that it had been our warm-up, acclimate to the new environment match.
Match 2 started off extremely well, winning the first game 25-11. However, we got complacent, and we lost game 2 20-25. Fortunately, we found our game again in game 3 and salvaged the match win 17-15.
Match 3 was against Boston Volleyball-Ice. This was the most memorable match of day 1 for Cubellis. Boston jumped out to a huge lead at the beginning of game 1, ahead by as many as 9 points. We slowly but surely chipped away at their lead, and got a break at 19-24 with an out-of-rotation call against Boston. Cubellis maintained serve and won game 1 26-24. Game 2 was a serving clinic put on by Karen Nolan. We secured the match win with a score of 25-11.
Unfortunately, match 4 did not go as well. After losing game 1 by only 3 points, we came back to win game 2 by 12 points. Although it looked like the momentum was on our side, we couldn’t pull off the win in game 3, again losing by 3 points. We ended the first day of pool play with a 2-2 match record (5-5 in games) and retired to the hotel to refuel for day 2.
Cubellis was again ready to play when it came time for our first match on Thursday. Again the first team we met that day ran a really quick game, and unfortunately, we could not keep up. We lost the match 0-2.
Our second match of the day was much closer, losing the first game by only 2 points and then winning game 2. We couldn’t hold the momentum in game 3 and ended up losing the match 1-2. We ended pool play with a 2-4 record overall, 5th in our pool, and into a challenge match the next day to possibly get into the Bronze bracket.
Cubellis showed up to the challenge match on Friday ready to play as hard as we could to get into the Bronze bracket. Unfortunately, our playing did not match our level of heart, and we lost the match in 3 games. Our first match in the Copper bracket was to be later that evening.
As luck would have it, we faced Boston Volleyball-Ice in our first Copper match. We beat them handily in 2 games, this time not feeling the need for any miraculous come-from-behind victories. We finished up the evening at a local dive, the Red Eye Grill, in our sweaty volleyball clothes, buying a round of tequila shots for our opponent for the following morning in the semifinals of Copper: Tri-State Case, our regular season nemesis.
We could not seem find a way to beat Case during the regular season, even at Regionals, so we were looking forward gaining bragging rights by winning the final match of the season at Nationals.
However, the match Saturday morning did not start out as we had planned. It took us a bit to wake up. Game 1 was horrible for Cubellis, we could not do anything right. We managed to grit through the game without losing too much focus, but it was a tough loss: 16-25. Game 2 we got into a groove and won 25-19. We were finally playing the volleyball that we knew we were capable of playing. Game 3 we came out with everything we had. We ran away with the 15-5 win to advance onto the finals of the Copper Bracket. Tequila shots worked?
The finals were against yet another GEVA team, Just Wanna Play. We had the best match of our nationals this match, again playing the volleyball that we knew we could play. We owe thanks to the other GEVA teams for their enthusiasm on the sidelines. Our serves were aggressive (and IN), we passed well, we were able to run free ball plays – this is the volleyball that we had hoped to play during our entire stay in New Orleans. Better late than never I suppose. We beat Just Wanna Play in 2 games to take home a GOLD medal!
Congratulations and thank you to all of the GEVA administrators and members representing our Region in New Orleans. We hope to see you and hopefully even more teams in Austin, TX next season!
Another great year at the open, 2006 was a hit. Not just for us team Metropolis, but for our region. From what I saw, we had more teams from N.Y. and N.J. than any other part of the country. We were not sure what to expect, as far as going to New Orleans and playing there, I know it was everyone’s concern, but I guess its safe to say the USAV committee made a good call, and every thing went great. Also we where all very happy to be supporting the city by being there. Thank you Bob Dingee and Felicia Green for all your help and support this year, 2006 was a great time for Metropolis, and for all those of you who did not come, see you next year, for our GEVA region is the greatest and most popular in the nation, on the court AND in CLUBS go GEVA!!!!
Ram.
At first it was a struggle to get a team together to for this trip. After the tickets were purchased, we also struggled in the A level tournaments. We thought maybe we were in over our heads. Each tournament was getting more and more disappointing. We just could not get our act together and win games that was easily accomplished in the BB level.
As we got closer to Regionals and Nationals, a few more players decided to commit to Nationals. Our team for Nationals consisted of Michelle Clifford, Darlene Haut, Janna Jachniewicz, Val Lang, Claudia Marmolejo, Anna Pfeifer, Maggie Pfeifer, Nora Ragazzini, Christina Wildes and Cindy Wong. Our team during the regular season also included Carrie Gangl, Jill Pickus and Russi Villalta, who have made many sacrifices and contributions to help get us to Nationals, but could not make this trip. Thank you all.
Our first day of pool play, we did not know what to expect. Being beat up all year in our region, we did not have high expectations. But something clicked. Maybe the excitement of being in New Orleans. We ended the day with a 3-0 record of matches won. Everyone was happy and we left the gym on a high note. The second day we played against Commando and lost in 2 really competitive amazing games. Commando was the overall Gold winner in Women's A. It was a tough loss but we did really well. We ended up losing the next match in three games and placed third in pool play. Next was the Challenge round for the Gold bracket. We still had a shot. On Monday morning we had our Challenge round and lost in tight games. That afternoon we played against Maverick A in the Silver bracket. We won the first game. Then lost the second. In the third deciding game, we were down 6-11 and ended up losing 16-18. It was another tough loss to swallow, because we knew at that point the tournament was over for us. We ended up placing 25th overall in Women's A. Not a bad way to end a season, considering where we started.
I would like to thank everyone who made this trip possible and to all the other teams in the region who came and cheered us on. Looking forward to next year.
Northshore was proud to be part of USAV’s effort to bring a large scale event back to the city of New Orleans after the devastating aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Our players made conscious efforts to experience all the great things that the city had to offer. Our men’s “AA” team played its best volleyball of the year, participating in some of the most intense matches that we have played in years. We were all happy to be a part of this year’s event and we all look forward to Austin Texas in 2007.
Men’s A- Joe Siegel
Our men’s “BB” team was hoping to improve upon last year’s performance in Denver. Once again, we registered for the “A” division so that our entire club could be together. This made the social experience great, but resulted in some tough games and not too many wins. This year marked the first Nationals for many of our players, and they are definitely hooked on the experience. The guys had a great time and look forward to participating in the “BB” division in 2007.
However, we can not truly say that the city and the event site were adequately prepared for the event to take place there. The event probably should have been moved out of New Orleans, in my opinion, but I understand the desire to help out after the devastation that occurred from hurricane Katrina.
USAV had their challenges also, as it appeared that their “new and improved” scheduling and reporting computer program had not been adequately tested prior to its use at the event which resulted in some significant confusion in announcing when one would be playing the next morning or afternoon, etc.
Eventually the team reps did get notified of when their teams would be playing and it appeared that no team had to forfeit because they hadn’t had enough lead time to inform the players on their teams.
1 PM Friday afternoon in New Orleans after check-in and just where do you think we headed immediately? Yep, Bourbon Street for lunch, mostly liquid by the way, and who knew that 4 for 1 meant that if you ordered one beer they literally opened and lined up four of them in front of you? Not complaining mind you, just pointing out the obvious deviation from the “proper training regimen” that would ultimately result from this discovery. I will leave the rest of that story to your imaginations but it was pretty amusing.
Saturday Morning, we started pool play strong winning our first match 25-8, 25-8 then our second match was 25-15, 25-14 and our third match of the day was 25-12, 25-13. We retired for the evening, this is around noon by the way, and several of the previous day’s luncheon participants needed to take a nap and had expressed explicit plans to “not” go anywhere near Bourbon Street again. Finding places to eat was becoming a bit of a struggle as New Orleans had a serious manpower problem.
Sunday and we win both matches giving us a 5-0 record but it was much more of a struggle than the scores would lead you to believe. First match is 25-20, 25-22 and our second match vs. E’s club goes 25-23, 25-19. Did I forget to mention that due to some injuries and very last minute changes of plan instead of us having 12-13 players we now had only 8 truly healthy players at the event?
Our “secret weapon” that was supposed to fly in Sunday night to be available for the playoffs doesn’t and now we are seriously strained for healthy players in playoffs. Oh well, just got to do the best we can with what we have so onward and upward.
Monday afternoon and we are the fourth seed due to point differential, Brazil is first, King Mountain Fog second, Robert Bruce Realtors is third and we get to play Spike Force from the GEVA region in the first round. 25-13, 25-14 we move on to play E’s Club who just beat Brazil. E’s Club has had their secret weapons show up to play in the playoffs and we lose 25-21, 25-20 and it wasn’t that close.
Next up for the Six Pak Warren 50’s, BCO in the loser’s bracket, once again a team from our pool. That means that in the playoffs we have now played a team from our region, and two more from our pool. We do manage to win this match but only after a monumental struggle. We lose the first game 25-23, and are down 21-16 in the second game and the team is just plain old falling apart, when the coach makes the most unusual coaching decision for any team in the entire tournament and inserts a player that has a torn hamstring, hasn’t played a complete minute in the tournament, hasn’t even warmed up during the entire tournament and is the oldest player on the team to serve. Somehow this actually works out, BCO has to call time out at 21-19, and we end up winning game 2, 25-22. BCO’s morale has to be demolished after letting game two get away and we win the third 15-10.
Great comeback, right? Yeah, except now we are fried and we have to face Kings Mountain Fog, the team we finished 2nd to last year, and they have about 14 players on their roster so we pretty much get crushed 25-21, 25-17.
I really can’t complain about the seeding as we were seeded 4th in the playoffs and finished 4th in the tournament which is probably a little higher than our team should have.
Considering the state New Orleans was really in the event was handled as well as could be expected. Next year Nationals is in Austin, TX and having been there before I can foresee even more diversions, similar to Bourbon street, for the players, so that should really be a lot of fun.
This year the National Volleyball Tournament was in New Orleans. I was very worried about the condition of the town for the tournament after Katrina but I also wanted to support US volleyball and help New Orleans. We stayed near the Convention Center and did not have a car. The destruction caused by the storm had been cleaned up in our section of town; the players were not affected by the hurricane damage. If you did not intentionally travel to the other parts of the city you would not have known Katrina had happened last year. Ninety percent of the t-shirts on Bourbon Street did have some reference to the hurricane or FEMA.
This was the second year that I played for the Six Pak team. I enjoy playing with the team even though we have not found our “groove.” The team could have won most of the matches that we played but we did not. George, the team caption, suggested that we play together in other tournament before National’s next year. This practice might eliminate the difficulty we have getting used to each other at the start of each tournament. I enjoyed every match, but was disappointed in our overall record.
We ate dinner together as a team several nights. The food and atmosphere was terrific! We ate Cajun specialties and sea food. We were entertained by dancers doing the two step and other local dances. We enjoyed walking down Bourbon Street and visiting the casino.
We represented the GEVA Region but did not come home with any trophies.
Alan Brunsman
thanks for the opportunity to play. it was great group. here's my contribution - i hope it helps.
hmmmmm. graduating to 60s. funny, i don't feel a day over 59. oh well, i can't stop, because i may not be able to get started again.
hazy, hot and humid. i saw lots of old friends, old team-mates, and old opponents. for better or worse, they mostly seem to be getting older at least as fast as i am. as always, i met some new friends too.
hazy, hot and humid. i'm glad USAV stuck with the decision to go to new orleans. we made our small contribution to the city's recovery. i got to see some sights i wouldn't have otherwise. the hospitality was terrific. as always at USAV nationals, and win or lose, good food and good beer seems to be easy to find.
hazy, hot and humid. i also had a chance to watch some great volleyball. i think those guys can't really jump that high - it's some kind of a trick, or an optical illusion. granted, there was some less-than-great volleyball to be seen, but the neat thing about having 40 courts with play is that you can keep going until you see something you want to watch, or even a court with friends playing.
hazy, hot and humid. well, the good news is that i survived another one of these events with no catastrophes - and despite the amount of cheering a did for friends' teams, i didn't have throat infection by the time i got home. maybe it's the humidity! the bad news is that i'll be another year older by next memorial day.
i wonder if austin will be sunny, hot and dry? i'm looking forward to finding out for myself!
jim bishop
When Katrina swept through New Orleans and we could see all the damage and personal loss those people endured, I thought how can those people endure this and think of anything but survival. When USAV announced that the 2006 Nationals would still be held in New Orleans I thought there is no way they will get this pulled off and we were headed to a total screw up. However after spending a week there playing Volleyball among other things, I was very impressed with the job those people putting on this event. The playing facilities were great, Hotel were good and best of all was the quality and variety of food we enjoyed. My hats off to the city of New Orleans and USAV for pulling this off in a great way. Although our quality of Volleyball was as good as we anticipated the fellowship and team meals in the French Quarter were great as usual. For those that for what ever reason couldn't make it, Your wit, wisdom, and playing skills were missed.
Tom Fulton
