Kathryn organized a team to compete in the 4th Annual Bummer Volleyball Tournament held at Dolgeville HS.  There were close to 250 people participating with 12 teams in the competitive division, 6 in intermediate and 6 in recreational – where we played.   Eric and I shared a slot and took turns playing with Scott, Kathryn, Beth, Bill and Billie Jo.  Eric did really well for his 1st tournament play. The tournament used women’s height nets which meant that everyone on our team could be a hitter.  Only one female was required on each team.  We played each team two games using rally scoring to 15.  There was one team of middle school aged kids – we gave the kids a ‘do-over’ on serving faults. 

The first game was a little …tense…shall we say….as we were unaware that the “norm” in the Recreational division was not to make any calls at all – carries were ignored,  people were totally in the net, and at one point they called us for 4 hits when one of our guys blocked something then we played it!  This woman from another team who was doing lines  told us “If you want to play by the rules, you should have been in the intermediate division.”  We explained we were trying to teach a 13 year old how to play and there were two of us over 60, one with double hip replacements, who know enough to know that having people in the net is how people get hurt and she said – I swear she said this – “Then maybe you shouldn’t be playing volleyball”  and walked away before I could respond.   Once we knew “the rules” (or lack thereof) we could adjust our play and did well.  Overall, it was a good  day and a good introduction for Eric; our friend Beth used it as something of a training session for him  and he did well.

Billie Jo and Beth both had long serving runs. We had a couple of good games.  Most of the players for Team Four left early so they picked up 4 good male players and were disappointed when they still lost. The 1st team we played, “The Settlers”, asked to play another game to 25 again at the end of the schedule; fortunately Billie Jo managed to rip off a long serving run that gave us a big cushion and we ended with a good game on a good note.  There were no action photos taken of the recreational division, but we did pose for a picture with the championship t-shirts.