A message from the SF Tourney Director

San Francisco tournament opened the NAGVA Season with the BANG! And all these was made possible by the one and only Jonny Sloan aka Sheona Traylor. I am really sad that I missed this tournament since i LOVE the Bay Area so much and the people living there but had to make a choice of staying in Seattle for 2 of my dearest friends.

Jonny posted a BIG THANK YOU note on his Facebook page tonight and here's what she had to say...

Booze, Boys and Balls: Patriotism at Its Best- San Francisco NAGVA Tournament Recap

Ladies and Ladyboys...


I can’t believe it is all over. And it all started with a simple thought of “what if” and the dream of “what if” turned into a possibility, albeit an extremely exhausting possibility… As I returned from the New York NAGVA tournament earlier this year, my “what if” was “What if I could bring a volleyball tournament back to San Francisco…?” and with a simple phone call to Saga Vae, we got the ball rolling and the dream soon became a reality.


Things started falling into place instantly. Truth be told, I never expected it to happen. Secretly, I never wanted it to happen. I knew the plan to hold a San Francisco tournament would be, at a very minimum, quite ambitious, tiring and stressful, so I was hoping when I made the inquiry into a gym space (in my opinion the most difficult item to secure for a new tournament), I would be declined. After a few days, the verdict was returned and, unlike the Casey Anthony case, the news was good: The gym was available on a 3-day weekend and we could book it right away. Realistically, I was expecting the same answer I’ve gotten for possible gym space for the past few years at other venues when trying to start a league here in SF- unavailable, too expensive, or lost in a vortex of bureaucratic paperwork through the City of San Francisco. So when I did receive the good news, I wasn’t quite prepared to take the next steps. But here went nothing: the initial seeds of San Francisco Red, White and Blue Ball were planted and I had to take on the task to nurture this to full bloom.


As a former student at CCSF in addition to a member of the men’s club team, I knew full well exactly what kind of budget the school has to work with to fund the sports programs- little to nothing. It became instantly obvious to me who our beneficiary would be. The women’s club team at CCSF would be chosen as they were the more established program. With little to no budget, all fundraising is usually done by the girls themselves or by the head coach. With that in mind, it became my driving force to make this tournament as successful as possible to establish San Francisco as the “go to” destination for the opening of the NAGVA season and to get these girls some money to make their program more successful. It is my hope that with our $3500 donation raised by the tournament participants, we are able to provide these girls with a means to further succeed with their amazing program.


I am especially grateful to all of my volunteers and everyone who provided me with support along the way. Ryan Brady, Neal Franzer, Kevin Yamashiro, and Lonyl Palao to name a few. You guys gave me some great advice to get me started on the journey.


Special thanks to Balta for all the advice and getting the pool play and schedule together for me. The data entry spreadsheet for the pool play results worked out great. Also thank you for staying up so very late on Saturday night to help me adjust the brackets and schedule after that BB team was bumped up. We had some major glitches with scheduling but we made it work for the most part.


Great thanks also goes to Jet and Jonathan Daclison for your support with the referees and making sure their assignments were taken care of. Also to Miran Turner, Jason Wong, and Tim Mcklinsky for the NAGVA duties. Miran you are always so very calm and professional with your RC duties and I would love to have you back year after year. Thanks also to Jay Roby for your work at registration and helping out the guys doing RC stuff.


My thanks also to Sergio Rodriguez for getting those awesome medals from National Trophy taken care of. They looked great and definitely represented San Francisco and the Red, White and Blue Ball!


Saia Reupena, you rock sister. Those last minute t-shirt designs were amazing. You are talented in so many ways I just am in awe of how you do it. Thank you for all your help at registration too. You made that line go by easy breezy style.


Thanks to Shane Armstrong of Lucky 13 Printing for whipping out all those shirts. I know you stayed up till all hours finalizing the product and I am so pleased with your work. You did an awesome job and your t-shirts as always looked fantastic.


Thanks to Bruno Gaborit for getting us hooked up with delicious lunches through Revolution Foods. Your delivery staff were very timely, friendly and professional.


Thanks also to Jessie Torres, Nate Gonzales and Robert Leduc for all the admin type things you did for me at the tournament. I seriously would have gone crazy if you guys didn’t step it up and rock out those items for me. Also to Tim Mcklinsky for staying up REALLY late on Saturday night to help me get those brackets ready even though you had to be up early for your Sunday elimination rounds.


Extreme thanks to my assistant Jarrad. I realize you are completely oblivious to volleyball and what we do, but you caught on super fast and you kept me calm, sane, and less stressed out and for that, I will always be grateful.


If I forgot anyone, thanks to you too of course!


And final thanks to all the participants of the tournament. You guys made this successful. I was very happy to see so many familiar faces and make so many new friends. My friends list pre-tournament was hovering at the 420 mark and is now over 585 just from tournament people and it keeps growing. I am overwhelmed by the positive feedback, but I encourage all feedback so I can bring an even better tournament next year. Please send an email to talljonny@gmail.com and make sure to fill out a tournament evaluation form found at http://www.nagva.org/docs/11.pdf The only way to make sure this tournament goes even better next year is to provide feedback!


As for next year, I will attempt to do one of two things: 1) Expand to another venue to allow better scheduling or, should 1 not work out- 2) reduce the amount of teams per court. I realize the biggest negative aspect to this tournament was an extremely late elimination round, and for this I apologize. But if you can think of anything else, please feel free to include it!


And finally, I am out of t-shirts, but if anyone is interested in a tournament t-shirt, they will be available for $15. (Tournament participants inquire about a discount, verifiable through your team rosters...) I realize not everyone got a t-shirt because we ran out of the desired sizes, so this is my olive branch to those that did not get a shirt. I will have a PayPal link set up some time in the near future for this.


I look forward to bringing you another San Francisco Tournament next year. Stay tuned for a post about final results and your all-star and MVP awards within the next couple of days! Been trying to get some R&R and destress so I'll have your results soon!


Much Love,


Jonny Sloan

Jonny worked so hard for the tournament and made sure that the weekend will be cheap for all the players and made all arrangements with transportation, host hotel, facility an easy access for everyone. As what she said, a lil glitches here and there but its an SF come back so there's definitely room for improvement. Reports say that the weekend was so much fun for everyone and players are definitely looking forward for the growth of the tournament.

And the best part of the tournament was making a donation of of $3500 to the CCSF club team coming from a very cheap tournament. Jonny promises to post results soon and currently trying to recuperate from the weekend! (she definitely deserves it)

Great Job Jonny! You already know how ChaCha feels about missing this tournament so don't give me a hard time anymore, PLEASE? LOL!

Congratulations to the organizers, participants and winners for the fun filled weekend!

not using xoxo,
ChaCha

LAVA becomes Non-Profit Organization

LAVA President Gustavo Dias da Silva released a letter announcing that the Los Angeles Volleyball Association or best known as LAVA has been officially recognized as a non-profit organization by the State of California.

LAVA has been hosting a lot of one day tournaments all over Southern California and together with its board members, participants and friends all functions has been successful.

So excited for the future events of LAVA and looking forward for more tournaments soon! Maybe another NAGVA tournament somewhere in SoCal in the future?

not using xoxo,

ChaCha

"Still going green" SBVBC NAGVA NorCal Classic XXIV 2011

SBVBC Tournament Director Kevin Yamashiro sent ChaCha BUZZ the official poster for the 2011 Norcal Classic XXIV 2011 and if we are not mistaken this is the 2nd year that the NAGVA sanctioned tournament is going green calling it Rebump, Reset, Respike " Still going Green!

Couple of reminders about the tournament...

1. When you get to registration don't expect to get any tournament shirts (which is sad coz San Jose tourney makes one o the best shirts) BUT instead, they are giving away some Nalgene bottles. (might be perfect for some people we know. Right Grimace?) You can use it for water, energy drinks, protein shakes. Oh who am I BS-ing I know most of you will use it for alcohol. Lol.

But the main goal is to encourage everyone to live more Eco-friendly according to the Tournament Director.

2. Giving Green back!!!

Now if your WHOLE TEAM registers on Friday then your team will be entered into a drawing for registration fee refund. This is pretty sweet! Most of the tournament fees this season are pretty high so it's no joke to get your money back. Haha.

Another reminder is that make sure to check your pool play gyms. I know it's been in Foothill College for how many years and we got used to it but this time it's 2 locations.

Saturday, Feb 19

BB Division plays at Foothill College (small gym). Captains meeting and late registration at 830am

B and A Division playa at Arrillaga Gym with later registration and captains meeting at 830. Lunch is served at 12pm like always. Coordinate with you team captain for the meal tickets.

Seeding/Bracketing will be posted online and at the host hotel not later than 9pm (got a word from the Tournament Director that it won't be posted at the host hotel)

Seeding party and $Giving Green Back drawing is at 8-10pm. Location will be announced later.

Sunday, Feb 20

ALL DIVISIONS are playing at Foothill College (small and Bug Gym). Captains meeting us at 730am (ouch!)

Elimination begins at 8am and lunch is served at 12pm. Coordinate with you team captain for the meal tickets.

Any other info just go to http://sbvbc.org/sj2011.

Can't wait to see y'all!

not using xoxo,
ChaCha

??? "Faggot is not a Slur" ???

I know the title is disturbing but it is just as disturbing to what happened with WeHo Flasher Rain Urcia Monday night. Remember when SVC player got into a fight while playing in open gym? Well, it happened again and this time it happened to one of our sisters down in WeHo.

WeHo Flasher Rain and the rest of the gang was playing at their usual Monday spot when a Samoan girl at Buena Park deliberately threw a ball at Rain. They gave each other dirty looks. rain turned away until the samoan girl yelled out faggot. threatened and offended by the term rain approached her and asked what did u just call me. She then yelled i called you a faggot what are you gonna do about it faggot? At this time 2 people were already stopping the samoan girl (has previous probation) hit Rain on his face. enraged rain yelled you bitch and people were already stopping both rain and the samoan from any physical contact with each other. On lookers called 911 and the samoan tried to run away and threatened to call her brothers and the cops came in almost missing the Samoan girls group. 3 of the girls tried to stop their group while the pushing kept on going (one of girls friend said “this is the way we deal with things”).

What’s really messed up is that, when the cops arrived, our sisters felt like the cops sided with the other group who we think started it all calling what happened just another “high school drama” comparing it to football or whatnot. Another thing that the cops said was being called a “faggot” is not a hate/slur term but an angry word and (it was even compared to the "N" word) that if Rain files a case on them it will be a waste of time. They also mentioned that if they end up arresting the girl, Rain will have to be arrested as well because he called the girl a bitch.

When one of the cops went to the perpetuators and talked to the Samoan girls group he was seen by Rain and other volleyball people saw the cop laughing with them and was even doing high fives with them. Obviously, the cops chose a side and totally brushed of how Rain felt and they felt bullied not only the other group but the cops as well who was supposed to protect the victim. And it doesn’t stop there, how did Rain initially get banned ( which was now lifted thanks to testimonies of factual things that happened and help of friemds) at Buena Park when obviously he was the victim here not only from the other group,but the cops and the facility.

This is truly sad and distrubing that in this age and time that things like this still happen. We pray for justice for Rain. Love you Sis!

not using xoxo,

ChaCha

Portland to host NAGVA tournament in March

Volleyball news just keeps coming and coming!

We have no deetz regarding the volleyball tournament yet but we just got a word from Facebook that after missing the Triple Tiara series, Portland Gay Volleyball will hosting a NAGVA sanctioned tournament before the end of the season on March 26-27, 2011.

Portland Gay Volleyball hosted their first Last Chance last year to give chance to players/teams on getting the core 4 for the Portland NAGVA Championships in 2010 (Houston for this year). We will try and get as much information and update all of you as soon as we get the deetz!

MORE MORE MORE Volleyball!!!

not using xoxo,
ChaCha

North America Outgames got Volleyball!!!

HELL YAH!!!

We were really disappointed when the Vancouver Outgames 2011 came out with their official announcement for this years Outgames NOT SHOWING any Volleyball event.

But when we checked today (thanks to my sister Cedric from Vancouver) there are some MAJOR MAJOR changes with their events and added Volleyball to their roster!

The Vancouver Outgames is from July 25-31 with a guaranteed of 6 games (only?). You can check on the rules and regulations are based on NAGVA ratings but 2 players can play down in each team with the rest of the team playing on their designated rating. The games will be held at Harry Jerome (where the Vancouver NAGVA is held) with AM and PM schedule for all divisions. Pretty small venue for Outgames ut hopefully it all works out.

To get more details, check on the Vancouver Outgames Volleyball 2011 website!

Who wants to play?

Thinking of playing and super excited!

not using xoxo,
ChaCha

Sheona Traylor Buzz - San Jose tournament 2011

Our dear friend from the Bay area Sheona Traylor took time to write for ChaCha BUZZ to give us details for the upcoming San Jose NAGVA tournament. I've been going to the San Jose tournament for couple of years now and it never disappoints and certified go to tournament. Check out what Sheona got to say ...

Howdy Y'all...

Well hot damn, looks like another year has already blown past us and another NorCal Vball Classic is here! This is the 24th year San Ho-say is holding its annual President's Day Weekend tourney (although some years we've had to move it due to gym snafoos!).

Here's a couple of highlights and reminders from Sheona Traylor, unofficial spokes whitetrash for the SJ TRANNYment this year. (I'm not affiliated with SBVBC, i'm just a nosey bitch with lots of insider information!)

The AA division has officially been canceled and the spots snatched up faster than my Cousin/Aunt offerin' free Bud Light at the family reunion! Guess them girls don't know how to commit to and pay for a great tournament on time! There are now 7 B teams, 15 BB teams, and 14 A teams.

This year pool play will be split between 2 venues. The BB division plays on Saturday at the Foothill College small gym (our usual venue) and the A and B divisions will be at the brand new Arrillaga Gym in Menlo Park. BOTH DIVISIONS WILL PLAY AT FOOTHILL COLLEGE ON SUNDAY FOR ELIMINATION ROUNDS! Plan accordingly. Lunch will be served at both venues Saturday and also at Foothill College on Sunday. REMEMBER, Parking at Foothill College is $2.00 and is enforced at all times. (Parking at Arrillaga is free)

No t-shirts this year. I've got enough yellow stained wifebeaters to go around for y'all. Instead they're giving out some water bottles. You can use those to fill up on the ice cold water stations around the venues... or if you're like Sheona, you'll be fillin them bitches up with some ice cold bud light! mmmmkurrrrrr?

Like last year, SJ will be givin Green Backs again this year too. If your entire team registers (between 7-10pm at the Motif Club in downtown San Jose on Friday night), you will be entered into a drawing to receive your ENTIRE TEAM FEE BACK! Not a bad idea to get everyone down there and sloppy drunk while registering too!

The host hotel for SJ this year is the Fairmont. It is a beautiful historic hotel right in downtown SJ. Looks like the rate is $99.00/night.  (the Traylor Park is full and there is no room at Sheona's NO-tell HO-tell up in SF, so keep your eyes peeled if you can't swing that hotel cost! There are some more affordable hotels near the venue, but nothing within walking distance to plan for a short cab ride or a rental car)

Finally, and most importantly, get your damn rosters complete and get your individual NAGVA fees paid if you havent done that already. It's cheaper to do it all ahead of time. Also if you add an 8th (or more) players, its cheaper to do it on PayPal ahead of time than it is if you show up and they make Sheona chase you down with her shotgun to pay those extra team fees! Also make sure you have a certified Referee and Scorekeeper on your roster! This is a requirement of all teams!  If you need to get set up with that, email officials@nagva.org and talk to my gurrrrrl Johanthan Daclison the VP of Officials. She'll send you a link to take the test. The study material is available on the NAGVA website under the Documents and Forms link.

If you have any problems with getting your team rosters set up (cuz you a dumb ho like that), email my friend Jonny Sloan and he can help you with that stuff. He's a know-it-all biznatch and lurves helping people with that stuff.

Cya in a month kiddies!

Much Lurve from the Traylor Park,

Sheona

Thanks Sheona! Mwah!

not using xoxo,
ChaCha