Chicago welcomes more than 400 athletes from across the U.S. and Canada this weekend for the 1st annual Summer Fest Volleyball tournament. Chicago MSA is the hosting organization. Outside of the Championship tournament, this tournament is one of the largest in the organization, with 43 teams registered. The participation for this year's tournament has increased by almost 50% from previous years.
For the past 19 years, Chicago MSA hosted the Fall Classic Volleyball Tournament in November. Due to dwindling numbers, the organizers of the Fall Classic were forced to cancel the tournament in 2003, which would have celebrated its 20th anniversary. A new CMSA volleyball committee was formed and met early in the year to determine what could be done to re-establish Chicago volleyball as a premier volleyball tournament and Summer Fest is the result of this meeting.
Traditionally, NAGVA (North American Gay Volleyball Association)-sanctioned volleyball tournaments will compete all day Saturday to determine seeding, and on Sunday, a double-elimination tournament would be held. This year's Summer Fest is doing something a little different with the tournament; pool play will begin on Friday evening and be completed by Saturday afternoon. This will give ALL participants the opportunity to fully enjoy the City of Chicago, Market Days, and whatever else they may choose to do. The double-elimination tournament will begin early Sunday morning with the finals on being held around 3. Hydrate will be hosting the registration party on Thursday night from 7 p.m.-10 p.m. and Charlie's will host the seeding party on Saturday from 6 p.m.-9 p.m. Proceeds from the tournament will benefit Chicago Games, Inc., host organization for Gay Games VII.
Games are in Palos Heights, at 12221 S. Ridgeland Ave.
NAGVA is the sanctioning body for the tournament. It is one of the nation's largest GLBT sporting organizations with more than 5,000 members. A group of eight cities, Chicago being one of those eight, helped form NAGVA in 1980. NAGVA hosted its first Championship tournament in 1982.
'The gay volleyball community in Chicago has long been leader in NAGVA. They've held great tournaments and have hosted more NAGVA Championships than any other city. Gay volleyball players all over North America owe a great deal to Chicago. The change and new format for this year's tournament is just the type of forward thinking that continues to keep Chicago a leading city and making the NAGVA network stronger,' stated Jeff Redfield, NAGVA President. To learn more about NAGVA, go to www.nagva.org . Chad Carroll is director of the 2004 Summer Fest.
