Yes, Nice guys do finish first—namely, the Minnesota Nice, a gay volleyball team composed mostly of players from Minneapolis, along with a few from Los Angeles and Denver.
Michael Attaway, 34, an Andersonville resident, was also on the team.
The Nice won the 37-team B Division at the 18th annual North American Gay Volleyball Association ( NAGVA ) Championships, played recently in Portland, Ore.
Attaway was the only Chicagoan to win a national championship.
There were five Chicago teams in the tournament: Chicago Sublime finished fourth in the B division; Chicago Los Nenes tied for 25th in B; Chicago Team Chicago tied for 33rd in B; Manila Megastars tied for 13th in BB; and Chicago Goya tied for 25th in BB. There were a number of individuals from Chicago also playing on teams from other cities.
"This is definitely one of the best sporting highlights of my life," said Attaway, who also plays basketball, softball, dodgeball and flag football in Chicago's gay sports leagues. "I got re-rated to BB [ after the tournament, so ] this was the best way to go out of the B division—with a bang.
"This was my fourth time going to nationals. I don't think this one compares to any of them only because we won. All of my previous teams were really good as well, but we couldn't pull it off."
Attaway works at United Way of Metro Chicago as a business-development coordinator, cultivating relationships with companies that don't currently run United Way campaigns.
He has been playing volleyball in the gay Chicago leagues for about nine years.
"I don't think I can really describe the feeling," Attaway said. "I've won other medals before and they just don't compare to this one. Winning the National Championship for my division brought tears to my eyes.
"There were a lot of great volleyball players from Chicago [ in the Portland tournament, ] and I thought I would be the last person to win. It made the win better when all the other Chicagoans were just as happy for me and my team."
Attaway landed on the Nice through Jake Bowers of Minneapolis. The two played together on a Hamburger Mary's team for other NAGVA tournaments.
"I met the other Minneapolis guys playing against them at previous tournaments," Attaway said. "The Minnesota Nice went to a tournament in March in Denver and needed some players, [ so ] Jake asked me play with them. We finished second in Denver."
In the three-day Portland tourney, the Nice went 7-1 on day one, earning the number-five seed. They again went 7-1 on day two, and the team was seeded third for tournament play.
Attaway and his teammates went 8-1 on the final day to finish 26-3.
The Minnesota Nice defeated Denver Passed Out to guarantee a spot in the championship. Then, in the championship, Minnesota defeated New York Shoot the J in two games, despite trailing most of the time in both. The Nice won the first game 26-25 and the second 25-20.
"The highlight for us was when we beat Denver Passed Out to get into the championship match," Attaway said. "They are a really good team and very fun to play [ against ] . It was also payback for them beating us in Denver and taking first place.
"I was a little nervous going in [ to the tournament ] because I didn't know what position I was going to be playing, and some of the people on the team I had never played with before.
"I think the key to my team's success was communication. You have to communicate a lot on the court, and be very supportive when you aren't playing that well. I think we started out every game trailing the other team, [ so ] we would take a time out and regroup doing the things we talked about in the huddle, such as passing, hitting, serving and blocking. If someone would make a mistake, we would let it go and move on to the next point."
