Did you ever hear of the “ONLY TEAMS WITH NO POINTS ALLOWED”
tournament? This historically true tale dates back to the old Region
3 that comprised the states of Virginia, Eastern and Central Maryland,
Delaware, and Eastern and Central Pennsylvania. It was the days before
Division Coordinators and the Tournament Scheduling Committee and the CHRVA
Handbook. Tournament hosts did it all (mailed out invites, selected
teams that would play, and made up the playing schedules). The host
had a wide range of options on how his/her tournament was to go, and one
host always noted that every year we had a large number of teams that earned
no points from December through the middle of March.
My memory is a little shaky on the host—it
was either a Men’s B team from Pottsville, Pennsylvania or a team in the
Wilmington, Delaware-based Champion Volleyball Club. But, this host
conducted an annual tournament at the end of March that was only open to
Men’s B teams that had no points to that point. Please remember,
there was no Men’s or Women’s BB divisions in those days, so you had a
really large pool of mens and womens B teams. Anyway, it was a great
tournament for all the teams who were fairly evenly matched—they all were
pretty bad! The most important thing, though, was that everyone had
a fantastic time, and the competition was the best these teams had seen
all season. The tournament always filled, and nobody went home empty-handed
as everyone got some sort of trophy/award/memento.
Some teams, with tongue-in-cheek, stated they
purposely lost all season just to have an opportunity to play in the “NO
POINTS” tournament! I cannot vouch for the truth of that story, but
I can attest to the fact that the host had no trouble filling the tournament
even that late in the season. And, since none of the teams were going
to the Region Championships anyway, points earned didn’t matter.
Sadly, with the demise of Region 3, the “ONLY TEAMS WITH NO POINTS” Tournament
drifted into history. It is a darn shame because it was truly a unique
event!
History Lesson Number Two…For those of you who
may think the current Region Championships are tough, you should have been
around in those Region 3 days! The year the Middle River Men’s B
registered (1972), the Region Championships were held in Williamsburg,
Virginia. It was an Open Championship with all teams competing in
one pool. Any team could apply to enter, and the Region leadership
accepted all applicants! To top it off, it was a double elimination
championship tournament. Anyway, we felt pretty good about our little
old Men B team (playing a 4-2 with the setter in the middle), so we applied.
BIG MISTAKE! We drove for 4 hours to get to the playing site
in Williamsburg and had our first match at 10:00 a.m. against a Men AA
team. We were destroyed in two very quick games. We played
our next match against a Men’s A team at 2:00 p.m. again being ousted in
two fairly quick games. Well, two quick matches, a quick shower,
and we were home by 7:00 p.m. We found out later we were the only
Men B team entered. It was one heck of a “learning experience”!
If my memory serves me correctly, it was the following year (1973) that
the Region changed to a Division format similar to what we have today.
By the way, I still get goose-bumps when I remember blocking middle (I
am 5’9” with no jump) against that AA Middle Hitter who stood at least
15 feet tall, had a vertical leap of ½ mile, and dinked at 150 MPH.
Wow!
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