A special congratulations to the Women’s 40s teams— MVP who finished Second in the Gold Medal Division and Synergy who finished First in the Silver Division!  Kudos to Sara Brenner and Marina Fleming from MVP who were named to the All-Tournament Team. More congratulations to the Women’s 55 Division. Aces finished Third in the Gold Division, and Maria Del Miller was elected to the All-Tournament Team!

     Hopefully, many of you were able to see the Region’s East Coast National Beach Volleyball Championships in Ocean City this September and have returned invigorated and ready to begin another season of indoor volleyball! 

     We are still working on finding out ways to have half-day tournaments. The hardest part of it all is how much will this cost? Will teams, due to the high cost of renting gyms, wish to pay the money that it will cost to play?  Most gyms have to be taken for the whole day. How will points be given out for half-day tournaments? Still questions that we have not been able to resolve.  However, with Ron Sommer working on these issues, I feel confident he will find feasible answers to these questions. And, with a little luck, we will actually be able to try it this season.

     In closing, I would like to take this opportunity to thank Joe Sharpless who is moving from this Region to Arizona. The Chesapeake Region has bestowed upon Joe the title of Commissioner Emeritus and granted him membership in perpetuity. Perhaps no other person in United States Volleyball has had such an impact on the nature of Regional Volleyball Associations as Joe. His involvement with USVBA administrations began before there was a Chesapeake Region. In fact, in a manner of speaking, he created the Chesapeake Region, as well as most of the Regions that are now part of USA Volleyball. During his tenure as the Vice President for the Regional Operations Divisions in the 1970’s, the USVBA became the entity we recognize today.

     Joe was the first commissioner of the Chesapeake Region and was directly responsible for the three commissioners who succeeded him. During that time, the Chesapeake region divided itself into three thriving Regions (Keystone, Old Dominion, and Chesapeake) and produced a succession of contributors at the local and National level.

     The work that Joe did for us locally and for the USVBA nationally has always been based on the premise that the strength of our sport is derived from participation at the Regional level. He has always advocated the preeminence of the Regional associations as those who are most intimately in touch with our sport. He has done his best to ensure that we have a voice in the government of our sport.

     As Joe departs from our Region we wish him continued success in a life already crowned with many.