★ ★
★ ★ ★
★ ★ ★
“It is my deepest hope and desire that the American public can go out and discover who these people are and really embrace the talent, skills and personalities of these players who are wearing the red, white and blue and who are trying to go get us gold at the Olympics.” — Rob Espero on the members of the U.S. National Volleyball Teams
A volleyball junkie with a penchant for outrageous tailgate setups, legendary Halloween costumes and Michael Jackson dance moves? That’s the perfect recipe for a Super Fan, and it’s where the Vol-B-Que was born.
“It was partly by accident and partly by design,” Garthoff says. “I’m crazy passionate and creative by nature. When I decided to throw a tailgate party for the USA Men’s National Team in 2011, I tried to make it as cool as I could. But the next year was an Olym- pic qualifi er and – despite the fact that we were the defending gold medalists – we weren’t qualifi ed a few months out from the London Games. I threw myself at the event just to see how far I could take it. Vol-B-Que 2, as it came to be known, blew the doors off my expectations. Over 300 people turned out in red, white and blue and cheered the team to victory in the NORCECAs. The positive feed- back I got from the players and fans alike was amazing. It fueled my fi re and I’ve been doing it ever since.”
But how hard should it be to get people, in the United States, to cheer for a wildly talented American National team? Much harder than you’d think.
In recent years, the U.S. Men’s National Team has played around the country during home stops for the World League, which resembles a collegiate conference schedule, with international teams playing each other at home and on the road. But the stops in the U.S. have always been a bit different than those on foreign soil. Because of the great melting pot that is the USA, many times the Americans are faced with more opposing fans than supporting fans. Take a World League match in Chicago against Poland, where there were about 4,000 Polish fans rabidly cheering on their homeland while U.S. sup- port came from just 1,000 American fans. Or another World League match in the San Francisco Bay Area, where Chinese fans signifi cantly outnumbered U.S. fans. Enter the Vol-B-Que. Since the fi rst
Vol-B-Que, which has traditionally been held outside of the Walter Pyramid on the campus of Long Beach State, the event, the hype surrounding it and the actual match have grown by leaps and bounds. The fourth installment happened in June and featured a full tailgate with food, music, games, costumes, giveaways and the new tradition of meeting the team bus before the match, something the players love just as much as the fans. “When the Team USA bus arrived, you could see the guys inside banging on the glass and cheering,” Garthoff recalled to the Long Beach Press Telegram. “Then (the team) was all over Twitter saying how great it was to see so many fans in red, white and blue. That was the reinforcement to do this thing bigger.”
The fan support inside the arena was appreciated, too.
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
MORE THAN A FAN: Rob Espero, here greeting U.S. National Team member David Smith before a match, has been a volleyball player, coach and public address announcer for more than 25 years. (Photo: Jim Wolf)
★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
USAVOLLEYBALL.ORG | 31
“This was one of the fi rst times I was able to hear the crowd sing our national anthem,” said U.S. Men’s National Team outside hitter Matt Anderson. “It was really, really something special for me and for our team.” With USAV’s support, Garthoff sees the Vol-B-Que continuing to grow bigger with time. “It hits at a fundamental issue: we can’t just put on events and hope people come,” he says. “Fans are made, not born. People like me, we can only do so much as individuals. But with the right people and resources around us, we can achieve incredible things.”
SUPER FAN NO. 2
While Super Fandom helps produce great results on the court, it sometimes produces just as incredible results off the court. Enter Tim and Ellen Toy.
Ellen, a former player at the University of Pittsburgh, drew her
husband, Tim, into the volleyball fray in 1983, when she coached a high school team that won a state title her very fi rst year as coach. Throughout the years, the couple attended the Pennsylvania Vol- leyball Coaches Association clinics on Penn State’s campus and also made the drive to Happy Valley for a few big matches. Little did they know that it was a Nittany Lion who would make all the difference.
Fast forward a few years when Ellen was going through treat- ments for gastric cancer. After her third treatment, Tim could tell that she was getting down from the grueling regimen and he wanted to see if someone she looked up to would send her a message of
★ ★ ★ ★ by Don Patterson ★ ★
★ ★ ★
★
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78