Volleyball a Neighborhood Tradition

Carriage Gate residents come together every year for the annual neighborhood volleyball tournament. Even if they move far away, they’ve been coming back to play in the Memorial Day Weekend tournament in the Duluth subdivision for 20 years. And there are a few players who haven’t missed a tournament.

They have long-standing team names and a silver trophy cup that’s had three wooden tiers attached to its base to hold the miniature plaques engraved with the winners through the years. The tournament was started with four teams, two more were added, and there were so many players this year they had to come up with two more names.

The “Netters” and “Acers” joined the “Pounders,” the “Diggers,” the “Shredders,” the “Spikers,” the “Setters,” and the “Blockers” in competing for the coveted trophy that was converted by the tournament founders from a champagne bucket to resemble hockey’s famous Stanley Cup. The winners drink champagne out of the cup and sometimes Gatorade if there are underage players on the team. Nowadays, teenage and college-age sons and daughters, who watched from the sidelines as small children, join their parents on the volleyball court. 

Presently owned by the Carriage Gate Recreation Association (CGRA), the volleyball court was once a grassy strip adjacent to the home owned by Don and Carol Harvey near the CGRA pool and tennis court. “Don was tired of mowing it,” Carol said. “One day, we were out on the deck, and he said we should put a volleyball court down there.”

“I read up about it,” Don said. “We rented a Bobcat, ordered sand and had it delivered. Our neighbors came over and helped spread the sand.” Poles were erected, and a volleyball net was put up. “It turned into a community effort,” he said. Initially, the neighborhood men played volleyball for fun on the weekends, Carol said. 

Then the Harveys' freezer went on the blink. “I had a big turkey thawing out,” said  Carol. It was near Memorial Day. “We decided to have a potluck with the volleyball,” she said. And so that’s how the Carriage Gate volleyball tournament tradition got started. “For years, I always brought a turkey,” she said. 

A chili party the night before the tournament at which players get their T-shirts and team assignments has been added. Bill and Marcia Day hosted this year’s pre-tournament gathering. The potluck dinner the next day follows the tournament, which starts in the morning and concludes in the early evening. A junior tournament for the younger set takes place the next day.

The Harveys only lived in the neighborhood for three years, and they moved to Seattle and then St. Louis, but returned for the tournament almost every year. They only missed four times because of their children’s graduations. “People move away, but come back to play,” Don said. “It’s a great neighborhood.” 

“We’ve had 121 different people play in the tournament up until this year,” Carol said. Forty-seven players participated in the 20th anniversary event, she said. “What’s kind of remarkable,” she said, “is that we’ve never been rained out. “We’ve had rain come through, but we’ve never had a washout where we had to reschedule the games.”

The Harveys sold the property where the volleyball court was located to the CGRA for a nominal amount when they moved. Other families like the Kaijeks, the Newlands, the Furlettes, and currently Al Neal and wife Ellen Queen carried on the tradition by organizing the tournament. 

When the Newlands bought the Kaijek home on the other side of the volleyball court, a condition of the sale at closing was they allow their kitchen to be used for cooking hot dogs served during the day at the tournament along with chips, fruit, Gatorade, and chocolate chip cookies. Scott and Kim Newland now live in Bowling Green, KY, but the entire family showed up for the tournament this year. Paul and Sandy Lewis, who purchased the Newland home, now help to prepare the hot dogs and other items for the tournament.

Tom and Lynn Furlette moved out of Carriage Gate four years ago and now live in Jefferson, GA, but they've remained tournament devotees. “I’ve not missed a game in 20 years,” Tom said. He shares that honor with Rick Loyal, who also has a perfect attendance record. The Furlettes keep the trophy at their home along with scrapbooks filled with nostalgic photographs from the tournament and bring them back each year. “We don’t think of doing anything else on Memorial Day except volleyball,” Tom said.

The tournament served as a catalyst for other neighborhood gatherings and excursions that continue today. “We’re really proud of what’s happened here though the years in this neighborhood,” Lynn said.

The 20th anniversary tournament was won by the Setters. The winning team was composed of Joseph Newland, T.J. Elgin, Donna Elgin, Andy Westbrook, Robert Rice, and Bill Day.