White men can’t jump – remember the Hollywood movie that tried to prove that point?
Can Sun City seniors jump? Yes, they can. A member of the community’s Senior Volleyball League proved it the other day. During a match at the Cosman Center gym, he slammed the ball into the opponent’s court for a winner and exclaimed, “Hey, my left foot was all the way off the floor!”
Seriously, seniors may not leap and bound all over the court the way high school or college gazelles do, but they have as much fun and get a lot of exercise on a volleyball court.
John Sterling (N10) gently chided me after my recent column about “hibernating winter sports” failed to mention the volleyball league. So we chatted last week and he filled me in on how about 36 Sun Citians spend a significant chunk of their winter keeping active batting a ball around at the Huntley Park District two days a week. He claims the “left foot” story mentioned above is true, and it illustrates the camaraderie and fun the volleyballers have on Tuesday and Thursday mornings from October through April.
The league is comprised mostly of Sun City residents, Sterling said, plus a few others from nearby towns. “Almost all of us have no formal athletic backgrounds in the sport, and we are not real competitive in our games. We play mostly for fun and exercise, and for a chance to stay active during the winter season. All we require is that players be 55 and over.
“We start at 8 a.m. with whoever is there, and players arriving later are assigned to teams that are short players. We play a round robin format, each team playing the other at least once. The team with the most wins each day is declared the ‘winner’ for bragging rights. If a team starts to dominate games, we trade some players to keep a competitive balance.”
Everybody shares in the cost of the park district’s fees for use of the courts.
“We appreciate that Del Webb built the sand volleyball courts near Eakin (softball) field, but that site is just not used much anymore,” said Sterling, who also is active in the Woodchucks Charter Club and in Neighborhood 10 activities. “The sand is a bit too challenging for seniors.”
Games are played to 15 points, and rally scoring is used, he said. “Teams can score points whether or not they are serving, and games go pretty fast.”
Last fall, Sterling said the group spiced up their activities by inviting some of their granddaughters to join in. “We had a Huntley High School player, one from a St. Charles High School, and another player from the University of Iowa. They were very nice and said we were pretty good.
“We all had a good laugh when we talked about our rules,” he recalled. “We decided that it’s not that we don’t allow jumping, it’s that we can’t.” Many volleyballers play tennis and/or softball in the spring and summer and like to change the pace and try volleyball in the winter.
Volleyball is a popular sport for both boys and girls in high schools and colleges today. Most high schools in Illinois field teams for both genders, and tournaments draw large crowds. Many high school players earn college scholarships in the sport. Why bring that up? Well, that trend probably means that future Senior Volleyball players will be reliving cherished memories of past glories when they line up at the net.
The next time a Sun Citian jumps at Cosman, we’ll let you know.
