Madness: a volleyball game, Times 91

Some clubs come from Brazil and Bermuda. A total of 78,000 spectators cheer you on. The energy levels are from the diagrams.

And it is not even the biggest event of the year for USA volleyball.

A recently qualified qualification game in Orlando filled 142 dishes.

The United States has been a annual double -digit member growth in all play categories since 2021.

“This is really a great sport in the United States and the biggest secret in the United States.” says John Speraw, Chief Executive Officer from USA volleyball.

A whopping 85 percent of teenagers are girls here.

“It is the biggest team sport in America for girls. It is larger than the women's basketball at the high school level. It's greater than women's football. It is just astonishing for me, ”says Speraw, who trained the US men's team in 2024 for an Olympic bronze medal.

Volleyball for girls is second place for athletics that has more participants, but it is mainly an individual sport.

He says volleyball is a unique sport for two reasons.

“You are fighting for gravity. It turns out that the attempt to combat gravity and keep this ball up to date is quite challenging and fun. Then the second is that there is a real sense of community because everyone is on one side of the network and they are with their team all the time. There is this real feeling of the team and it is a really fun sport. “

Hold your head up on your head in these games. The game is stopped all the time because a ball grows into a neighboring place. The good news is that it hurts less than a baseball, puck or lacrosse ball. Also get used to hearing the pipe of the referee in the complete surround stereo system.

Jack Stanley, a 6'6 -inch volleyball player from Massapequa Park, ny, says that the 91 dishes do not want to do it. “Not really. I'm locked up in the middle of the game. It's not very distracting. I don't notice anything else. I'm only on the pitch, play with my team and the energy. It's incredible. It is a great environment.”

Never a boo can be heard somewhere

The dishes look surreal from the tip of the escalator on the second floor, near the 12-foot raised ledge, which is used as a backdrop for the price photos. Each team has three games a day that take between 37 and 45 minutes. There is also a shopping center in the middle with a food court, jewelry and the USA volleyball clothing. You can even do your hair here.

The 16 -year -old Cassie Geer from the Seacoast of the New Hampshire team does this between games.

“It's all in one, it's pretty great. Oh, it's exciting. It's overwhelming, but it's a lot of fun, ”said Geer. “Oh, I love that everyone comes from everywhere, and it's great to meet new people.”

Gatorade stations are set up everywhere. The powder -Energy drink is free of charge and mixed on site.

“In 11 years we have only mixed 30 tons of gatorade for our (almost 200) volleyball events,” says Jeremy Rubin, managing director of Synergies 21, an event management company.

A highlight The festival are the inspiring intrasquad games of the US women's national team, which won the gold medal for the third time in a row at the Paralympic Games in Paris in 2024.

Jillian Williams-Coffee was a Texas volleyball player who was diagnosed with bone cancer and had amputated her leg at 19 at 19. Now she plays with what she describes as the “best of the best” and has two gold medals to prove this. These 20 amazing athletes signed happily pictures and show their gold medals after their games.

“This is great to be exposed to para sports. It is astonishing that he shows powerful athletes Para athletes, ”she says.

After a game she can also play with her son Major 2.

“This is his first tournament and he practiced with me,” she says. “He has some movements.”

Marie Hamilton from the Synergy Volleyball Club outside of Philadelphia says that the boys and girls games are different. The boys go for the Power Kill. The girls are more sophisticated in their game.

“I think that the girl's game is so much more developed here that it is really good for her to see the differences and the style of the game. The girls (style) are much more technical and the boys (style) is much more powerful. It is good if you watch each other because you learn from each other. “

There is also a new fad. The girls decorate laundry clips with random messages and then glue them to other players without their knowledge. “They have positive messages themselves, and the girls spend hours decorating all of these things, and they run around, and they come to you and they stick to your jacket, and they moved on, or they move out on your backpack and then move them further,” says Jennifer Joseph, Vice President of JVC tournaments, who help to do the event. “They put it in a person's hair or they put it on the leg of an official. It's everywhere. They are hysterical. But they are everywhere. “

Grace Evans from Sporting Albany uses a few clothes pegs to support an ice pack for a minor injury that she had during a U-18 game.

She loves the Boston Volleyball Festival.

“I think it's great. So far it is really fun. “

Boys will also be boys. Some wrote their social media actions about them and won them over the girls. But most messages are inspiring, noble. A brotherhood and sisterhood of volleyball.

“You have that,” says one.

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Stan Grossfeld can be reached at stanley.grossfeld@globe.com.