US Open Nationals in the D (aka Detroit, MI)

So, its officially over and that time of the year is passed. Once again, 30-40 teams from the New York, New Jersey Metropolitan Area - along with a few hundred or so other teams from various other US Volleyball regions - descended onto an unsuspecting city and took over for 8 days.

YOU'RE WELCOME DETROIT!!!!

I can't lie, Detroit was horrible. The city shut everything down at 11:30pm. Bars closed at 2am, like many places, but there was NO NIGHT LIFE. Not what was advertised (by myself as well) Detroit. Next time, be ready the onslaught that is adult nationals.

On the other hand, everything else was awesome!!!

Between watching our region do very well in MANY divisions and age groups, we partied HARDER, stayed out LONGER and overall showed why GEVA is the BEST REGION TO LIVE IN!!!

Congrats to Train Wreck for taking GOLD ! Lead by Ali Jackson, Tournament MVP, Train Wreck DOMINATED Women's BB only dropping 1 set in four days of play. Congrats to all of Train Wreck: Cindy Stayton, Cristina Payne, Val Lang, Valeria Langlois, Caitlin Weiss, Mindy Stephanie, Tiffany Firebaugh, and Audrey Goss. We'll miss you in GEVA - and NYC - Audrey, when you move, but we know you and Aaron Zucker will have a great life in Chicago!!!


Awesome job by Dan McFadden and his team, GSA, who also took GOLD in Men's A. Congrats to Lorenzo Samin and team Super Flow Flex for finishing 3rd in Men's A as well. Props go out to Rony Gilot Jr. and the men of Creole Red, aka 40+, for representing us in that age group! I'm with you all in Orlando! Congrats to former Empire Volleyball Club members Dennis J. Park and Kevin Shalley for leading NY Strangers to the Bronze Bracket Title. We keep that tradition alive with you all!!!

Now, as for Empire Volleyball Club, let's be real; we came together with less than two months before Nationals. We registered. Got hotels. Organized flights and transportation last minute. We couldn't even have a final roster until just before our first whistle Friday afternoon in Detroit. To finish 33rd over all and win Flight 1, we kicked some major butt.

Huge thank you to Kyle Birdman Burnside, for bringing in people to this year's team. Props to the those guys, Mark Ledwich, Erik Shagdar, Daniel Meretzky, Kevin Skeuse, Raymond Collins and Jordy Diaz our team MVP for bringing it on our last day. We started off the weekend 0-5. Got a little too drunk two out of four nights and then, well like all GEVA teams, made it count in playoffs. After winning our challenge match to Flight 1, we never looked back, finishing the weekend with a 5-5 record in Men's BB. We made Empire Volleyball Club proud!!!
Thank you Bryn Kehoe, for hanging out with us after your match. I know Jordy was in LOVE.

Thank you Jeffrey Ptak for hanging before your match. Furthermore, Big Jeff, CONGRATS on winning two championships this year. One in Bahrain and the other with Team Pineapple in the Men's PVL Division.
Good luck to my homie, Stephen Bracken and the Men's National Sitting Team, as they travel out to Bosnia.

All in all, this years Nationals wasn't very different to many others. We all played hard and had fun. Each team achieved some level of success or met a level failure, but still played together.
Next year its in ORLANDO, FLORIDA. There will definitely be more teams and more chances for bad stories and major hijinks. All I know is I can't wait!

See you all during the outdoor season, but I hope more than anything I'll see you all again in Orlando!!!
GO Empire!!!

Introduzco Los Hombres de SUAVE en el Imperio!! and Suave Bowl Boxes

Enter The Men of SUAVE into TheEmpire!!

Ok....

My Spanish is thanks to Google Translate and not to me actually remembering anything specific from classes I took in high school.

HOWEVER - - -

Empire Volleyball Club is BACK, but not the original group of EVC-Prime. this year's version has some Latino HEAT!!! (yes that is a WWE reference)

The 2014 version of EVC is actually a reboot of SUAVE Volleyball Club and Empire mixed. This years members include, but aren't limited to:

Angel R (Bronx, NY)., Roberto H., Joachin S. (Both in  NYC, NY), Patrick D., Francisco M., Joseph E., Todd R., Eder M., and Desmond H (All in Brooklyn). This is a very formidable team, when all the members are there. So far, Suave has had a difficult start to the season. Members have had injuries and struggled through tough personal situations, however, the team and club play on!!!

VAMOS JUEGAR!!! (Let's Play)

Suave Empire will be competing in the GEVA's (Garden Empire Volleyball Association) new Division 1 level. This Division doesn't eliminate AA/A/BB ranking or labels.What it does is it puts in play a simpler grading system and a better way for teams to register for matches. The divisional system also allows for more teams to play against each other and gain points more often throughout the season. Now, teams who at one point had to play up to AA/A to get extra tournament time in won't need to worry.

As a Club, we have already competed in three money tournaments this season. Two at Turners Club in the Bronx and one hosted by GEVA at St. John's University, though each tournament was met with its own challenges, Suave Empire did have a fair showing at each tournament. Eventually the group from all over New York City will gain a solid chemistry and win one of these up coming tournament this season.

SUAVE BOWL BOXES 

Like all other teams we are starting our fund raising for the 2014 National Tournament, being held in PHOENIX, AZ once again!!!

As a result, we're having a drive started with the best fund raising idea any team can have (and most have). We're doing a set of Boxes for the Big (football) Game on February 2, 2014 at the Met Life Stadium, in East Rutherford, New Jersey.

To the right of this article is the Pay Pal links to purchase boxes. As you will see each box can be selected directly on screen. Below is a picture of the Boxes in an Excel Spread Sheet. Whenever a BOX is purchased names will be updated by 11pm each evening. Purchasing ENDS at 6:30pm Sunday Feb. 2, 2014.

The cost per BOX is $25. The pay outs are as follows: (if all Boxes are SOLD)

• 1st Quarter: $125
• At The Half: $300
• 3rd Quarter: $125
• At The Final: $700

When purchasing your boxes please leave your name and the address or desired location to mail victor checks.

We hope all of you can help us with our goal of getting to Nationals.

AS ALWAYS!!!

We want to thank all of our followers, friends and fans! Without you Suave Empire wouldn't really just be a bunch of guys playing volleyball and having some beers at the end of the day talking about our lives. well, we do that anyway, but now we have some awesome people to help us enjoys those special tournament moments all over again.

THANK YOU.

See you all during the season. Help us get to Nationals and - as always - GROW THE GAME!!!

- Asi SUAVE ;-)