Jen's Team - "We've Made Better Passes at the
Bar" in the Spring 2008 Red Deer Volleyball Tourney.

The Road to Sylvan Lake

My goal: Attend the Sylvan tourney this weekend and not suck!

Why I have this goal: Because my team won the prize for worst differential at the last indoor tournament! Seriously, it was a $50 bar tab, we didn’t complain about “losing” for too long.

A little history: We've Made Better Passes at the Bar" started playing together last fall in the indoor volleyball leagues in the absolute lowest division possible. We suck, but we are slowly becoming a little less horrible and well, we laugh so hard while we are playing that we just can’t give it up! Now with the Spring Beach Volleyball season under our belts, I am ready to take on the Sylvan Beach Volleyball world for the second time around. I used the Spring beach season to hone my skills and I feel like I am now that sleeper player that everyone counts as down and out, then BAM, I will rock you! I can't speak for my team considering it is a mish-mash of ESSC and CSSC staff (we didn't do so well last year). But we had a lot of fun and defintely could have won the funnest award!! So I challenge you all, our team name:Spit on your neck fantastic! It is a quote from Friends in case you were wondering...

So a little advice for when you attempt to take on my team in Sylvan or here in Edmonton:

1) Wake up early, make it to Sylvan with plenty of time to warm up and stretch. There is nothing worse than pulling a hamstring and not being able to make it up the stairs at the hotel. Trust me.

2) Bring sunscreen and lots of water. Sun + sand = fun. Sunstroke does not.

3) Bring your ‘A’ game or your ‘D’ game, either way, it’s a great time. If ‘D’ shows up, my team can take ya!

4) Attend the after party! If we can’t beat you on the court, we will certainly take your team on in tippy cups and that is a sport that we have a tad bit more skill in!

Jen Kazarian


















 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


Chris' Team - Blue Balls at the Canadian Beach Dodgeball Championships in Calgary.

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Canadian Beach Dodgeball Championships

Despite rain and a daytime high of 12 degrees, the first Alberta SSC Beach Dodgeball Tournament was well worth the 3 hour, 6 am drive down to Calgary for me. 17 teams participated in the event, including some veterans of the game and others participating for the very first time. 3 teams made the journey from Edmonton to battle the hoards of Calgary on their home turf- Sofa King Good, Stop Nailing Our Chicks and Blue Balls.

There were a few new rules to get used to, most notably the ability to save a team mate by catching a deflected ball, but in the end it was the conditions that made the biggest difference. Throwing a wet, sandy dodgeball is a lot tougher than I anticipated (I could barely lift my arm that night) and certainly made for games which favored catching over throwing.

Teams participated in a round robin followed by a Royal Rumble (a last man standing competition) with 17 players per side. Playoffs began soon after as teams competed for a $1000 purse for the overall champions.

Sofa King Good made a strong showing in the Royal Rumble with 2 players remaining up until the final 7, their 2 nominees played with skill and patience, only to get knocked out of the game one after another. Sofa King also made it to the second round of the playoffs, upsetting their opponent and entering into the money round.

Blue Balls looked like the team to beat early on, with a round robin record of 21-2, however the second seeded Blue Balls were upset in the second round of the playoffs losing to the Dodgy Drip Dodgers 4-2 in their best of 7.

Not surprisingly the championship went to the always dangerous members of Calgary's Spastic Sphincters under the alias of Sklads, as they dominated the competition the entire day, showing that they were just as comfortable on the sand as in the gym.

Thanks to all of the teams that came out and here's hoping that we can run a Beach Dodgeball Tournament here in Edmonton in the not too distant future.

Chris Berry


 

 

























































Player Liason Update

When I was offered the position of Player Liaison by the club a few weeks ago, I had visions of being the club’s Tony Stark: Playboy millionaire by day, butt-kicking superhero by night. Unfortunately for me there has been no butt-kicking as all the teams I’ve visited so far have been really friendly.
I will try to see as many games as I can, but there are 560+ teams in the league and unfortunately I won’t be able to see you all. If there is a pressing need and you would like me to come and watch part of your game, please let us know at info@edmontonsportsclub.com.

I am also out during the day scouting newer and better fields trying to find you guys the best places to play. I’ll also be out to fields that we receive complaints about and either try to fix them or recommend that we find a new field for you. In between all of this, I’ll also try to find some time to line fields that we use the most.

We are always in the process of scouting fields and doing our best to improve them to make sure our players are able to play on the best available fields. Sometimes we are able to replace a field with a better one, but that is not always an option so we hope lining a field will help to make a more enjoyable experience. Here are just some of the fields that we have dealt with:


Field # Reported Issues ESSC Action
Hardisty 3 Missing goal posts. Removed from schedule, f/u with COE, new post as of 06/15.
Highlands 2 Gravel on field, eneven ground. Removed from schedule.
Brightview 2 Uneven ground, pitch intersecting ball diamonds. Removed from schedule.
Inglewood 1 Debris on field. Lined.
Sweetgrass 1 Long Grass. Lined.
Glendale 1 Debris on field. Taken off schedule.
St. Timothy's 3 The fields are a bit small. Lined.
Giovani Caboto 1 Uneven ground, debris on field. To be lined 06/18.
Malcolm Tweedle 1   To be lined 06/18.
Confederation 5   To be lined 06/18.

Stay fit, and have fun!

Matt Hennig
Edmonton Sport and Social Club Player Liaison

























Boot Camp Wrap Up

So our first round of boot camp is officially over; although both tears of joy and sadness may have been shed. Hopefully we all feel the same about one thing – the kick ass job that we did on our fitness re-assessment!

At the start of the six weeks, we were subject to a grueling, sweat dripping fitness test. Upon evaluation of this test, it was ranked, by some boot camp goer’s as “the hardest thing I’ve ever done” and “an intensity of 13 on a scale of 1-10.

An average time for completion of the test was between 35 and 40 minutes. This extreme race included some endurance running, stair sprints, jump squats, step up’s and other character altering exercises that pushed us to our limits.

Nonetheless, we all surpassed everyone’s expectations when we blew our initial times out of the water in our fitness re-assessment this week.

On average, participants improved their time by at least 5 minutes, with improvements of up to 16 minutes for some extra hard workers! Congratulations to everyone!

Jen Kazarian

 

 

 






 


Individual Results of some of our participarts
:

Participants Name
Improved Time By: (in minutes)
Steve Bennett 7:53
Robin Smith 3:56
Ghislaine Dallyn 8:49
Darcy Garrett 14:06
Jen Kazarian 5:00
Stacey Rombough 6:07