Every year at Athens Drive, the student council holds a charity game called VolleyBros. This charity helps to raise money for their students via Backpack Buddies. Students are able to smack-down volleyballs and duel against their classmates in friendly competition. The name has seen many variations throughout the years, including: Volleybros, Volleybros and Bows, and now, Volley-Palooza.
“The name ‘Volley-Palooza’ came from a very fun brainstorming session at a student council executive board meeting one Wednesday,” said Libby O’Leary, member of the student council. “We knew we wanted something creative, but everything seemed too bland and basic. I remember someone bringing up the concert ‘lallapalooza’ randomly in our conversation, and it just hit me, ‘OH! We should name it Volley-Palooza!”
The event follows the classic volleyball rules but adds a style of elimination. Once a team reaches 25 points, they are eliminated. The teams are created by students and can have a minimum of six and a maximum of ten players. However, it begs the question: Why was Volleybros changed to Volley-Palooza?
“Over the last couple years, the last couple seasons we’ve done, our numbers of participants have sort of dwindled a little bit,” said Christoper Remaley, the student council advisor and organizer of Volley-Palooza, “Since we’re doing this for charity, I feel like we’re not doing justice to them. So I asked Student Government kids, ‘what can we do?’”
Due to a low player count, the council decided to change the name. The word ‘palooza’ is often associated with music festivals, the most famous one being Lollapalooza. Volley Palooza is also a widely known event in volleyball to other high schools. Professional teams made up of students 16 years or older can compete against each other to win medals. At Athens Drive, the event is to raise money for charity and give students the opportunity to make memories and have fun.
“We need to do more to benefit Backpack Buddies, ” said Remaley. “This last year we made $500-600, and the year before that it was like $700-800. Our kids deserve better, so maybe we could do better.”
In past years, Volley-Palooza usually took place in the spring, while a dodgeball tournament was in the winter. This year, instead of doing dodgeball, volleyball was moved up to be in the winter, and a new spring game was added. The new game will be a pickleball tournament.
“Dodgeball participation has also been sort of waning. Again, I posed it up to them. I said ‘what do y’all wanna do?’” said Remaley. “They felt like we could drop dodgeball and try something new. And so we’re going to replace it with a Pickleball tournament. We’ve never tried something like this before, and apparently, lots of students like to play pickleball. So, we’re gonna give it a shot.”
The dodgeball and volleyball tournaments have remained the same at Athens for about 15 years. The change in name and addition of a new game will be the first big change in a while that the tournaments have seen, all in an effort to keep up the donations to Backpack Buddies. Volley-Palooza is open to any student or teacher willing to join; there is no age limit.
“Faculty members are allowed to be on teams with students, which creates a very silly and fun environment for the fundraiser,” said O’Leary. “I really want to harp on the fact that this year is already extra competitive because the winning team will get one-of-a-kind volley-palooza tee-shirts as a prize! Admission is only 5 dollars, or cans for donations, and it is for a great cause!”
