| Serving up fun in the sun: Local sand volleyball league is a popular draw for all ages |
By: Bobby Hart
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Posted: Wednesday, July 30, 2008 12:15 am
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Megan Federly bumps a ball as Derrick Gregor (right) and Jon Steinbauer (left) look on Tuesday at Bashers Sports Bar & Grill. (Bobby Hart/Daily News)
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bhart@faribault.com
FARIBAULT — About 20 years after he started playing sand volleyball at Bashers Sports Bar & Grill, Dan Leppert has a new perspective on the game.
Leppert, now the bar manager at Bashers, overlooked Court No. 4 from a judge’s stand Tuesday as he reffed a game. About seven years ago when Leppert took his job at Bashers, where he manages the refs of the bar’s popular sand volleyball league, he quit playing.
But it’s not because the 49-year-old can’t still get his knees dirty.
“I still love the game and I still can play it,” said Leppert, who still plays winter volleyball. “But it doesn’t fit into my schedule.”
That’s because the sand volleyball league at Bashers is as popular as ever, with 158 teams participating in the four-month summer leagues running Monday through Friday nights.
There’s a men’s league, women’s league and a co-ed league, each split into four more leagues, based on talent and experience.
Leppert said not a whole lot has changed since he played in the late 1980s.
“It’s still about as competitive as it was then,” he said. “Now you have younger people coming in and playing and the older ones start slowing down and they drop down to the lower leagues instead of playing in the upper leagues. But you still have some of the older ones that are still playing in the upper league, too, because they’re just that competitive.”
A team sponsored by local attorney Jeff Johnson, also a member of the squad, was one of those older teams flexing its competitive muscles Tuesday night. Johnson’s team, with members at an average age of 40, beat a younger Skluzacek Bros. Home and Hair-i-tage Salon team, which was made up of players in their mid-20s.
“We use our craftiness,” Johnson said, “rather than taking our shirts off to jump over the net.”
The leagues, which started in early May, are finishing up with playoffs in the next few weeks. However, Leppert hinted that Bashers may be looking for teams to begin a fall league.
“People have shown interest,” Leppert said.
But there’s nothing quite like sand volleyball in the summer. Before or after games, teams often sit down together and mingle over food or cold beverages.
“It’s for the people to come and have fun and enjoy themselves,” Leppert said. “It’s supposed to be recreation, so people can leave their stress from work and everything else at home and come and have fun. That’s what it should be all about.”
— Sports Editor Bobby Hart may be reached at 333-3129.
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