Kathryn Renick (from center, behind net), Lou Wright and Todd Garrison stand ready to respond to a pass by Courtney Osteen. (Photo by Ash Daniel)
Lynn Hall peers into the swirl of pounding music, bright lights, primordial shouts and shrill referee whistles — all amid bodies drenched in perspiration — and describes the scene.
“I guess it’s like a street party or something,” Hall says. “It’s a break from reality.”
Welcome to the Richmond Volleyball Club (RVC), a nearly 3,000-member nonprofit that operates out of what officials say is one of the largest volleyball-only venues in the world, 12 courts spread over 70,000 square feet, on Byrdhill Road in Henrico County. Brown Distributing Co. occupied the property before Richmond Volleyball renovated it in 2010. Soon, the RVC will get even bigger, by adding volleyball courts at a $7 million, 50,000-square-foot sports facility that it will lease from Chesterfield County.
“We hope to introduce more people to volleyball,” says Darcy Carroll, executive director of RVC since 2006. She says the new venue is on track to be completed in January, but outfitting it will delay the opening to early February.
For many Chesterfield residents, it will offer exposure to a brand of volleyball that mixes the excitement of sports and athletic competition with an easygoing social element, says Hall, who manages the club’s adult leagues, along with tournaments and other events.
He looks over at a group of men and women who have just walked off the courts at the Byrdhill location, after playing in one of the club’s coed teams. They’re sipping beers and laughing in a lounge area. Hall nods knowingly.
“They’re talking about their lives, they’re talking about the game they’ve just played and the game they’re going to play next,” he says.
Founded in 1981, Richmond Volleyball was initially open only to adults. Now, RVC offers youth programs that begin with the “Itsy Bitsy Spikers,” for children ages 4 to 6, and extend to high schoolers.
Cary Hall serves the ball. (Photo by Ash Daniel)
Despite its growth and success, the Richmond Volleyball Club flies under the radar for many area residents.
“It’s definitely a secret,” says Todd Garrison.
“Which is really a shame,” Lou Wright adds quickly
Wright, a 45-year-old Glen Allen resident who works as an infrastructure manager for a local company, and Garrison, a 32-year-old scheduler for a radiator firm, describe themselves as devoted volleyballers, playing multiple nights a week. Sometimes they’re on the same team; at other times they’re on opposing sides.
“It’s a friendship, a family, as much as a competitive sport,” says Wright.
“Yeah, the competition, the friends and the workout,” adds Garrison, who lives in Chesterfield.
When the new facility opens at Stonebridge, a multiuse development on the site of the old Cloverleaf Mall at Chippenham Parkway and Midlothian Turnpike, Garrison won’t have as long a commute to play his favorite sport.
Duane Renick and his wife, Kathryn, of Hanover County, have made volleyball one of the threads in the fabric of their 28-year marriage. “A lot of the groups have stuck together over a long period of time,” says Kathryn, a registered nurse and ultrasound tech at Virginia Women’s Center. A teacher at Hermitage Technical Center, Duane Renick, 58, vows to keep playing until he’s at least 70, and he says there are seniors older than 70 who are still at it.
Carroll says one of the biggest challenges RVC faces is convincing people to give the sport a try. “We have all levels, and we have a starter league where we’ll teach you how to play.”
She says that, on average, an evening of volleyball costs a member about the same as a movie. The club’s website notes that for nine weeks of play and a tournament, adult teams pay between $400 and $580, depending on the nights they play. This, RVC says, works out to between $6 and $8 per night per player, and many teams find a corporate sponsor to pay their team fee.
“We offer scholarships and financial aid for kids who want to participate and might not otherwise be able to,” Carroll adds.
Typically, about 400 people a day participate in adult and junior development leagues at RVC, supporting about 240 teams in evening recreational leagues Sunday through Friday, as well as 40 junior recreational teams. Besides indoor volleyball, RVC features beach and grass volleyball during warmer weather at courts across the region.
The club also hosts more than 10,000 junior players, coaches and spectators twice a year during tournaments at the Greater Richmond Convention Center. The first tournament of the season is held in January, when about 300 East Coast girls’ teams flood into town.
Richmond Volleyball Club has been a training ground for some of the better high school players in the region. RVC officials say more than 275 junior players have continued their varsity volleyball careers at more than 117 colleges and universities across the country.
One of the latest star junior players is Kylie Tuxford, 17, of Hanover High School, who has a full scholarship to play at Radford University next fall. Tuxford began playing at RVC when she was 8 years old, competing against 13-year-olds. Through Richmond Volleyball Club, she has played in tournaments against girls’ volleyball teams from across the country. RVC, she says, has been her lifeline to realize a dream of playing for a Division I college team. But playing volleyball, both on her high school team and with RVC, takes its toll. “I might not have a free weekend till March,” Tuxford says.
In the distance, shouts and whistles from the courts signal that another game is getting underway.
