Friday, March 29, 2024

Word pulls the plug on Brewster outdoor volleyball court

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BREWSTER – Plans to construct an outdoor volleyball court near Brewster High School have been cancelled after community support for the project failed to materialize.
Karl Word, a Brewster alum and Bears sports booster said he pulled the plug on the project when solicitations to prospective donors to cover the estimated $14,000 cost to build the facility were unsuccessful.
Word said he assembled packets including details, plans, and cost estimates for the court and sent them out to prospective donors.
“I got prices on everything from Volleyball USA,” said Word,” right down to the type of sand to use.”  
Word said he would have volunteered to do much of the work and calculated the project would have required a couple of weeks to complete.
Word first introduced the outdoor court at a meeting of the Brewster City Council in June 2017. His proposal was modeled after the dual outdoor court complex in Chelan’s Don Morse Park. The Brewster model originally proposed for location near the Karl Goehry Memorial Basketball Court included a fenced enclosure for security and to prevent possible contamination from roving cats or other animals.
Word was also the prime mover behind creation of the Karl Goehry court in 2013.
“That cost about $30,000 and had wide community support,” said Word. “Building the volleyball court for $14,000 is a real bargain these days and it would be a good place for the varsity volleyball players to practice in the summer.”
Support for Brewster community projects remains viable as evidenced by a new playground complex, paid for largely by donor funds, that just broke ground on the old playground site near the basketball court.
Word had the backing of Brewster varsity volleyball coach Marcy Boesel, assistant coach Alisia Foyle, and the varsity players, several of whom appeared with Word’s before the city council.
Word said the Chelan court, the only one in the area, enjoys wide use. One person who can verify that is Pateros varsity volleyball coach Gene Dowers, who also coaches summer club volleyball.
 “We have used the Chelan court in the past,” said Dowers. “ And we would use a Brewster outdoor court whenever it was available.”
Dowers added that collegiate-level sand volleyball is rapidly increasing in popularity as more and more colleges add sand teams to their athletic and scholarship programs.
“It’s just skyrocketing at the college level,” Dowers said.
In contrast to indoor volleyball, Dowers said outdoor teams are smaller, consisting of two players.
Both Word and Dowers acknowledged that playing volleyball on sand requires different strategies and movements.
“It takes players a couple of weeks before they can work effectively on sand,” Dowers said. “and they interact with the environment too, the wind and the sun.”
The volleyball court was to be named the Gary Knowlton Memorial Volleyball Court in honor of Brewster native, elementary teacher and Manson Pool lifeguard, Gary Knowlton, who was killed in a hit-and-run accident near Chelan in June 2016.
“I think it would have been a great way to honor Gary and the Knowlton family,” Word said.

brewster, volleyball court, outdoor volleyball

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