The unofficial incept date of ball at the Argosy has been lost in time. All I can tell you is what I discovered. There was already game at the Argosy when I arrived in 1992. Grandma Bev's friend Leanne knew one of the guys who ran the show. I was considered too small an unskilled to play with the big boys. From what I saw, this crew was undisciplined to the extreme--furniture destroyed, crawfish thrown in the pool, cops out every weekend, etc.
They left soon after I arrived. I soldiered on. Over the next couple of years people came and went until only I remained. I was enticed to go out to hit the ball back and forth by Joe and vowed it was my last time playing ball. We were that close to going out. Then cometh the Savior, who brought much needed fresh blood and a need to understand how he and his three compadres had been beaten so severely. That was 10 years ago.
I'd been making personal statements for years to try to make this pool stand out (war paint, graffitti on volleyballs, etc), but to have a league, you need a core group of committed players. The concept of the AWVP begins to take form when Navy and Pat arrive on the scene to augment mine and Mikey's already formidable presence--that was about 7 years ago. It was strenthened and given purpose when we met and defeated the Preserve. Our Domesday Book/Bildungsroman is the tattered phone list, now six 6 years old and listing some 40 peeps, which gives you a pretty good idea of who has been involved. The official Magna Carta is Pat's business plan, which is only about 2 years old and should eventually find its way into this site.
Creepy Guy wrote:
Here's a mission statement of Chiefs, slightly edited by me:
The AWVP, a co-ed group of individuals who were drawn together by the sport of water volleyball. We've been playing every temperature permitting Saturday and Sunday for more years than most of us can remember. This is our obsession, and we're comfortable with that. The games at our fight club are built around the dual philosophies of friendly competition and cameraderie, as symbolized by our mascots--Optimus Prime and The Panda. Our unofficial beverage is Natural Light, and our motto: "Everyone can be a god out there for five minutes."
Chief, what is the history of the AWVP? Officially created when? Unofficially created when?