GLASS By Bill Burleson
The very first ball I touched hit a guy right in the crotch. Not the guy I was warming up with either, just some poor dude minding his own business a long way from where I wanted to hit the ball. People laugh. My victim yells, “Hey!” “Sorry!” I call back sheepishly. But he’s not mad; he just laughs, too. So far, so bad, I think. We are only just warming up and already I suck. What was I doing there? I left my warm house on a cold night to drive across town to play volleyball in a former junior high gym. “Junior high” and “gym” are two things I’d be more likely to explore in therapy than to visit. I was an over-weight, clumsy kid, and gym class was my worst nightmare. I was the last to get picked, first to get picked-on when playing bombardment (what is now more gently called “dodge ball”), and the most likely to picked out of the crowd for being a sissy. Now, even though I’m 47 and a long way from junior high school and in the best shape of my life since taking up weight training two years ago, that’s still my vision of myself: a sissy who can’t play sports. While I was terrible at everything, I was less terrible at volleyball. So when I started thinking about applying some of my new-found fitness, I remembered hearing about a weekly volleyball game at Sabathani Community Center. I decided to give it a try. The volleyball game is put on by an organization called GLASS: the Gay and Lesbian Amateur Sports Society, a local group providing information and organizing events. Paul
Woolsoncroft organizes the game. “GLASS quickly evolved to focus exclusively on volleyball and tennis,” Woolsoncroft says, “with the first local tournaments [for both] conducted during Gay Pride week in 1992.” Now teams participate in national tournaments regularly, there are intermediate games Monday, beginners on Tuesday, and advanced players on Wednesdays, and a Sunday volleyball league is going strong. But tournaments and leagues are not why I’m here. I’m here to have fun. To not feel bad about myself. There are about thirty men, and we divide up into four teams by picking numbers. No getting picked last here. With four teams, that means two teams play, and two teams wait. As the first teams play, I see that they are mostly all younger than me, and nearly all clearly in good shape. This could be ugly. “That new haircut is doing you wonders,” someone yells out to a player after he made some amazing play. Everyone laughs. No, this is not junior high. The guy, Steve, I hit in the crotch, and I talk about that as we sit waiting for our team’s turn to play. “If you flirt, it’s OK,” he says. “It’s comfortable here; you won’t get harassed.” Volleyball is just one part of how Steve keeps active. He plays softball in the summer, along with several other guys here. He says, “It’s a great way to meet new people while getting out and doing something different.” That’s why Jim is here. He, like me, has been getting in shape, lifting weights and doing cardio regularly, and now he feel more in shape than when he was in high school. “I really like the sense of community,” he says. Jim’s been coming for about a month, and he’s looking for new friends. The first night he came about eight people introduced themselves. “It made me
feel good.” We talk about other ways to meet people, and I mention the Internet. “The Internet isn’t real,” he says. “This is real.” Meeting new people is the reason why many of the guys come. Take Dave, who moved to Minneapolis two years ago. Dave says he thought it would be a great way to get to know the city and meet new people. Or take Randy. He’s been coming for about a year, looking to “get involved more and meet new people.” Now he’s in a volleyball league, playing for a team he says is called the “Sunne Home Improvement Stud Finders.” I’m not sure if he’s pulling my leg. “There have definitely been many friendships formed from meeting at volleyball, “says Woolsoncroft. “Speaking from my own experience, I have met most of my friends I have now at volleyball. I have also met a boyfriend or two here.” So how did I do? I feel like I made some good plays but I flubbed a lot of opportunities, too. Overall, I think I wasn’t too bad for not having played in about 30 years. Most importantly for me, I never felt shamed. I was able to have fun running around out there, laughing, enjoying the camaraderie, being OK with myself. My team played four times, and I think it means something that I really don’t remember how many games we won. As Dave says, “In the high school gym you feel like you’re being judged. Here you’re supported.”
GLASS volleyball is for GLBT people and their allies, and takes place 7:00-9:;00pm Monday through Wednesday, with beginners night on Tuesdays, at Sabathani Comunity Center, located on East 38th Street between 3rd and 4th Avenue South in Minneapolis. Visit www.glassports.org for more info.
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