Volleyball tourney lights up Lakeview

City hosts annual two-day tournament on park beach

Lorain’s Lakeview Park Beach hosted the annual Lakeview Challenge Volleyball Tournament on July 29-30.

With players digging and diving across the 28 nets lined along the sands, about 225 teams participating in multiple divisions made their way to Lorain to take part in the lakeside classic with humble beginnings.

Featuring five different divisions based on skill level, match play on July 29 included men’s and women’s doubles while July 30 featured co-ed doubles and four-on-four play.

The beach was packed with players as well as spectators there to take in the action. The tournament brought top elite volleyball to the city where people can get an up close look. As playoff matches took hold into the late afternoon on July 30, tensions were high as competitors left everything they had on the courts.

Spectators sitting close to the action on the boardwalk next to

the sand could not get too comfortable, with stray balls flying in all directions.

Tournament Director Jeff Yeager said about 20 percent of the teams are local to the area, with about half of the teams participating coming from outside of northeast Ohio and other states.

According to a history of the development of Lakeview volleyball written by the late former director David Dorinski, the Lakeview Challenge can trace its origins back to the 1980s, to a group of people in the area who called themselves the “beach bums.” These “bums” started meeting at Lakeview, before it organically grew into what it is today.

The group would gather as early as 7 a.m. as a social group. They then drifted towards volleyball after participating and winning a day and night tournament in Norwalk called the Mud Volleyball Tournament, which had 200 teams.

When the Mud Volleyball Tournament became defunct, the group started their own leagues at Lakeview Park before the Miller Lakeview Beach Volleyball Open was created. The Open welcomed 160 teams in its inaugural year, with 250 in the following year, cementing its impact on the local scene.

“After pushing me for two years during the leagues, players finally got me to run a volleyball tournament at Lakeview Beach. I went to the city and local supporters and requested help from the “bum.” I told them I would not do it unless it was big, efficient and festive. It had to be festive,” Dorinski wrote.

KEVIN MARTIN — THE MORNING JOURNAL Early morning action in the Lakeview Challenge Volleyball Tournament at Lorain’s Lakeview Park Beach on July 29.

KEVIN MARTIN — THE MORNING JOURNAL A competitor in men’s doubles goes in for a spike in early morning action on July 29 at the Lakeview Challenge Volleyball Tournament in Lorain’s Lakeview Park. The 30th edition of the tournament featured about 225 teams in multiple divisions of play.