If you are looking for something fun to do, and baseball and badminton are not your thing, the Bay Area Random Sports League just might be what you’re looking for. A group with 854 members communicates through the website www.meetup.com, where they post and RSVP upcoming events. The leagues at B.A.R.S. practice some typical sports such as kickball, but they are better known for their ‘random’ events: Spartan races, mechanical bull riding, rock-paper-scissor tournaments and extreme ironing are some of the past events.
A recent ‘Not So Muddy Sunday Volleyball Tournament’ hosted by the league actually had a deeper purpose than just digging the ball; It was a fundraiser for Habitat for Humanity.
Andrina Ong, a member of B.A.R.S., organized the 12-team event last Sunday. “It was a great, sold out tournament this year. (We had 12 teams come out),” said Ong, through email. “We had a few novice teams show up but most were advance/intermediate level players. All of the proceeds went toward purchasing materials for Habitat for Humanity in Kyrgrzstan. We end up fundraising $1200.”
It was a standard six-on-six round robin tournament using rally style rules. The game took place at St. Ignatius College Prep in San Francisco with a $20 a player cover charge, which included usage, Gatorade, team t-shirts and donations to Habitat for Humanity.
Another member, Jason Chan, described his time at the tournament as awesome. “She [Andrina] placed me on a team with [five] fellow meetup members who didn’t have a team. We met, had fun, became friends and went out to lunch afterward. Our team was destroyed on the court but definitely enjoyed helping a good cause and meeting each other.”
Overall, the event was a huge success. With this many young, fun people getting together to goof off, a good time is practically guaranteed. If this sounds interesting, get on the ‘meetup’ website and sign up!
