USA Volleyball organises beach paravolley tournament in Florida

Teams from the United States and the Australian national team are competing at the USA Volleyball Beach ParaVolley Recognized Development Event (RDE) on December 2-4 at Hickory Point Beach in Tavares, Florida.

Seven US teams are entered in the RDE, including four women’s teams and three men’s teams, plus the Australian men’s team in USA Volleyball’s largest beach paravolley competition to date, also its first international competition.

The participating athletes are Berklee Andrews, Mia Castro, Eric Duda, Dave Newkirk, Abram Gornik, John Kriescher, Kurt Larson, Gina Laughlin, Kyle Mason, Skye McDermott, Andrew Nation, Nicky Nieves, Autum Reagan, Nelya Schasfoort, Chris Seilkop, Dawn Stein, Avery Stephens, Hayden Thompson, Jessie West, Ahkeel Whitehead, Patrick Young.

Coaches for this event include Carlos Galletti, Linda Gomez Pai, Andy Pai, Neal Stanley.

Pool play on Friday and continues through two waves on Saturday. Full bracket for both divisions will be Sunday, with the medal matches on Sunday afternoon.

Follow the results here:  https://floridaregion.bracketpal.com/tournament/52

The event is being held alongisde the AVP’s Central Florida Open tournament and is being hosted by the USA Volleyball Florida Region.

Beach paravolley is a beach-based variation of paravolley. World ParaVolley submitted its official proposal to the International Paralympic Committee and the LA28 Olympic & Paralympic Organizing Committee to add beach paravolley to the sport programme at the Los Angeles 2028 Paralympic Games.

In August, the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) announced that beach paravolley has applied to participate in the 2028 Paralympic Games in Los Angeles. If accepted, it would be the second active volleyball discipline in the Paralympics, joining sitting volleyball. A decision is expected to be announced in early 2023.

Photo credit: USA Volleyball