For Houghtons, Volleyball World is right at home

By BILL CAIN, The Leader-Herald

Published on Sunday, August 20, 2006

The Leader-Herald/Bill Cain The two main sand courts at Mike and Diane Houghton’s Volleyball World.

SPRAKERS — Sprawled across the backyard of a house on a back road in Sprakers lies a veritable volleyballers’ heaven.

For those who love volleyball, and love it even more when they get to take it out of those stuffy gyms and onto the sand of a beach court, Volleyball World in Mike and Diane Houghton’s backyard is a slice of heaven. Sure, it lacks the rolling surf of a real beach, but an in-ground pool is sufficient for cooling off the scores of players who flock to these six courts, four of which are sand courts and three are lit for play at night.

The site was host to the Fifth Annual Sand Classic King and Queen Tournament Aug. 12, when 96 teams of two came to raise money for juvenile diabetes research. The tournament is a fundraiser for a different cause each year and Mike Houghton said as the years go by, the players they draw are more and more generous, as well as more talented.

“There’s been volleyball here for 30 years, but only at this level for the last 15,” he said. “We keep meeting nicer and nicer people every year. The level of play gets higher and it’s all worth it.”

Just walking around the courts and considering all the time and effort put into them leaves an impression. These are people devoted to the play and promotion of the sport. The care put into the facility does not go unnoticed. Carl Jurica, a 69-year-old athlete from Johnstown, has been around and seen enough to know this is something special for the area.

“This is amazing,” Jurica said. “Mike and Diane have put this together and financed it out of their own pockets.”

That empty feeling in the Houghtons’ pockets is about the size of $1,000 for each court. Add the lights over three courts and the prospect of turning the two non-sand, grassy courts into sand courts for next summer and the figure grows.

Behind this labor of love, there may be an ulterior motive for putting in the sand courts.

“I don’t like mowing grass,” Houghton said.

Even with less time devoted to mowing, there is still a lot of work to keep the place running for all the events and the Sunday recreational league.

“It’s getting easier,” Diane Houghton said. “Mike bought a tractor with a rototiller and that helps a lot. We get a lot of help [for events]. Volleyball people are great people.”

For the Sand Classic, the volleyball people came from as far as Vermont, but the local volleyball community was well represented with people from Gloversville, Johnstown, Schenectady and Albany, among other local towns.

Volleyball World also is getting the word out a little farther than their usual word of mouth reaches.

They recently became affiliated with AVP Next, Mike Houghton said, which is a grass-roots organization that promotes the game at all levels from recreational to open play. They are also on the Web at www.volleyballworld.org. Houghton said they had about a dozen open players at the Sand Classic.

The Sprakers beach courts are attracting more and more attention from those great people Diane mentioned. Some brought their children, who played around the pool or sat in the shade of the tents around the courts. Many of that next generation, as Houghton called them, already knew how to bump a ball.

This generation was full of strong athletes, Diane Houghton said. Sometimes they were playing with less-talented athletes or older athletes, but that never became an issue. There were no strangers and the atmosphere did justice to the place one participant dubbed, “Where volleyball players go to heaven.”

“It fosters friendship,” Houghton said. “Sometimes, younger athletes might just walk by you, it’s just the way it is. But this brings people together.”