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SportsMarch 24, 2002

PERRYVILLE, Mo. -- They don't play for pay, or even trophies. They do it for the love of the sport. Adult volleyball teams from Missouri, Illinois and Tennessee gathered Saturday for the 12th annual Perryville Invitational. Since few of the teams have sponsors, the players pay their own travel and hotel expenses, in addition to the tournament's $80 entry fee...

PERRYVILLE, Mo. -- They don't play for pay, or even trophies.

They do it for the love of the sport.

Adult volleyball teams from Missouri, Illinois and Tennessee gathered Saturday for the 12th annual Perryville Invitational.

Since few of the teams have sponsors, the players pay their own travel and hotel expenses, in addition to the tournament's $80 entry fee.

With only 12 teams entered the first year, the tournament has grown to about 50 entrants -- 30 men, 20 women's teams. The number of teams required six sites to be used.

"But this is as big as it's getting," Perryville native and tournament organizer Tim Neels said, "because we just don't have any more gyms in town."

Neels also serves as commissioner of Gateway Volleyball, a regional arm of USA Volleyball, amateur volleyball's governing body.

The tournament draws teams of various competition levels -- B, BB and A -- from Memphis, St. Louis, Belleville, Ill., along with local squads.

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Neels credits the laid-back, small-town atmosphere of Perryville as one reason for the tournament's success.

"Everybody comes down here and just relaxes," Neels said, "but it's still really competitive."

"The competition is what attracts me," said Chris Shepherd, a 35-year-old commercial insurance broker who plays for Gravity Kills of St. Louis. "Plus I'm trying to hold on to my youth."

George Barron, 41, an automobile mechanic, said, "I picked volleyball up 15 years ago as a recreational sport, then it turned into a little bit more and got a lot more challenging."

Many, like Al Dodd of the Memphis Volleyball Club, play volleyball year-round.

"During the winter, the indoor season, I like hanging out with friends, traveling around and competing," Dodd, an exercise equipment salesman, said. "Then in the summer it's beach volleyball and the atmosphere of the sun and the sand.

"We love it."

llewis@semissourian.com

(573) 335-6611, extension 171

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