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Nursing home teams make their points
By ANDREW MEACHAM © St. Petersburg Times, published November 22, 2000 ST. PETERSBURG -- It was a blowout. In a game that looked a little like volleyball, Jacaranda Manor reeled off the first nine points while an enthusiastic referee cheered whatever was happening. "Uh-oh! Still good!" Tom Skirchak cried to the other team, Glen Oaks Health Care in Clearwater, as a red balloon descended perilously close to the floor. "Get-it-get-it-get-it-get-it," referee Skirchak, 38, urged to no avail. Point, Jacaranda. All across the Coliseum ballroom floor Tuesday, teams representing area nursing homes sat five and six to a side, batting a balloon across a 4-foot net. The city's recreation department since 1989 has sponsored a monthly balloon volleyball competition at 535 Fourth Ave. N. Teams with the most wins square off at season's end in April to determine a winner. Twenty-six nursing homes registered for Tuesday's event, but there were some no-shows. They camped in clusters on 12 tiny "courts." Most of the players sat in wheelchairs. Jacaranda won its first game 15-3, in large part due to the front-line play of Tami Williams, 28, and Donna Harris, 46. The home at 4250 66th St. N has more younger residents today than 18-year veteran Barbara Lee can remember. "We get them in all ages," said Lee, 39, an activities assistant at Jacaranda, attributing younger admissions in part to cerebral palsy, multiple sclerosis and automobile accidents. Balloon volleyball rules allow each team three hits each possession, but the same person can hit multiple times. There is no rotating, and wheelchairs must remain locked. No standing up allowed. But the most marked departure from conventional volleyball is surely the no-spike rule. The balloon volleyball rule sheet defines a spike as "a forceful, angled projection of the balloon down toward the opponent's feet." "We warn them the first time," said volunteer referee Ed Sieling, 75. "The second time we take a point away." Recreation leader Amy Cady, 25, said the rule protects opposing players "because it's going to hit them right in the head." The games give residents a chance to improve flexibility, she said. Gerry Moyer, 63, helped Integrated Health Systems, 811 Jackson St., go undefeated last year. She was in the hospital for the season opener in October. Her wheelchair stocks an oxygen tank, because she has a defective heart valve, she said. "I was given six months to live three years ago," she said. "I just want to say, "Ha ha.' " Teammate Flossie Green, 82, has been disabled and living at IHS since doctors removed an infected hip joint three years ago. The hardest part of the transition was having to sell her car and mobile home, she said. She was more upbeat about balloon volleyball. "We like it," she said, "and we wish to win."
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