Sports & Activities
Gay Games VII: Volleyball
Photo Credit: Nicolas Smith
After his team beat the Schoupa and continued its winning streak, Los Angeles Hollywoodies captain Ryan Abunas spared a few minutes for RealJock before heading off to his team’s next match against Minneapolis-St. Paul. Abunas, above in blue, with the other Hollywoodies in between points.
How long have the Hollywoodies been together?
We’ve been playing all together for the whole year. There are four original members from the team here, and then we picked up some people from LA to play with us.
Do you play in a local circuit in LA? Yes, and we also play in the target=”_new”NAGVA [North American Gay Volleyball Association] league, so we have tournaments all over the country. We have an LA tournament, we have one in San Diego, and recently, last May, we just played in the championship nationals in Atlanta.
What’s your record so far at the Games?
So far we’ve won all of the games [smiles].
Wow, that’s great. Congratulations. So now that you’ve beat the Schoupa, you’ll be in the semifinals. Who do you play next?
We have Minneapolis-St. Paul next. We played them last May in Atlanta, but they now have additional players, so we don’t know how we’ll play against them.
You all seem to play very well together. We were impressed. Outside of competing, have you been managing to have some fun? Thank you. Yes, we’ve been having a good time and enjoying the city. Last night we went to Boys Town (Chicago’s gay neighborhood) and went out [for the first time].
You probably can’t really go to other sports, can you, because you’re so far away from everything out here on Navy Pier.
Yes, that’s true. But two of my players also play beach [volleyball]. And actually, they were supposed to be in a gold medal round [in beach], but they had a game here [at the same time], so they had to [take a silver in beach] and not play that game so they could be here. Because they’re two out of four, they had to be here. But we felt bad, so now we’re playing hard because we feel like we owe them gold medals.
How long have the Hollywoodies been together?
We’ve been playing all together for the whole year. There are four original members from the team here, and then we picked up some people from LA to play with us.
Do you play in a local circuit in LA? Yes, and we also play in the target=”_new”NAGVA [North American Gay Volleyball Association] league, so we have tournaments all over the country. We have an LA tournament, we have one in San Diego, and recently, last May, we just played in the championship nationals in Atlanta.
What’s your record so far at the Games?
So far we’ve won all of the games [smiles].
Wow, that’s great. Congratulations. So now that you’ve beat the Schoupa, you’ll be in the semifinals. Who do you play next?
We have Minneapolis-St. Paul next. We played them last May in Atlanta, but they now have additional players, so we don’t know how we’ll play against them.
You all seem to play very well together. We were impressed. Outside of competing, have you been managing to have some fun? Thank you. Yes, we’ve been having a good time and enjoying the city. Last night we went to Boys Town (Chicago’s gay neighborhood) and went out [for the first time].
You probably can’t really go to other sports, can you, because you’re so far away from everything out here on Navy Pier.
Yes, that’s true. But two of my players also play beach [volleyball]. And actually, they were supposed to be in a gold medal round [in beach], but they had a game here [at the same time], so they had to [take a silver in beach] and not play that game so they could be here. Because they’re two out of four, they had to be here. But we felt bad, so now we’re playing hard because we feel like we owe them gold medals.