One of the defining characteristics of the Calgary GLBT community is the way it has organized itself along recreational and social lines. Compared to other urban centres in Canada, the Calgary community can boast about having perhaps the most organizations - over 60 at last count.
And like any community, as a need presents itself, someone forms a new group.
For many years, much of the sports aspect was covered by Apollo: Friends in Sport. This enduring organization continues to fill much of its niche and has gone on to become well known throughout Canada and the US, especially with its annual Western Cup Tournament. Apollo has also long included a volleyball league, Innercity Volleyball, which operates on a ‘drop-in’ basis every Sunday.
TJ Fedyk, a member of Apollo, the organization’s Social Director, and Western Cup Director, along with a handful of other volleyball enthusiasts, thought a competitive intermediate team able to travel to out-of-town tournaments was needed. Though they appreciated what Apollo had to offer when it came to volleyball, this was something the Apollo ‘drop-in’ teams didn’t have. The result was Alpha-Q.
“The drop-in is great, and a good way to meet new people and have fun,” said TJ, who is Alpha-Q’s organizer and team captain. “But…Apollo’s infrastructure just isn’t able to support traveling to places like San Diego or out to Vancouver.”
“A few of us were able to go down to the Montreal Outgames last year and had so much fun there we decided to form a team that was competitive and could travel, hence Alpha-Q.”
Whenever a new group is created that mirrors the function of an existing group, sadly one often wonders if it was formed for some sort of “revenge”.
“Not at all!” TJ is quick to point out. “All the guys currently involved with the team are also Apollo members, although Alpha-Q is a separate entity from Apollo. We also promote Western Cup when we are on the road.”
Alpha-Q, while still a new team, has already gone to the Queen Vicky Volleyball Tournament in Vancouver, which is held just before that city’s Pride. As well, they have competed in tournaments in San Diego, with plans to travel to Irvine, Miami, and attend the Outgames in Copenhagen next year.
The team is also a member of the North American Gay Volleyball Association (NAGVA), which sponsors numerous tournaments, including the Queen Vicky, throughout North America.
“In San Diego there were four divisions, with 17 teams playing in our division,” said TJ. Divisions are broken down as AA (ex-National Team players and university players, therefore the elite division), A (University players outside of the AA Division), BB (Intermediate level competitive players) and B (competitive). Alpha-Q is a BB level team and came in fifth out of 17 teams at the San Diego tourney.
The team has six players, four of which live in Calgary.
“We have a member who lives in Phoenix, Arizona, who we met at the Outgames, and another member who lives in Saskatoon,” TJ said.
“The neat thing is, even though many teams in NAGVA play in leagues all year round, and we obviously can’t all practice together and just meet up at tournaments – it’s a killer commute from Phoenix and Saskatoon to Calgary –,we are able to read each other really well. We just seem to have that connection with each other,” he said.
So far, Alpha-Q is a gay men’s team. However, this is more by chance than design.
“It’s not easy finding women in volleyball, although at the Apollo Innercity drop-in we now have three women who come out to that,” he said. “And they’ve fit right in with the guys who have been there forever.” TJ pointed out that many of the NAGVA tournaments are mixed gay/lesbian/trans.
Currently, the team is practicing for at least four upcoming tournaments and plans to go to the US Nationals being held in Miami in May 2008, where between 200 and 250 teams from throughout Canada and the US will be competing.
Alpha-Q’s primary sponsor is Manhunt.net, a gay men’s contact website based out of the US.
“We went with them because [similar outfits] already carry a pretty heavy sponsorship load and are always being hit up for sponsorships. We wanted to kind of stand out a bit, too. Manhunt has been great with supplying us the t-shirts we wear and great swag to hand out like tees, and towels, and stuff.”
Actual travel expenses such as air travel, accommodation, the $400US tournament fee, renting a van, and food and entertainment expenses, all come out of the members’ own pockets.
The team is, at the moment, “pretty much set” in regards to membership, said TJ.
“However, if another team was interested in traveling we would absolutely lend a hand with that however we could,” he added.
While the arrangement with Manhunt, the details of which are confidential, is “pretty good,” TJ said the team is always open to additional fundraising efforts, and are willing to distribute promotional items, business cards, and swag for any group or business interested in having them do so when they are out-of-town.
“We promote Calgary, and the Western Cup Tournament of course, like crazy when we’re on the road,” TJ noted. “Anything we can do to bring more people to Calgary, we’re open to doing it.”
For more information on Alpha-Q, TJ can be contacted through the Apollo website www.apollocalgary.com or through the Western Cup website (www.westerncup.com).
