Helms Family Sand Volleyball Court

When we were looking for a new house one of our top priorities was to have a backyard that was big enough that we could put in a sand volleyball court.  If you are not aware, these courts are really big (90 ft. x 50 ft.).  Almost as big as a full size basketball court.  Therefore, we were really happy to find a place that we loved that had a yard that could accommodate a full sand volleyball court.  

After much research and many calls, we decided to hire a guy by the name of Colby Howerton of Howerton Construction in Fort Worth to build the court.  Colby is an experienced court builder who was recommended by Texas Sports Sands.  Texas Sports Sands was the supplier of the most important aspects of this court - the high quality sand.  They are the undisputed leader of quality sand products in the DFW area.  Paul at Texas Sports Sands was simply outstanding.  

After several weeks of work in some challenging conditions, we finally completed the project last month.  Because of the stone retaining wall, this project was more challenging than most sand courts.  But Colby and his team did a terrific job and the result is a beautiful court that we expect to enjoy for years to come.

This is a video showing the construction process.

Before they started digging.

When they first started digging.

Getting ready to put in the frame.

Starting on the stone retaining wall.

Putting in the sand.

Sand is in place.

Completed court.

The kids enjoying the court at Shawn's graduation party.

The view of the court from our pool area.

Power Volleyball Gets 3rd Place at AAU Nationals

Noelle plays on a volleyball team called Power Volleyball Club.

 

Over this past weekend they competed in the AAU National Volleyball Tournament in Orlando, Florida.  They competed in the Club division which had 146 teams this year.  This is the largest volleyball tournament in the United States. 

 

Her team was undefeated through the first 3 days of pool play and won their cross-over match to start out 10-0.  This put them in the gold bracket.  

In bracket play they won their first game against a good undefeated team called the Lions and moved on to the quarter-finals. In the quarter-finals they played a tough team called Club 1. They lost their first set but came back and won the next two in an exciting game. They were now in the final 4 teams. Their next game was against a team called Kokoro Volleyball.  They lost in two sets. Kokoro just had too many hitters. 

So, they tied for 3rd.  12 and 1 for the week.  A terrific result and nice end to the year for Power.  

Below are the results from the tournament. 

 

Noelle had a great time and just missed getting elected to the AAU Nationals All Star team. In fact, had her team won that last match, she would have made it because they take 3 players from each of the final 2 teams. Noelle was number three on the list. 

Below is a picture of their third place metals.

Below is their 3rd place trophy.

 

Micky Mouse presenting the trophy to team Power.

 

Team pictures.

 

 

Pictures from the arena.