19th Annual Growler Beach Volleyball Tournament
Tuesday, July 28th — Tuesday, August 18th, 2026
teams
$+
raised for St. Baldrick’s
+
volunteers
2026 Growler Finals Night Schedule!
Growler Masters this Saturday, August 15!
Growler Community! Come out to Greystone Swim and Racquet Club this Saturday starting at 10am for the premier Raleigh area volleyball event for the over-50 crowd: the Growler Masters, where the scent of Ben-Gay is stronger than the spirit of competition.
Welcome to the only volleyball tournament where the pre-game warm-up involves a group discussion about cataract surgery and a communal bottle of extra-strength ibuprofen. We’ve traded our 40-inch verticals for 4-inch shuffles, and the most common sound on the court isn’t the whistle—it’s the sound of grunting and knees popping as the players bend over to pick up the ball.
Expect high-intensity action, provided that “intensity” includes tactical naps between sets and frequent hydration breaks to manage blood pressure medication schedules. We play hard, we dive rarely, and we all agree that the net has definitely gotten higher since the nineteen-hundreds.
Special “Senior” Rules under consideration:
- Extended Medical Timeouts: 15 minutes allowed for the application of kinesiology tape and various topical ointments.
- The “Gentle Dive” Clause: Any player who hits the sand is allowed three minutes of silence while the rest of the team checks if they can get back up without assistance.
- Soft-Touch Service: Serves over 20 mph are considered “disrespectful” and will be penalized with a stern look.
- Mandatory Curfew: All matches must conclude by 7:45 PM so everyone can be home in time for Jeopardy!
2026 Growler Current Seeding
GrowlHer Wrap-up, Growler 2026 Week 3 (August 11th) at Springdale, Greystone, and Lake Park!
Growler Night 3 Schedule and Results
GrowlHer is this Saturday!!
The 5th annual GrowlHer is this Saturday (08 Aug) at 10 am at Lake Park Swim Club.
Players will receive their “exclusive” player t-shirts and a wristband upon check-in (only 1 team member will need to check in for the team).
Spectator Info:
- Food and beverage wristbands (21+) will be sold for $15
- Food and beverage wristbands (20 and under) will be sold for $10
- Admission-only wristbands will be sold for $5
- All donations will go to St. Baldrick’s fight against childhood cancer
- GrowlHer “Spectator” T-shirts (below) are for sale for $20. In addition to all other Growler Gear
- Hamburgers and hot dogs will be served to all players and spectators who purchased a beverage and food wristband. Food will be served starting at ~12pm
- If you know someone who would like some volunteer hours for the Growler, there are two open spots! Please pitch in by signing up for different tasks here.
Additional Logistics to Note:
- We are asking for players to show up no later than 9:40 am. There will be a players’ meeting at 9:45 am. The schedule will be released the morning of the event
- Please see link for rules, but a couple rules described below are different from last year:
- Games to 25, no win by 2 (this could mean a team could win 25-24)
- Instead of counting wins and losses, we are once again counting total points (out of 100) earned by each team throughout the day
- The top 6 teams will play in a single elimination tournament
- Pool play will go from 10am~4pm; playoffs will start right after
- Teams will play on both upper and lower courts
- Chairs/tents are allowed, but please be mindful of the placement of the chairs. The pathway that goes from the bridge behind the lower court, along the netting by the creek, and over to the bridge behind the upper court is City Greenway and must remain clear for passage. In addition, chairs are allowed along the baby pool fence (of the bottom court). Please maintain a 2-foot border outside of both courts for the safety of the players as well as the people watching.
- Last year, I received a couple of complaints of unsupervised children walking on the court during games and standing on and/or next to the lines. We are grateful that this has been such a family-friendly event, but we also have to stress the importance of both the kids’ and players’ safety. I understand that there is a lot of excitement and we have a lot of people in a small area, but please ensure that children understand that they need to give ample space around the court.
- Restrooms are located just inside the pool area to the left. Women’s is on the left, and men’s is on the right.
- Use of the pool is not allowed for non-members
- Smoking around the court areas or anywhere around people is prohibited, but if you must smoke, go to the picnic table behind the lower court or the bridge behind the upper court. Please do not drop your butts on the ground.
- There is limited parking available in the parking lot of Lake Park; additional street parking is available on Lakeland Dr and Rushingbrook Dr. From Rushingbrook Dr., there is a path that leads down to the courts. Look for the steps and follow them down. When parking, please do not block driveways.
Looking forward to seeing everyone on Saturday! As with Growler, this is a rain-or-shine event… the forecast looks promising (fingers crossed).
If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to contact Allison (Kroeger) Andrews (akkroeger1@gmail.com).
Growler Night 2 Schedule and Results
Growler Week 2!
Growler 2026 continues at Springdale, Greystone, and Lake Park!
- WEATHER: It looks like a chance of rain again… but hopefully normal and not lightning, etc. We are due to get lucky, but with 3 locations, we might not all have the same experience. The Growler methodology is to get the games in, despite the fact we just didn’t… The plan for next week will be to do what we can to make that happen!!
- Week 1 results (and “pending” games at the end of schedule): https://growlervolleyball.com/growler-night-1-schedule-and-results/
FYI/FYA:
- The schedule is merely an order of games… so “if the getting is good” with the weather or just general “flow,” please roll game to game and don’t wait for the scheduled start time with extended warm-ups. Eventually there will be court crossover that might hold us up… but again, be ready to play immediately following the previous game if at all possible.
- If you have any on-site questions or concerns, these are my site POCs:
Lake Park: Brooke Bryand, Stew Esposito, and Brian Tobey
Greystone: Bill Speri and Allison Andrews
Springdale: Cristine Allison, Kevin Hampton, Frank Koch, and Haleigh Broglin.
I will likely set up a text group with us all to stay on the same page with how the night is going. - Food at Springdale will be Lynnwood Pizza and Original Grills BBQ and Slaw. Lake Park will have V-Pizza and Jersey Mike’s Subs. Greystone will have Piper’s Tavern Pizza and Manchester’s.
- Beer will once again be available from multiple breweries: Deep River Brewing Co. and Gizmo Brew Works at SARC. A few varieties of Deep River at Lake Park and Greystone (two taps per player feedback 😊). All 3 locations will also have White Claw seltzer and boxed wine. It should go without saying BUT… the seltzer cans are meant for consumption while at the event and any leftovers will be used at future events… So please don’t fill your coolers on the way out the door 😊.
- Volunteers are still needed at all locations; please sign up to assist if you can: https://growlervolleyball.com/player-info/volunteer/
- Please help keep your general area clean… We have a multitude of trash cans at SARC (provided by our partner GFL), so locating the trash should not be an issue. We did real well on this item in Week 1!! We also have LARGE Gatorade and Water bottles (Thanks to Pepsi Bottling)… Please try to keep track of them so we aren’t throwing them away half full :) “Team Clean Up” assignments remain in effect at all 3 locations. Lake Park and Greystone folks, be sure to do your part… it’s more broad than the SARC tasks :) As Cristine stated, this went really well last year; let’s keep it up!
- The game schedule is located on the website and linked here… https://growlervolleyball.com/2026-schedule-preview/
- Everyone will play 4 games!
- ALSO, we just went over $97K ($89k last year) on St. Baldrick’s site with 195 of the 300 players with pages (189 last year). 20 of the 36 teams are over the $1500 required. 28 are over $1000. THREE are already over $5K!
- Parking spot and Cabana auction available here: https://app.charityauctionstoday.com/auctions/2026-growler-44642 Week 2 closes Sunday at 8pm
- NOTE: Team Overserved has once again secured some great auction items with all proceeds going to St. Baldrick’s. The Auction is open… https://app.galabid.com/overserved2026/items
NOTE: Lost and found at SARC is now just outside the back gate on the green stage we used to use for shaving. There were a few more items than normal following the storm.
I appreciate those that attended the fundraiser at Crooked Hammock Wednesday night… we just secured a free keg from them as we start down the potential sponsorship road with them in the future.
Thanks as always for all you do!!
If you need to contact me: Bill Speri – 919-824-6767 or wmsperi@gmail.com
Growler Night 1 Schedule and Results
Here are the current night 1 results. Games 31-36 at the bottom will be made up during weeks 2 and 3, and the results will appear here.
Growler Week 1 is “almost” in the books!
Now that was memorable!
Some news and notes the day after…
- The results from Week 1 will be posted on the Growler website soon: https://growlervolleyball.com/volleyball-events/growler/ CAPTAINS: Please review these scores for accuracy, and if you have any concerns, please let me know, and I’ll help rectify them with the other captain. I need to resolve it now and not after the final GPI comes out and it’s too late.
- Thank you to all who attended last night and to all the players… it was quite an experience. Once again Mother Nature proved to be an additional combatant on the Springdale sand. Before the storm it was a great atmosphere; afterwards it was a calamity of events, to be sure. Extra special thanks to all the volunteers who made everything possible and those that literally “braved” the 9-9:45pm timeframe when our little village was being attacked by the wind and rain. We showed what I’ll call a “healthy disrespect” for the storm, and protected our house as safely as we could… and maybe not as safely as we should :) Regardless, we lost some “inventory” (that can be replaced), and no one was hurt at the event or trying to get home. So I’ll take it. We have come up with a plan to get all teams to two games played, and that has been communicated to the captains. Basically 12 teams will play 6 games at some point in the next few weeks (maybe Tuesday), and we’ll get Night 1 results fully completed.
- Thanks to our sponsors… especially the food and beer sponsors specific to Night 1 (Ruckus, Sharkey’s, City BBQ, Salt N Lime, Jersey Mike’s, Wicked Links, and Long Beverage). The first wave of food ran out right before the storm and Wicked Links rolled in just in time to get the heck out of there and save some dogs for the Jr Growler :)
- Player Pavilion was once again a hit! Note… in Weeks 2 and 3 we will have beer, water, Gatorade, and soda available in the pavilion. Jersey Mikes (food) will return in Week 4.
- We have 3 host locations next week (Greystone, Lake Park, and Springdale). Please do whatever you can to keep the rain away!! I may be sacrificing a chicken to Jobu.
- Volunteers, you are doing great. Please continue to sign up for volunteer duty on the website and let Cristine or I know if you have any questions or concerns. Again, Week 2 is at all 3 pools, so plenty of opportunity to come out and help if you can! (https://growlervolleyball.com/volunteer/).
- Junior Growler REMINDER: this Saturday, August 1st – Go here for details and how to register: https://growlervolleyball.com/volleyball-events/junior-growler/
- TONIGHT don’t forget to run by Crooked Hammock… we missed out on some fellowship last night with the rain, so make up for it here:
Remember to show this on your phone or print the bottom and bring to Crooked Hammock. They just today agreed to provide some beer for this year at one of the event nights!!
- Lastly, I sent an email out last week to try and spark more participation on the St. Baldrick’s website… I gave the same message to the captains on Sunday night. Looking pretty good… 194 participant pages vs. 185 last year. In addition, the money raised just topped 93K on the St. Baldrick’s site!! We were are 84k last year and 81k in 2021 Let’s keep it going!! Keep imagining what we can do…
- To that end, at the captains’ meeting we discussed how to get help on starting a fundraising “plea.” In 2027 we are going to provide something for everyone “Custom” for Growler, but in 2026 there are plenty of resources via St. Baldrick’s. If you are wanting to start fundraising and just need a kick start, please check out these resources: 2026 Fundraising Guide AND St. Baldrick’s Foundation
Looking forward to the next 3 Tuesdays! Please reach out with any concerns!
Bill Speri
wmsperi@gmail.com
