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:

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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 😊.
5. Volunteers are still needed at all locations; please sign up to assist if you can: https://growlervolleyball.com/player-info/volunteer/
6. 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!
7. The game schedule is located on the website and linked here… https://growlervolleyball.com/2026-schedule-preview/
8. Everyone will play 4 games!
9. 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!
10. Parking spot and Cabana auction available here: https://app.charityauctionstoday.com/auctions/2026-growler-44642 Week 2 closes Sunday at 8pm

11. 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

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

Growler 2026 Begins tomorrow (July 28th) at Springdale! We are Ready!

As we approach another year of the Growler, here are a few points of order to remind/inform everyone of…buckle up for this one and get comfortable for this one. Trying to get all info in ONE place!!

1. What a tremendous turnout Saturday!! Weather was wet early, but we knocked out a ton of stuff and set ourselves up well for Tuesday. We were done by noon. Thanks so much to all who signed up and came out to help!
2. Player bags are no more! REMINDER: You can pick up your bands and T-shirt today between 6 and 8pm at SARC or on Tuesday at the “Player Check-in” location. Any sponsor items donated (aka towels, fliers, etc.) will be available to snag as well. Only parents, kids, or spouses can pick up more than their own items (for their household). NOTE: Captains can not pick up individual items for their teammates.
   If you get your items prior… you still need to “Check In” at the GFL Player Pavilion Tuesday (on the deck) to get your Jersey Mike’s sub and Pepsi/Gatorade.
3. Volunteers are still needed (18 spots remain open). :) Please sign up to assist if you can.
   NOTE: ONE new job is monitoring the path between the Food Lion parking lot and SARC to make sure people parked in the correct area. This role was specifically requested by the management group of the parking lot to ensure they don’t have to tow. It’s the easiest job at the Growler… and I put 2 people there so you can talk to someone and/or have a person who can grab drinks or food for the other (if required). Please fill those spots; we are even awarded double hours for those roles… 1 hour worked equals 2 hours toward your team minimum.
4. Team Volunteer Schedule here:  https://growlervolleyball.com/player-info/volunteer
   Reminder: Each team has one night of cleanup responsibility during the 4 weeks of the Growler at the different event locations. Captains were given those assignments today. You can trade with other teams, but make sure you are playing at the same place that week and make sure Cristine is aware if a trade happens. We removed the team “day after” responsibility last year and moved that to individual volunteer slots (4). We will do that again.
5. Jacobs Construction Player Pavilion and Parking spot auction closed last night for Week 1, and the winners are:
   Parking Spot 1: Tricia Coppedge
   Parking Spot 2: Amy Gretenstein
   Player Pavilion: AP Blake / Here for Beer
   Take a look for Week 2-4 opportunities here: https://app.charityauctionstoday.com/auctions/2026-growler-44642
6. Registration is done. If not registered, you are not playing this year. Sorry.
   – St. Baldrick’s site is up to 186 participant pages (182 last year).
   – Fundraising is up from 77K to 86K based on this point last year.
7. The game schedule is located on the website and linked here: https://growlervolleyball.com/2026-schedule-preview/
   Assuming no weather or court issues… Please be ready 30 minutes prior to your first game. The scheduled start times for all games are somewhat flexible (given variable length of preceding games)… So please be ready to play when your time comes (which might not be the time on the schedule itself). Consider sneakers for grass games… some prefer it.
   Everyone will play 3 games!
   IMPORTANT UPDATE… With Mark’s help, we have created a schedule for 4 courts (assuming grass is unplayable) and 5 courts for Tuesday (there is a nice spot of grass that we could use with a tournament-quality pop-up setup that we now have). If we go to 4, we have to reduce time slots to 20 mins (and likely the games to 21), and if we go to 5 courts, we’ll have 25 min slots (and likely stick at 25 but may divert to 21 later). If we do this, the schedule jumbles, and your “6 court” start time that has been advertised on the website is not the same. As such, please plan to get to SARC as early as you can regardless of what the schedule currently states. Below is a good example of how things can change as we compress the # of courts and the teams that should be prepared to be there at 5:30pm (just in case).
   I will send communication as early as I can on which schedule we’ll be going with… I’ll be there at 2pm tomorrow, and hopefully the only choice will be obvious before we begin.
   Should there be rain, we will do everything we can to finish out the night. It’s too hard to reorganize this thing, so again we will do EVERYTHING we can to get games… which could include delays that extend beyond the current schedule. Please be aware of that. Also, we will take player safety into account as we are able… but also understand this has long been the Growler Rain Policy:
   “We’re Growler—Get Grungy, Gritty, Soggy, Sopping, Soakn’… Have fun like you did when you were a kid and play through it. However, if it’s lightning, then seek shelter or the safety of your car until the weather cell has passed. Play will be suspended until it’s safe to play. Unless the courts are flooded or the lightning has set in for the night, we will complete the night’s schedule that night.”

8. Thanks to Jacobs Construction we now have 3 Solar light tower systems which should help with less noise and less “exhaust.” :)  Very cool!
9. Food will be provided by Ruckus, Salt N Lime, City BBQ, and Sharkey’s. Also Jersey Mike’s will be providing subs at the GFL Player Pavilion, and you can also grab a Pepsi product while there (Gatorade, Aquafina, etc.). Of course, we’ll once again be blessed with a later evening visit from Wicked Links (8:30pm) to help satisfy the late evening food needs. Please take a second to thank our sponsors when you can!
   Beer will be available from Long Beverage (including Oscar Blues, Highland, Foothills, Miller Lite, and Hi-Wire), as well as White Claw seltzer at various locations. Box wine is also available from Total Wine Inc.
10. DJ Brent will be providing the music again this year on nights 1 and 4. Thanks to DblR for assisting with the mics and required sound!!
11. Growler Gear (T-shirts and hats) are available for sale (prices vary):  https://growlervolleyball.com/player-info/growler-gear/
12. Admission
    $10 – Entrance & Water (Red)
    $15 – Entrance & Food/Water (Yellow)
    $20 – Entrance, Food/Water & Beer/Wine (Green)
    ID Required – No Coolers Allowed
    Bands are required for Food, Beverages, and Water
    We accept Cash, Credit Cards, Venmo, and PayPal
13. Parking and Cabana Auction has closed, but Overserved’s auction is back!! Bidding is open and ends Wednesday, August 5th, at 10pm. https://app.galabid.com/overserved2026/items – Lots of cool stuff available – proceeds all go to St. Baldrick’s.
14. Please help keep your general area clean… we have a multitude of trash cans (provided by our partner GFL), so locating the trash should not be an issue. Team cleanup assignments have been communicated to captains for Tuesday.
15. We encourage you to CARPOOL or Uber to Springdale. Please get with your team members and neighbors to share a ride. There will be security at the Food Lion parking lot helping direct you where you can park over there (they are provided by “us” in accordance with the leasing company that manages that entire shopping center) as well as signage provided by Springdale Printing! Please adhere to what they say (they have actual authority and are working for us… they are one of us and have been awesome to work with), and we CAN’T really operate at our current size without that assisted space to park. Be nice and thank them for their assistance. In general they should be sending you to the designated areas below.

Most of all HAVE FUN!!

Thanks AGAIN to all! Can’t wait for Tuesday!

Bill Speri

Growler 2026 Starts July 28th!

As we approach another year of the Growler, here are a few points of order to remind/inform everyone of…

1. Volunteers are needed—Please sign up via the following link and help make this the best Growler ever:  https://growlervolleyball.com/player-info/volunteer/
   All 4 events are now visible as volunteering options (Big, Jr., Masters, and Her).
   If you are a player and want to focus on playing during the events… see if you can get your family and friends involved or volunteer to help with set up and clean up. Remember volunteering counts towards the GPI.
2. Registration is moving forward with 294 players registered as of this email. Captains have been notified of any missing players (based on last year’s rosters), and ALL players need to get registered before Friday EOD.
3. As stated above, Set Up Saturday is 4 days away (Sat 7/25 from 9am to 1pm). Hope to see you there. We’ll have donuts, water, and beer provided to those that attend. (27 of 40 slots filled)!!! The more we get the faster we finish :)
4. There will once again be a Player Pavilion this year on Weeks 1 and 4 at Springdale. Thanks to GFL, Pepsi, and Jersey Mike’s for making this possible. All players will report there to pick up a water/Gatorade and a Jersey Mike’s sub (to ensure each player has something “grab and go” that they can eat later). The Player Pavilion will be on the new deck by the covered Pool Pavilion (where the ice is) beyond the bathrooms.
5. Players can come pick up your T-shirt and bands on Sunday (2-6pm) and Monday (6-8pm) if you want to avoid the Tuesday rush.
6. Reminder to Captains… Captain’s meeting is Sunday (7/26) at 6:15pm at SARC. Beer will be provided :). Feel free to preview the rules before the meeting, but there are no expected changes from how we played in both 2024 and 2025. As always, I am happy to answer any questions if you have them—https://growlervolleyball.com/player-info/rules/
   However, I do want to talk about some ideas for the future (event-related), and as a result, I want every team to have at least 1 representative present so we can talk them through. A.K.A. attendance is mandatory. Nothing too significant, but I don’t want to make changes in a vacuum and without the chance for input from the captains.
7. The Growler website has the Team Schedules listed (https://growlervolleyball.com/2026-schedule-preview/). Please familiarize yourself with where you’ll be over the 4 weeks, as that might help with where you can volunteer, etc.
   All teams play at Springdale/SARC Week 1. All teams play 3 weeks at Springdale and 1 week at either Lake Park or Greystone.
8. Check https://growlervolleyball.com/volleyball-events/calendar/ for the full schedule of events.
9. Please visit the Growler Auction to WIN parking and the Jacob Construction Volleyball cabana (for your team) on any or all 4 nights! : https://app.charityauctionstoday.com/auctions/2026-growler-44642 This is under-utilized every year… Don’t miss out! The auction for night 1 closes in 4 days (Sunday at 6pm). The auction will remain open for Weeks 2-4 until the Sunday prior to those dates.
10. We encourage you to CARPOOL or Uber to Springdale. Please get with your team members and neighbors to share a ride. There will be security at the Food Lion parking lot helping direct you where you can park (they are approved by the leasing company that manages that entire shopping center, but we are covering their tab this year—so treat them well, as they have been great to work with). We will also have signage provided by Springdale Printing! We CAN’T really operate at our current size without that assisted space to park. We have secured overflow parking across Fairbanks at the back of the church (near the basketball goal) after 6pm and within the office complex (blue squares below). Be careful crossing the street (use the crosswalk).
    In general the security team should be sending you to the designated areas below. We’ll have them handing out fliers as well.

11. Last but most importantly… let’s try to get everyone registered on the St. Baldrick’s website under each of your teams. We have 36 teams with 294 registered players currently and just 167 participants currently on the site under the Growler page. I promise the sponsors aren’t doing what they do for the volleyball… they are doing it because of how we monetize the event into amazing things for the fight against childhood cancer. So please, create a St. Baldrick’s page and send an email to those dearest to you with the donation link and explain what you are doing, why, and who it benefits. I promise it will work. We all can “collectively” make this the best year yet!
    On a positive note, we are over $73K and actually 6k ahead of last year at this time… you all are amazing :)

Thanks to all in advance and the GROWLeadERship Team can’t wait for next Tuesday… It is going to be a blast.

See you all at the beach!

Bill Speri

Reminder of the NEXT Tap Takeover at Crooked Hammock, July 29th (the night after Night 1) This is a new partnership and sponsored by the Growler Masters crew! Hope to see you there… I will be :)

Print the certificate portion below and bring it with you, please, to ensure we get the $$$

Thank you to those that went to Gizmo yesterday and to the ladies of the GrowlHER leadership team that put it together and “womaned” the bar!

Growler Crew,

Lots of KEY information in this email for Growler 2026 and some “action items” for everyone to care for… I appreciate your patience as you read through.

Online registration continues with a few participants still missing:

• EVERY player must access this registration, sign their waiver, confirm eligibility, and pay their now $100 by July 27th to play opening night.
• If you don’t register soon, we CANNOT guarantee your shirt size and color availability.

Volunteering Links are operational

This year we again have Growler, Jr. Growler, GrowlHer, and Growler Masters volunteer opportunities listed online via these links:

• Big Growler: https://signup.com/go/GcjnXXj
• GrowlHer: https://signup.com/go/rKSzUQG
• Masters: https://signup.com/go/WDTYKSz
• Jr. Growler will be out next week

• As you know, volunteering counts towards your team’s GPI.
• Please sign up only for what you intend to staff. We will be checking to make sure the roles are filled by those that sign up for them, and of course we NEED the volunteers when the events happen, so we depend on your attendance.

The 2026 Growler Schedule for Weeks 1 thru 3 is available here: https://growlervolleyball.com/2026-schedule-preview/

• Best of luck as you play across Divisions Week 1 and then fight for the 1st ever Division titles Weeks 2 and 3. Every team plays 3 weeks at Springdale and 1 week at either Greystone or Lake Park.

The next TWO fundraisers… please go out and support them and spend some time with the Growler Nation… Thanks to Greystone Swamp Setters and the GrowlHer leaders for setting these two up.

• Swamp Setter is doing their annual “Guest Bartender” fundraising night at Bottle Rev for St. Baldrick’s, and it would mean so much if you were able to drop by! Our theme this year is Toga Party, so if nothing else you can see us sloppily dressed with gold crowns on our heads, and that seems to be worth the price of admission?! July 9th Full details below.

AND come support our GrowlHer nation and join us for the GrowlHer Tap Takeover on Sunday, July 19, from 5-8 pm! All tips and a portion of all proceeds from the evening will directly benefit St Baldrick’s.

On the topic of GrowlHer, if anyone is interested and is not already on a team – there is a free agent form available for you to fill out and show your interest. Allison and team will take it from there. https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScGAITYLtXVte5guDt5Sx6J94nl9ELHt9UGygO_BO8CWkEwYA/viewform

As always, thanks for all that you all do to make the Growler a success each year. Please let me know if you have any questions or suggestions, and I can promise we’ll do what we can to make this the best event possible.

Happy 4th of July!!

Bill Speri

Growler Crew,

We are at 50% registered. Some folks are having issues locating the registration email, and in some instances we have a bad email address or maybe an email address different than what you expected. The initial email was sent June 4th from mail@signup.com with the subject “2026 Growler Player Registration.” Those variables have helped some locate their registration emails. For some, that didn’t work.

SOO, we are extending the deadline to Wednesday afternoon, and I just resent the email (today) to anyone who has not yet registered. So you should see the email in your IMMEDIATE inbox. If you don’t, maybe check another email address you might have used last year or in years past. If still no luck, contact Cristine and me.

Per my last email…

We will increase the cost by $15 after noon on June 24th. It is $85 to start. I am trying to get a report of who hasn’t paid yet for captains. I will send it if we can make that happen.

This is what the email looks like (check Spam/Junk though no one has specifically told me theirs went to either). The below is the original version; again, there should be one from today if you haven’t registered.

There is one link to register and a second link to pay once you click the above. Please only register yourself. One per email address.

Two Fundraisers!!

The first starts Wednesday!

AND the second kicks off after the holiday… JULY 9th! The original Tap Takeover :)

MORE EVENTS ARE COMING!

Bill Speri
Growler Tournament Director

Hello Growler Nation!

1. As you all know, we rely heavily on food sponsors to support OUR fantastic charity event. Providing food to Growler Nation is a must, and nearly all the delicious food we enjoy over the 4-week event is donated! We are especially grateful to our food sponsors because every dollar we do not have to spend on food goes directly to St. Baldrick’s efforts towards finding a cure for children’s cancer. Over the years, we’ve developed some strong partnerships with local restaurants, but as Growler Nation expands, the need for additional food sponsors heightens. Also, each year we tend to lose a sponsor for various reasons, and this year unfortunately is no different.
   ASK: If you have any connections within the foodservice industry (or a restaurant in mind without a connection), please reach out to Kevin Hampton at kvnhmptn09@gmail.com. Regardless of the strength of your connection, Kevin would love to explore how you can potentially help broaden our food sponsor base for this year’s Growler and beyond!
2. Thanks to Original Grills for their support… they raised $5K for St Baldricks!!  Check out the video below!

3. Reminder of the Ladies Social at Lake Park! If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to contact Allison (akkroeger1@gmail.com).

Thanks all… Growler registration is coming soon, be on the lookout :)

Bill Speri