For now, to publicize the hijacking of the Western Wayne County Senior Olympics Volleyball Tournament by Northville Parks and Recreation Administrative staff Joe Barberio, Mary Barberio, and Charles Gabbeart. They have turned what started out as a fun event for amateur senior players into a hard-core, elitist event for professionals and "ringers" from all over SE Michigan. The event has shrunk from a max of about 12 teams six years ago, to only six this year. The Parks and Rec administrators who make the rules also captain their own teams that compete with amateurs like myself for players, and guess who wins that battle! Based on my conversation with this year's players ( I wasn't allowed to play because the Barberio team took at least one and probably two of the female players originally recruited by me.) it appears that a majority of the players now do not even reside in the western Wayne County communities that the event was designed to serve! Due to a rule requiring that at least half of each team be female, whereas only about 25-30% of day-to-day senior players are women, a large number of male players, including myself, were excluded from the event in my home community. The conflict of interest that allows the Barberio's to dominate the event most years, and the gender discrimination against local male players, need to be publicized, so that they may be eliminated.
Over the longer haul, I also plan to use this blog to highlight other senior volleyball "Olympics", and provide info re deadlines, locations, and guidelines for tournament entry.
My attendance at the Tues, August 14th volleyball tournament helped clear up the mystery of the missing women I met at the MI Senior Olympics who had told me they were willing to join my team. One for sure, and I believe a second as well, were on the Barberio team. I know that Mary Barberio saw me recruiting them and must have used her status as a prominent fixture of Northville volleyball, to persuade them that her team would be better than mine. How can I compete in recruiting with instructors, NPR administrators and volleyball coaches! While I'm not 100% sure, I believe Athletic Director Charles Gabbeart's team won the gold this year. That proves the truth of that dictum: He/she who makes the rules, wins!
I am a youth coach but NPR has nothing to do with this tournament. Charles Gabbeart's team did win but he, nor any of us, makes the rules. We played by USVBA Coed volleyball rules.
Up till now, I've been emphasizing the arbitrary nature of the tournament format and the conflicts of interest inherent in the fact that the administrators of the tournament are allowed to form their own teams and dominate the tournament. In my recent Sept 20th appearance at the meeting of the Northville Twp. Trustees, however, I alleged violations of Section 302 of the Elliott-Larsen Act, which prohibits discrimination against classes of residents, in this case elderly Northville area men. I stated that the availability of female players for refereed tournament play is approximately 25%, based on samples taken at 10am Senior Volleyball at Hillside Recreation Center. I further stated that someone, probably then NPR Athletic Director Joe Barberio, apparently because he felt that the % of women in prior years had been too low, instituted Affirmative Action goals for female participation in the tournament in its third year. Current Athletic Director Charles Gabbeart has continued the female quotas, which mandate that, to be eligible to play in the tournament, each team must consist of 3 to 5 women, and at least half of the team must be female. Any non-compliant team is banned from the tournament. These quotas mandate an average female presence more than twice that of the female availability, and are responsible for myself and at least half of eligible senior men being excluded from the tournament for 5 of the past 6 years!
Although I've been excluded from the WWC Sr. Olympics annual volleyball tournament, I've been playing regularly on Sat am for several months at open volleyball without incident - until yesterday. Athletic Director Charles Gabbert showed up for the first time to play -- and dominate his team. When it happened that there was just one team that had only 5 players, I went over, and a female player motioned for me to enter. When Mr. Gabbeart noticed me attempting to enter HIS team, he announced loudly to me and his team: "No, you can't play here!", and "I won't allow him to play on this team!" I walked away for a couple of mnutes to think about that, then came back and told Mr. Gabbeart that if he prevented me from playing I would file a written complaint against him. He at first refused me entry, then stated I won't play with you, then said ok come in, but I won't play with you. Then he walked off the court. Tell me, is that any way for an Athletic Director to behave? Who knows what he'll try next to get back at me for my existing complaint regarding the Olympics.
For the past 4 months I've been trying to get some remedial action taken re the dysfunctional WWCSO Volleyball tournament, to no avail. I figure that, given the condition of my feet and knees, I may be able to play in refereed tournaments for perhaps another 5 to 10yrs. It could be said that I've already lost another five years in opportunity because of the female quota set by Charles Gabbeart and Joe Barberio. There are perhaps 2-3 dozen other senior males who can say the same. So, with time not on my side, and no cooperation at all from City Manager Patrick Sullivan, I was forced to file a gender discrimination complaint with the Michigan Department of Civil Rights this past Friday. The primary thing that needs to done is to eliminate that affirmative action quota of 3-5 women per team. Since there are 3x as many senior men than senior women available to play in the tournament, that quota guarantees that as many as 2/3 of the guys will never be contacted by the team captains. The two easiest ways to make things work fairly are to either establish separate male and female divisions the way most other tournaments do, or return to the Year 1&2 format, but without any all-female teams. C'mon Mr. Sullivan, do the right thing!