Special Weather Announcement
Regarding Hurricane Ian for October 1st & 2nd
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 29TH -
We are pleased to announce that we will host BOTH days of our Grassroots Doubles Edition tournament as planned this weekend, October 1st and 2nd. Spread the word!!!
Saturday, October 1st - Men’s and Women’s 2’s
Sunday, October 2nd - Reverse Coed 2’s
You’ll notice we did not increase the registration fee due to the impending storm and other priorities. Therefore, we will honor early registration pricing THROUGH FRIDAY MORNING at 8AM!
The fee WILL increase $10/team in every division Friday morning. Please go ahead and get signed up now - others are sure to follow if you go ahead and get registered. It is incredibly helpful to have people sign up now in their preferred divisions while we connect with our network to spread this news and help players solidify last minute plans to play.
With this in mind, please consider your safety and update us if you are out of town and aren’t sure about your ability to get to Gainesville. Here in Gainesville, we are very fortunate to have experienced almost no impact from Hurricane Ian. We had minimal rain and only moderate winds. The weather for the weekend ahead looks phenomenal - we welcome you to come hang out and take advantage of this chance to play ball! PLEASE let us know if you need somewhere to stay while in town, and we will do everything we can to connect you with our local volleyball family to make sure everyone is comfortable and able to make the trip if they wish!
We are overjoyed at this opportunity to host a full weekend of competition. Don’t miss your chance to play grass doubles in Florida!
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MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 26TH -
First and foremost, we would like to remind everyone that you can obtain a FULL REFUND of your registration fee through 6 pm on Friday, as always, straight in the Volleyballlife.com platform.
Next, we want everyone to know that GNVV will be waiting until Friday to make any changes to host the October 1 & 2 Grassroots Doubles Edition tournament as originally scheduled. We will be actively monitoring and tracking the hurricane and its path throughout the week. As an organization run by the players for the players, we are fully transparent with you - our efficient business operations and sound budgeting permit us the flexibility to wait with confidence to make a decision without penalty to registered teams.
Waiting to make any schedule changes will allow for the following:
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Accurate assessment of field conditions Friday afternoon. Current projections show the worst of the storm reaching Gainesville Wednesday/Thursday. Luckily, the fields at Newberry Sports Complex have excellent drainage, and in the past, we have even been able to have playable conditions within a few hours of the end of a major storm!
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Weather in Florida is known to change at the drop of a hat! Even the best experts cannot be certain what impact will occur inland in Gainesville and in the aftermath of the storm. Again, current projections as of today (Monday 9/26) show relatively reasonable weather here in Gainesville over the weekend which is significantly influencing our hesitancy to make any changes.
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This is a 2-day tournament - which means we have 2 chances to pull this thing off. Saturday and Sunday’s weather could wind up drastically different from each other. Sunday’s current forecast looks fantastic, so keep sending positive thoughts into the universe.
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As many of you know, we carefully select our Grassroots event dates well in advance to respect other area organizations and avoid scheduling over other events. We hope to avoid rescheduling if at all possible due to a heavy October tournament schedule around the area.
We understand it can be tough to plan and adjust to the uncertainty, but we hope you’ll take a chance on us! We fully understand your concerns and respect the decisions that you need to make to feel safe and comfortable this weekend. You’d be right to say we are a bit of risk-takers, but we can confidently say we’ve never regretted a decision to take longer to make a weather-related decision here in Gainesville.
As a result of the extra time we have taken to prepare and share these plans with you, we have extended our early registration pricing for an additional 24 hours. We will now increase at 6pm on Tuesday, 9/27.