Chaos volleyball to hold fundrasier this spring

By Tyler Lowey, Times Reporter

The local Strathmore volleyball program is gearing up for another run at a national title and is looking for some support from the community.
The Strathmore Chaos Volleyball Club now houses U14, U15, U16 and U17 programs. The club is looking for new ways to bring in money to help take them to the proper tournaments that will slot them into the proper division to allow them to face the best competition on a national and provincial level.
The U17 Chaos just finished with their second premier tournament last weekend at Rally Pointe in Calgary. After two days of competition, the Chaos wrapped up their round robin 1-2 and won their next two playoff games against No. 1 seeds before falling in their finale. Any tournament recognized by Volleyball Alberta will help filter the 70 teams into tiers with competition most closely aligned with other teams in the province.
“This year, we are hoping to be in the second or third division,” said U17 Head Coach Vito Peraino. “Right now, we are in the fourth division, but we have a lot of tournaments coming up that will allow us the chance to bump up a couple of groups as the season goes on.”
Last spring, the U17 Chaos wrapped up nationals at the Olympic Oval in Calgary fifth in the third division, which was home to 32 teams.
The next opportunity for the U17 crew to make a leap in the provincial standings is this weekend, when they join a super series tournament in Kelowna, B.C.
Travelling B.C. and Alberta is all part of the process, which includes the premier No. 3 tourney Easter weekend in Edmonton.
Of course, all roads eventually lead to the provincial tournament at the end of April, with nationals on the May long weekend.
“I feel like we have a good team here,” said Peraino. “We need to figure out a way to win the early morning games and we should be ranked higher than where we are now.”
As a way to raise money for the travel the Chaos teams will embark on this spring, the volleyball program is holding a medium hearing by Jennie Ogilvie, as a way for people to hear from friends or relatives that are no longer around.
“Jennie held an event in town earlier in the year and it produced great results,” said Chaos fundraiser manager Karen O’Keefe. “We are hearing a lot of excitement for the event and we are really looking forward to what she is able to produce.”
The reading is set for May 26, from 7-9 p.m. at Legends Bar and Grill.
“We have the lowest league fees out of any of the surrounding Calgary-area teams,” said Peraino. “The Airdrie program is nearly three times the cost of our program. We do a lot with what we have, but a little help would absolutely help out the program in several ways.”
In the meantime, the volleyball programs will continue their bottle drives and other small fundraising efforts while they try to ascend the provincial rankings.