I just added a new event here on the site for a mud volleyball tournament on Saturday, July 9, run by the park district in Oswego (southwest Chicago suburb that's next to Aurora). Check out the event page for details. I'm looking for those who are serious about attending to fill out the team slot that I've officially paid and registered, and I figured I'd add a thread here to help draw some attention for those interested.

https://umd.net/calendar/mud-volleyball-in-chicago-oswego

I would be interested in joining up

I'm absolutely up for this but I don't know yet if my schedule will allow it -- July is a pretty busy month. I'm going to wait for now but hope to RSVP yes in a few weeks (if the team roster hasn't already been filled...)

I've wanted to do one of these tournaments for years, and I'm not too bad at volleyball so my repeated dives into the mud won't necessarily be gratuitous..

To those wanting to join in, if you're pretty much sure of being able to attend, go ahead and RSVP to on the linked UMD event to reserve your position on the team. If something does come up to make it so you can't make it, please make sure to let me know asap so that the slot can open back up again to be filled by somebody else.

Definitely in for this!

If only I lived closer!

Well, Perth is definitely impressively far away.

I am actually looking to see if I can come out and visit some peeps in Chicago fairly soon. I'm not sure it will line up with this, but it would be awesome if it did!

Wishing you lived closer too!

have you played at Oswego prior? The tourny in Rockton back in the day, the mud was really thick and gloppy. Is the mud at oswego just brown water, or does it got some heft? Interested in joining, but not sure if knees will last all day.

No, I have not played at Oswego before. They've got a half dozen galleries from previous events in their Flickr galleries (I link to those in the event description) and it looks more watery, unfortunately. I'd assume it'll be similar to the photos, as they all look pretty similar year-to-year, so I'd base your decision on that. And yeah, I'm assuming that my body (which rarely gets any exercise) will be mad at me by the end of the day. Still, should be fun enough.

Well, if so, potatoes probably go well with with a muddy gravy.

I figure if the mud in the vball courts is thinner, there must at least be thicker mud on the sidelines. Maybe I'll end up stuck around there somehow

I'm also in Perth!

Giving this thread a bump for a couple reasons. First, still got plenty of slots left for the team. So, if you wanna to have some muddy volleyball fun, RSVP on the event page (linked at top of this thread) and come on out and meet other fellow Chicago area UMD folks on our team.

My other reason to bump this is that I was sent a flyer by the organizer. It has an item on the requirement list I hadn't seen previously, which is to have at least one female on the court per team at all times. So, if you are a female who would like to have some muddy volleyball fun in the Chicago area, it would be very much appreciated if you could RSVP and join in the fun. Here's the PDF of the event flyer:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1gCHBqOF8p91hmId_iSQGRI3UbIkF5lB9/view?usp=sharing

I'd love to meet some more of my fellow Chicagoland UMD folks. So come on out and have some fun on our team!

Still looking for 4-6 players to fill slots on the team. Come on out and enjoy some fun in the mud, fellow Chicagoans.

Man, I hope you can fill it up. Sorry that I can't get out there now.

Sounds interesting, but I am not in town. Do u need volleyball skills? Lol

I hope you all have a blast. I have no transportation from the city, and I suck ass at volleyball

For my own sake, I hope not.

FWIW, if you (or any of you city folk) were interested in going, I could do a pick-up & drop off at a Metra station on my way.

I love volleyball I wish I still lived there have a blast everyone!

That's awesome but I genuinely play volleyball like Daria haaaa
https://youtu.be/OghvfLc8paM

I'm still hunting for at least 4 more players to join the team as I've only got one RSVP so far. So, if you or somebody you know are able to join in, that would be great. If you can't cover the $15 to help cover the registration fee, that's not a big deal. I'm OK covering that if we can field enough players for a team.

I have noticed that from the initial team slow count for the event of 14, it is now down to 4 team slots available. So I assume that means they've got 10 teams registered so far, so it should be a fun event.

C'mon out and join in on the team for some muddy fun, fellow Chicagoland folks. If you can, just RSVP on the event page here on UMD (linked at the top of this thread).

Unfortunately, the event has been removed, as it's become a bust - at least as far as the team I was trying to assemble goes. Only got one RSVP, unfortunately. Plus, I managed to injure my foot last night while dealing with some window well flooding in the storms when a patio brick fell on the foot. So, I'm probably gonna be hobbling around still quite a bit by Saturday's event. I'm still planning to drop in and check things out and stay as a spectator for at least a little while from the start. If any of you go, maybe you'll get lucky and a team will need a pickup player or something (no idea really, as this is my first time checking out this event). If any of you do show up, I'd still love to meet and say hi, etc. I'm most recognizable by my buzz cut hair and buzz cut beard. I'll also probably be the one walking with a limp.

Maybe we can try again next year and have better luck assembling a team. A few of you did mention interest to me, but had scheduling conflicts, etc.

Despite the effort to field a team falling through, I did, however, go to the event and hung around for 4 or so games, to check it out and consider if I wanted to try for it again next year. It's actually a great event, run quite well by the park district (a handful of staff as refs and coordinators, etc). Think they had around 10 teams that turned out for it. Pretty good mud for it, too, with 2 side-by-side courts, half of each watery and the other half thicker mud (with teams switching sides half way through each match to keep it fair), with a couple temporary outdoor showers fed via hose from a nearby hydrant. Overall, a very nice event, and I'm definitely gonna try to get a team together for next summer, assuming they do it again (they have for 5 years or so, and I assume they will again next year).

So, not a complete bust. Glad you still went and that it looked like a good event.

For those curious, here's the official photo gallery from the event:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/oswegolandparkdistrict/albums/72177720300563987