Barefoot Winners Bound for San Francisco
All 32 teams announced for Aug. 13 AVPNext Championship Cup
By: AVP Staff, on 08/09/2009
The field is set for the Barefoot Wine AVPNext Championship Cup in San Francisco.
With less than two weeks until the Barefoot Wine AVPNext Championship Cup in San Francisco, all 16 Barefoot leagues across the country have announced their men's and women's winners.
Barefoot champions are some of the best amateur volleyball players in the country. They have dominated their local leagues all summer and are now being rewarded by Barefoot Wine for all of their hard work. On Aug. 12, all 64 Barefoot Wine AVPNext Championship Cup athletes will descend upon San Francisco for a welcome reception at their host hotel.
From then on, however, it will be strictly business. Play starts at 8 a.m. sharp the following morning, Thursday, Aug. 13. Each gender's 16 teams will play off in a one-day single elimination tournament for a berth in the San Francisco Open and $2,500 cash.
Many of the athletes playing in the championship have already had a taste of AVP main draw play by qualifying this year and in before. For example, Rico Becker of Phoenix has qualified for 24 main draws since 2000. Another rising star is Dana Fiume of East End Volleyball in New York. Dana has played in five AVP main draws this year alone. With these and other athletes vying for the main draw, Aug. 13 looks to be an extremely exciting day of great beach volleyball.
Check out the list of winners below and cheer on your local favorites by following along here at AVP.com, the AVP Barefoot site, and Volleyball Nation!
| Barefoot League | Men's Champions | Women's Champions |
| Arizona |
Rico Becker/Tim Higgins | Kaili Kimura/ |
| Baltimore |
Erin Davis/Clinton Davis | Rebecca Wieters/Kim Pirisino |
| Bar A | Shane Donohue/Kristopher Fraser | Linda Capizzi/Elizabeth Ekmekjian |
| Bradford |
Nick Momcilovic/Jason Zaeske | Carol Hahnstadt/Sue Calligaris |
| Champagne Volleyball | Shaun Dawson/Trey Henderson | Darcy Arellano/Shellie Ouldhouse |
| Charleston |
Jake Elliott/Jon Guida | Adria Elliott/Lindsay Hadfield |
| East End Volleyball | Gary Gerns/Brad Vallet | Dana Fiume/Ginger Schuster |
| Hawaii VBA | Evan Silberstein/Justin Harris | Susie Turner/Nicole Midwin |
| Newport VBC | Chris Jorge/John Hubright | Kimberly Hyde/Nikki Brehaut |
| Panama City Beach Sand Sports | Kyle Peck/Whit Roberts | Brittany O'Neil/Melissa Moore |
| QC Volleyball | Steve Hennings/Craig Steinhauser | Lorrie Risley/Deyshia Steketee |
| Sideouts | Kevin Lorenz/Ryan Stuntz | Amanda Barnard/Samantha Rennau |
| St. Louis Volleyball | Phil Goedeker/Wayne Scott | Meghan House/Colleen Hunter |
| Third Coast Volleyball Club | Colin Kaslow/Tim Wooliver | Kyra Lancon/Ashley Regner |
| Volleyball Virginia | David Keeter/Jeffrey Mordica | Melissa Minkowski/ |
| Jennifer Pelkowski | ||
| Wasatch Beach Volleyball | Casey Adams/Michael Nelson | Nina Puikkonen Mortensen/ |
| Brenda Whicker |
Get Barefoot and Have a Great Time! See you in San Francisco!