By Tristan Forde
Taking a step away from the roaring crowds and glistening courts, a whole separate community driven by their passion for volleyball can be found battling it out in parking lots across the Greater Toronto Area.
“The core of 9-man [is a] sense of community,” said fourth-year medical physics student and Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU) Bold men’s volleyball player Bobby Tang.
The sport of 9-man volleyball carries many differences from the original, the greatest focus being nine players on each side of the court as opposed to the usual six. With this change comes a greater leniency on players catching the ball and helps to create a much faster-paced game.
According to an article from Sportsnet, Asian Americans have been subjected to racism and discrimination throughout the sports industry for quite some time, a modern example shown through former NBA basketball player Jeremy Lin being called “coronavirus” while on the court during some games.
As for volleyball, this variation of the sport has a deep-rooted history built up from Chinese-American and Chinese-Canadian immigrants who were denied inclusion from general sports and access to courts to play on—which forced them to play in streets, parks and parking lots.
“Back in the day, you actually couldn’t pass the ball. You had to carry it around and throw it,” explained Tang, who is also Chinese.
Tang started playing volleyball around the age of 13, having spent some time competing in the Ontario Volleyball Association (OVA) with the Markham Wildcats.
In 2017, he chose to take a break from indoor volleyball and spent much of his time competing in 9-man tournaments. He later returned to the court to compete for the Sheridan Bruins before ultimately joining the TMU Bold.
“Eventually, everyone just started to connect and these different Chinatowns led to this growing community especially for Asian-Americans”
According to the award-winning documentary 9-man, created by members of the 9-man volleyball community from New York and San Francisco, at its origin, the modified game didn’t even include actual volleyballs to play with and instead used rolled up towels and laundry—acting as the cause for the loose following of the rules.
“During the [1920s and 30s,] they didn’t even have a volleyball [net]—they just played it on laundry lines, and that acted as the net,” said Tang.
As the sport grew in popularity with various communities across North America becoming connected, a foundation named the North American Chinese Invitational Volleyball Tournament (NACIVT) came to be in 1944, with the very first tournament being held in Boston. The national tournament currently houses teams from 18 predominantly East Asian communities across Canada and the United States.
“Eventually, everyone just started to connect, and these different Chinatowns led to this growing community, especially for Asian-Americans,” said Tang.
Toronto also has a loud and vibrant 9-man community as it shares many athletes with the OVA and Ontario University Athletics to help foster a community of mainly East-Asian athletes.
“[9-man] built a community that they’re really protective over now because they were discriminated against before,” said fourth-year business management student Angela Zhou.
Zhou has spent many summers playing the female equivalent of 9-man and highlighted the enjoyment she gets out of being able to compete in a community where she doesn’t have to change her playing style or position to cater to the general height stereotypes found within volleyball.
The NACIVT also hosts a tournament for women athletes, which adopts the more traditional style of indoor volleyball with just six people on the court at once.
“It is historically and traditionally Chinese [focused], [NACIVT officials] tend to prefer a majority of the team to be Chinese,” said Zhou. “We are not the tallest people, so it’s nice to have a community where I can still play.”
Because the game’s origins have a greater focus on building communities, NACIVT highlights the importance specifically surrounding Labour Day.
“It’s also just nice to find people that play the same sport and share so many similarities”
Historically, many East Asian immigrants were overworked and underpaid, and Labour Day would be the only day of freedom for many—families could then go on trips and spend their free time connecting with others around them.
These traditions would end up expanding their reach into 9-man volleyball.
One of the main focuses of the NACIVT tournament is a feast and festival where different families and teams bring their significant cultural dishes and trade with people from other backgrounds.
The feast acts as a way for everyone to come together, meet new people and explore new locations, as the tournament’s host city is different every year.
“The whole point of [the feast] is to connect with your cultural roots,” said Tang.
One of the sport’s objectives is to create a space for immigrants to bond and combat racism, meaning 9-man volleyball has a primary focus on athletes of Chinese descent.
Over the years, the gates allowing players of different backgrounds have been slow to open, but as time goes on, today, the competition allows a diverse range of East Asian and mixed East Asian athletes to play.
“It’s given me an opportunity to play, it’s given me an opportunity to be a part of a club and get coaching,” said Zhou. “It’s also just nice to find people that play the same sport and share so many similarities.”
As the indoor volleyball season comes to an end, many players are looking to hang up their knee pads, pack away their shoes and retire their arm sleeves. As some players take to the beaches to tackle the sand, the 9-man players will reunite with their teammates as they look forward to NACIVT, which will be hosted in New York City this year.
Tang said, “That’s what’s so special about [9-man], it’s that ability to connect with like-minded people, but also experience that ethnic background your parents and grandparents would have had.”
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