Cooley tournament benefits prospective club volleyball players in need

Columbus North's Emma Burns (center) won the Casey Cooley Award at last weekend's Casey Cooley Volleyball Tournament at Hauser. She is joined by, from left, Hauser coach Jeff Case, HAVOC co-director Erica Raisor, HAVOC coach and former Cooley teammate Kyla Blair and HAVOC co-director Jenna Ortega. Submitted photo

HOPE — Casey Cooley had a passion for volleyball throughout her short life.

Cooley was killed in an automobile accident in 2001 when she was in school at Columbus North. Two years later, North started the Casey Cooley Volleyball Tournament, and last year, the tournament moved to Hauser.

With money that is raised through the Casey Cooley Fund, the Cooley family sponsors girls to play club volleyball who may not be able to afford it.

“That was one thing Casey loved — club volleyball and playing volleyball,” said Jenna Ortega, director of this year’s Casey Cooley Tournament, which was held over the weekend.

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“In the past, (money raised) also went to club players and students in the Bartholomew County school district, so now, it’s widened to just Bartholomew County in general,” said Erica Raisor, who along with Ortega, is co-director of Hope Area Volleyball Club (HAVOC). “So it helps out different players and families with whatever needs they have.”

This year’s tournament featured 42 teams — 21 from ages 10 through 14 on Saturday and 21 ages 15-18 on Sunday. The field included 22 HAVOC squads.

The tournament, which was held a month earlier this year, was down slightly from 48 teams last year.

“This weekend, there were so many tournaments going on in Indy that we lost some teams that we had last year due to that,” Ortega said.

One of the HAVOC teams, Scott Sage’s 12-year-old squad, won that division’s Gold Bracket on Saturday.

“The excitement on these kids is just incredible,” Sage said. “It’s so much fun to see the excitement when they win and when they’re improving because our goal was to continue to improve. It’s not necessarily how many wins and losses we get, it’s about improving every time we step on the court. We talk about energy, we talk about enthusiasm, we talk about positive body language and I thought (Saturday) was a fantastic start for us.”

Jeff Case’s HAVOC team won 14-year-old Silver Bracket on Saturday. Raisor’s team won the Silver Bracket, and Makayla Caldwell’s HAVOC team won the Bronze Bracket in the 15-18 division on Sunday.

“All these girls are from different schools, so they don’t all know each other from the beginning,” Ortega said. “So they’re just growing even more, and just being able to start the process of a tournament and seeing them put everything on the court together that they’ve done in practices so far has been nice. You can already see improvement from them.”