New York Mini “9-Man” Chinese Volleyball Tournament Brings Mega Action—& Many Women’s Matches Too— to LES

A screaming comes across the sky. It’s a red, white and blue volleyball and over the weekend of July 20 and 21— the dates of this year’s 36th annual New York Mini 9-Man Volleyball tournament— it was a sight witnessed countless times by many thousands of spectators watching 105 teams—and 1750 athletes in total—compete across greater Chinatown and the deep Lower East Side.

What’s that? You’ve never heard of Chinese 9-Man Volleyball?

Well, does downtown Manhattan have a tradition for you, one that now includes many women’s teams too, though their “9-Man” tournament games are actually six-on-six contests recognizable from standard women’s and men’s volleyball competitions.

Confused? One didn’t need to go to Confucius Plaza for answers. Rather, a visit to any of the six parks playing host to this year’s tournament, which was organized by the host team, New York Strangers, offered a sporting education— and entertainment—in abundance.

As for the “9-Man” game in particular, its precise history is a little elusive. The sport itself was invented in 1895 by William G. Morgan of the Holyoke, Massachusetts, YMCA, as a less vigorous alternative to basketball, which had been invented in 1891. The game took off, first in the U.S. and then abroad. Volleyball was a sport in the 1913 Far East Games in Manila, the Philippines and somehow—probably through Christian missionaries—became very popular in Toisan (Taishan), in the Guangdong province of Southern China.

As Chinese immigration continued to the U.S.—with the large majority of those immigrants being men—the game became a staple of recreational culture in American Chinatowns, including San Francisco, Los Angeles, Boston, Philadelphia, and of course New York. Beyond the pleasure of the game itself, 9-Man became a living symbol of Chinese solidarity in cities that were often indifferent to their welfare.

By the 1930s, 9-Man was an established part of the urban fabric, though one little known to outsiders. Like the other city games of handball, stickball (or sandlot baseball), and basketball, 9-Man has few requirements: just a net and patch of asphalt will do

The use of nine players a side increases participation and makes the game somewhat more aggressive, especially at the net where a coordinated row of outstretched Chinese arms rise to block an opponent’s shot. The rough surface of the asphalt courts discourages the type of acrobatic diving moves seen in indoor or beach volleyball though the players are still plenty athletic.

In any event, a number of ethnicity rules insure that the matches one sees are largely, if not completely, Chinese. In the men’s game, six of the nine players must of wholly Chinese descent, with other players of at least partial East Asian descent.

The venues for this year’s New York Mini included: the linear Sarah D. Roosevelt Park, just north of Hester Street; Seward Park, also home of the beloved Seward Park Library; Little Flower Playground on Madison Street, nestled amidst NYCHA’s La Guardia Houses; Lilian D. Wald Playground, where Cherry Street turns into a footpath between Montgomery and Gouverneur Streets; Henry M. Jackson Playground, which is named both for the politician and the streets its bound by, Henry, Madison and Jackson; and Sol Lain Playground—formerly the Henry Street Playground but renamed in 1971 to honor the memory of its eponymous local Jewish community activist, high school teacher and sports coach.

Among these locations, Seward Park was the epicenter, with five games often going on simultaneously: the two women’s courts on the Essex Street side of the park being those used for volleyball throughout the year; while the three men’s courts temporarily displaced the basketball courts. As for the popular calisthenics area between the two sections, this became a makeshift resting and lounge area for the players, though those who did wish to work out could still do so.

Each park had its own “command center” for teams to check in and check their schedules, with Seward Park being the most extensive. Here one also could be t-shirts and tote bags, get a table massage (anyone who thinks volleyball isn’t a physically demanding sport should see the array of foam rollers, massage guns, compression gear, etc. many players sported), and check the ongoing tournament brackets and results.

To be candid, keeping up with the results across two genders, six parks and 105 teams was too much for one weekend sports reporter, however enthused, to manage. Further, while there was no mistaking the passion each team, their coaches and their supporters brought to every point on every court, how any single game fit into the larger scheme of things was somewhat unclear, if not opaque.

Briefly, it appears that the tournament was constructed not just on brackets—as would be familiar from an NCAA Basketball tournament—but a combination of wins, losses and points. Teams with the highest point totals after the first day advanced into ranked tiers called Gold, Silver and Bronze on the second day.

While the results had were not available at press time, they will be posted on the New York Mini homepage.

In addition to Gotham-based teams like the New York Strangers and NYC Impact, this year’s tournament included squads from Boston, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Toronto, Montreal and elsewhere.

On Labor Day Weekend, from August 29 to September 1, San Francisco will host this year’s 79th North American Chinese Volleyball Invitational Tournament, (NACVIT), the sport’s largest event, and which rotates among host cities. NACVIT was last held in Manhattan in 2015.