"For Love of the Game"

A History of Carolina Juniors Volleyball and Sports Connection
(formerly Volleyball Unlimited and Sports Warehouse)

Allan Haseley and his wife Kelly met playing volleyball recreationally at Chapel Hill.  After moving to Charlotte, they continued to play in the city leagues.  They knew a number of players here that agreed they would like more opportunities to play and better facilities. So, in the fall of 1995, they leased a warehouse and founded Volleyball Unlimited.

Their plans were to be open only on weeknights for adult volleyball leagues and to charge just enough to break even.  The intention was not for this to be a full time business, merely a means for them and all their volleyball friends to continue to play.

Shortly after opening Volleyball Unlimited, they were approached by Marilyn Thompson, director of Charlotte Juniors and Tiger Shelton, director of Mizuno South.  These club directors were looking for a place for their Junior Olympic teams to practice.  Like most clubs, they had been using school gyms at odd hours, practicing once a week, sharing courts, using different facilities each week, etc.

Since the courts were not in use after school or on Sundays, Volleyball Unlimited agreed to let junior teams use them for the next six months at the price of insurance ($35 per player).  These practices ended up costing Volleyball Unlimited significantly more; for staff, setup, supplies and utilities, but the Haseley’s were glad to help support youth volleyball in the area.

In the fall of 1996, Tiger Shelton proposed merging his youth volleyball club with Volleyball Unlimited to start a new citywide club.  Since adult leagues were not filling the courts to capacity, Volleyball Unlimited agreed to this partnership.  Allan and Tiger met with coach Joe Sagula from UNC to form a business plan and came up with the name Carolina Juniors, hoping to draw the best players from North and South Carolina.  The plan was to make three premier teams that could compete regionally in the Open division at the 18’s, 16’s and 14’s age groups. 

At the first Carolina Juniors tryouts, 150 girls showed up.  In the best interests of our youth players and teams, the directors of the three existing Charlotte youth clubs (Mizuno South, Charlotte Juniors and Queen City Rivals) decided to close down and support one unified club for the area.  They wanted the best talent to be able to play together.  With the help of some of the top area coaches such as Tiger Shelton, Suzie Pignetti, Howard Barnhill, Zoe Bell and many others, CJV was born.

Due to the overwhelming number of teams and since Tiger was also coaching, Allan and the Volleyball Unlimited staff had to help out with the administration of the club.  They did not want to let any of the kids or parents down, so they found enough coaches for everyone to get to play and went way over budget, but somehow made it work.

In 1998 Tiger moved back to California (he is now a Northern California Volleyball Association High Performance Coach), so Allan hired Kevin Campbell to work for Volleyball Unlimited and direct the CJV club.  She also coached a team, so Allan and the Volleyball Unlimited staff remained involved to revamp the program and help her gain experience, as she was new to the job.  Wendy Street also helped tremendously as the parent representative of the club.  CJV continued to grow and improve.

Meanwhile, adult volleyball interest in the area waned.  Late in 1997 the Haseley’s realized that the Charlotte volleyball community could not support a four court “volleyball only” facility.  Faced with the choice of closing or reorganizing, they did some research and found that volleyball could only be financially stable as part of a multi-sport operation.  They decided to make the business a full-time operation including several sports such as volleyball, soccer, basketball, etc.  

In 1998 they broke ground on the new 1.5 million dollar multi-sports facility at 10930 Granite Street.  When it opened in November of 1998, Volleyball Unlimited and Carolina Juniors combined with other sports to become Sports Warehouse.  Allan remained involved with CJV, behind the scenes, while running this new business.  Tim Loesch and Beth Phifer also helped Kevin and Wendy in running the growing club.

Late in 1999, Tim Loesch took over as CJV program director.  Again, Allan and the Sports Warehouse staff were there to train a new director, serve on the board, help with operations, etc.  Beth Phifer and Wendy Street continued to assist with the club.  During his tenure from 2000-2002, Sports Warehouse and Carolina Juniors continued to grow in popularity.  CJV also began competing in more out of state events, gaining national exposure for our players, teams and club.

Beth Phifer was with Volleyball Unlimited/Carolina Juniors/Sports Warehouse since 1996 and became the club director at the start of the 2003 season.  She kept building the club, improving the program for coaches, players and parents while remaining true to its mission, but is now a coach for Union Volleyball Club.  Allan has stayed active with CJV behind the scenes, helping with marketing, accounting and logistics.  Tim is now the Head Coach for both the Women's and Men's Volleyball teams at Limestone College.  Tiger, Kevin and Wendy are gone.  Some of the original coaches remain; Suzie, Howard and Zoe have all been integral to the success of the program for the duration.  Suzie Pignetti and Howard Barnhill took over the club director position in 2005.  The club also has several ex-players that returned to coach here after college, living testimonials to the CJV experience. 

Sports Warehouse, renamed Sports Connection in 2005 now hosts a variety of activities; indoor and outdoor soccer, flag football, sports birthday parties and of course, volleyball.  In fact, they had to lease another warehouse to accommodate CJV and the resurgent adult volleyball leagues, until they opened the new Sports Connection in Ballantyne.  The new Sports Connection in Ballantyne (opened December 2007) is a family entertainment center with bowling, laser tag and inflatables.  The Sports Connection on Granite Street is again home to CJV teams.

Allan has always wanted to provide a place for all levels of girls and adults to play volleyball, at a convenient cost, so he created the Local Teams and League in 2006.  The league was designed to provide great coaching with minimal cost and travel.  The program received overwhelming response and is now the Non-Traveling League with over 500 girls participating each year. 

Suzie and Howard continue their direction of the Traveling teams while Carrie Christian (former CJV player and current Traveling team coach) took over direction of Non-Traveling teams, Clinics, Camps and General Operations in 2007 with the help of Tim Leary (Non-Traveling Teams) and Melanie Jaehnen (Camps).

Allan and Kelly Haseley met via recreational volleyball at Chapel Hill.  They no longer play much, but they have made it clear that Carolina Juniors Volleyball club will always be a welcome part of Sports Connection.