Bayside in Dewey Beach, at the end of Dickinson Avenue, tucked between two iconic restaurants and bars, The Rusty Rudder and The Lighthouse, lies a sacred piece of local history. It’s a slab of white sand officially owned by the town of Dewey Beach, but unofficially assigned to The Lighthouse for purposes of a volleyball court. While this court is public property, it is traditionally used for the in-season weekly morning competitions between the real MVPs of the summer season – the local restaurant and bar staff. Since they are the people who have to work behind the scenes to make the summer/vacation magic happen, this is their chance to have fun and blow off steam. So, they loyally show up before their shifts to dig, bump, spike and battle one another in beach volleyball.
This court recently received an expansion and updated net system courtesy of Chris Schell from local development and construction company Schell Brothers LLC. Flanked by decks for spectators and bar patrons from both The Rudder and The Lighthouse, the beach volleyball court has been home to the Bar & Restaurant Volleyball League since its first season in 1984. The league runs in-season from the second week of June through the second week of August. “This is our 40th anniversary year, so it’s really special,” said league organizer and runner Jimmy Young, a veteran player who has gone from playing to refereeing and running the league.
Jimmy tends bar at both the Summer House in Rehoboth Beach and Nalu Surf Bar & Grill in Dewey and Rehoboth Beach. He is also expanding his DJ career. You can find him in the DJ booth at Nalu on the weekends, and he has international gigs scheduled for the off-season on the Way Down Here tour in Mexico. Jimmy’s background is in environmental studies; he earned a degree from Washington College. He worked in the environmental field with the University of Maryland School of Medicine, where he spent time out on the water studying crabs, and on the land studying chickens; however, he was always drawn to beach life. After one summer living at the Delaware beaches, Jimmy was hooked.
“We play with co-workers and we become actual friends; it changes the vibe at work and everything runs smoothly.”
Jimmy has been in the restaurant industry since his college days in 1998 and was recruited to play in the Bar & Restaurant Volleyball League in 1999. “It was my second summer here, and back then, the people running the league would pop into the restaurant, tell us about the league, take a beer shooter and leave a sign-up sheet for us … but now, all the recruiting is done through our Facebook page,” he said with a laugh.
The league is run by three volunteers who do it for the love of the game. “Myself, Bryan Derrickson – the owner of Conch Island, and Mike Muzzin – general manager of Big Fish, keep this thing running and we referee using beach rules,” Jimmy explained. “We want this to be fun – keep it loose; you don’t have to have A-1 skills to play.” Many of the employees in the restaurant industry are busy in the summer, he said. “We don’t get to see each other because work gets so demanding, so this gets us together and it’s the only athletic competition like this down here.”
The league is made up of 24-26 volleyball teams. “The most we’ve ever had was 32, and that year was crazy,” Jimmy said. This year, they represent the following restaurants: Starboard, Starboard Raw, Dewey Beer Co., Bluecoast, Bluecoast Jr., Spain, Summerhouse, Nalu, Conch, Fins, Lighthouse, Blue Oyster, Big Oyster, Starboard Claw, Striper Bites, Claws, Dockside, Stingray, Northbeach, Grain on the Rocks, Cantina, Cultured Pearl, Purple Parrot, Big Fish and Rudder.
They meet down in the sand, four mornings a week, Monday through Thursday, from 10:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. to battle it out before their shifts start. Each team must play twice a week. “We play 6-8 games a day, and Mike, Brian and I rotate refereeing,” Jimmy said. Due to the league’s popularity, in 2021, they added a second court over at Northbeach on McKinley Avenue in Dewey to accommodate the grueling weekly game schedule. Each team pays $200 to participate in the league, from restaurants in Rehoboth, Dewey, Bethany, and “We even have one team that drives from Ocean City, Md. – Spain Wine Bar,” Jimmy said.
Each team must have a minimum of five players from a certain bar and restaurant, including three male players and two female players. Players range in age from teenagers into their 50s. The teams are composed solely of staff members from the service industry, each representing their specific bar and restaurant. They are all playing for bragging rights, to be this year’s beach volleyball champion. Gia Malasecca, who has played in the league for three years, and plays for Fins Fish House & Raw Bar, explains how the league builds comradery at work. “We play with co-workers and we become actual friends; it changes the vibe at work and everything runs smoothly,” she said.
Kasey O’Brien, lead deck bartender at The Lighthouse, has been tending bar for 15 years and played on the beach volleyball league for seven years. “I don’t play anymore, but I get to see a lot of the games from here on the deck, and the competition gets harder every year,” she said. “It’s high vibes and is really fun; a lot of players come to watch and cheer each other on even if they’re not playing. They stop in, get drinks, chicken tenders, hang out, and share war stories from the night before,” she said with a smile.
T.J. Linton, operations manager of Fins Fish House & Raw Bar in Rehoboth Beach, is a founding member of the Fins volleyball team and has played for the past four years. “It gets me up and out,” he said. When asked if he thought his team would pull a W for the championship, he confidently stated, “Every year is our year,” with a laugh.
However, the reigning champs three years in a row hail from Bluecoast Seafood Grill & Raw Bar. Linda Dimuzio, a veteran player on Bluecoast’s winning team, has played in the league for the last 10 years. She formerly played volleyball in high school at Padua Academy in Wilmington and in college at Wesley College in Dover. “I’ve always loved volleyball,” she said. “This league gives us something fun to do together that’s not drinking, and it’s definitely grown more popular and competitive over the years. I’ve been lucky to play alongside the elite original members, like Jimmy [Young].”
The league runners keep track of each team’s standings. “For the championship, we do a ranking, like an NCAA tournament-style bracket,” Jimmy said. The winner takes home whatever money is left from the registration fees after they have paid the referees and buy 10 new balls at the start of each season. The balls that go out of bounds often end up in the bay, “So, we keep two balls for the championship games,” Jimmy said.
Reigning champ Linda Dimuzio, explained that they usually spend their winnings at The Lighthouse while celebrating. “We spend it before we leave,” she laughs, buying drinks for their fellow teammates. “It’s definitely more about bragging rights, and the champions have to drink out of the trophy – which historically leaks” Jimmy said. “We’ve always talked about adding plaques to the trophy with the winning team’s name, but no one remembers the order of all the years.”
Athletics have always been a passion of Jimmy’s. He is a coach in the local school district at Cape Henlopen High School for the JV baseball team. “I played semi-professional baseball for the Eastern Shore Baseball League, in Salisbury, Md., from 18-36 years old,” he said.
So, between bartending, coaching and DJ gigs, Jimmy is obviously a very busy man. When asked if he would continue volunteering his time to the Bar & Restaurant Volleyball League, he didn’t hesitate to nod in affirmation with a resounding “Yes!” With a big smile, he said, “There is no end in sight. I want to keep the love, and unless they say we can’t play volleyball here, I’ll be here.”
If you want to catch the bump, set, spike action of the championship games, the fun begins from 10:30 a.m. through 2 p.m., Thursday, Aug. 1, at the Lighthouse court location, and continues Monday, Aug. 5. The finals are set to begin, weather permitting, at 10:30 a.m., Wednesday Aug. 7, with a rain date built in for Thursday, Aug. 8. Let the games begin!
