Gaytlsports.com

Planning is in high gear for the Hotlanta Classic XVII, the annual event of the Hotlanta Volleyball Association that will bring a few hundred gay athletes to the city next weekend. The tournament serves as the informal start to the gay volleyball circuit that culminates next May with the championships of the North American Gay Volleyball Association.

Hotlanta Classic officials expect about 20 teams and 160 jocks next weekend, down from previous years thanks to a souring economy, expensive air fares and a new rule that tinkers with how teams can use elite players.

The event, which runs July 25-27 at Emory, is open to the public.

“Feel free to come watch,” says Duc Nguyen, the tournament director and captain of the Mojo, which finished fourth at NAGVA last May. “There’s no fee. It would be great to have people out there.”

My Southern Voice sports column this week focuses on the Hotlanta Classic and includes an interview with Nguyen. Read the full story.

Also in the column is additional reaction from the Atlanta Bucks Rugby Football Club. The crew took the Bowl Division crown at the Bingham Cup in June. 

We’re not one to succumb to the temptation of creating a post around a hot jock just as a way to post some eye-catching photos. This blog is much too serious for that.

Who am I kidding? This blog’s about sports. And with sports comes muscled jocks. That gets us to Paul Bester, a 19-year-old South African who plays rugby on the club team at Life University, that chiropractic college in Marietta. Apparently, he and the team play pretty well, winning the 2008 USA Rugby Men’s Division I National Championship last month. That’s a mouthful and so is Bester.

The hunk, all 6-foot 3-inches and 215 pounds of him, recently surfaced on the gay blog Towleroad after appearing in a photo shoot for Bruce Weber, the iconic gay photographer. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

Turns out Bester’s a model as well as a college student and athlete. He says on his Model Mayhem profile that he’s also appearing in a new Calvin Klein catalogue campaign. (There’s a bunch more photos there, too.)

Seems like a road trip to Marietta might be in order. Rugby anyone?

Gay sports groups were out in full force during the Atlanta Pride Festival last weekend.

Several combined forces under a double-wide tent for the Atlanta Gay Sports Alliance, a collection of nine organizations from swimming to rodeo, to spread the sports gospel at the marketplace at the civic center.

Other groups, including the Atlanta Bucks Rugby Football Club, ventured out on their own, offering a booth made to look like a mini rugby pitch. Outdoor groups – the Wilderness Network of Georgia and the Women’s Outdoor Network – were, ironically, inside the civic center enjoying the air conditioned space for their displays.

When it came to the parade on Sunday, several groups marched with the Bucks. Their float focused on the championship they won at the Bingham Cup last month. The club took the Bowl, the mid-tier division of the international gay rugby tournament. Also on hand were members of the Hotlanta Soccer Association, which staged a successful Memorial Day Weekend tournament, and the Atlanta Rainbow Trout, which won eight individual and four team medals during the International Gay & Lesbian Aquatics Championships earlier this month.

The two gay outdoor groups offered up their own floats with canoes and tents, as did the Decatur Women’s Sports League, which included blow up balls and bats. In fact, the Wilderness Network of Georgia’s float won third place in the non-profit category. And of course, it wouldn’t be Pride if there wasn’t a drag queen or two along for the ride.

The Atlanta Bucks Rugby Football Rugby Club started slow, but finished strong in the Bingham Cup last weekend, bringing home a trophy from gay rugby’s international championships.

The Bucks opened the tournament with three losses to higher-ranked teams in round robin play. But when the Bowl Division matches started, the Bucks turned it on and pushed through injuries.

“The Bucks injuries ran the gambit from two players with deep thigh bruises, bruised possibly broken ribs, sprained ankles, black eyes, shoulder injuries and even one player had internal bleeding and swelling in his leg,” says Gary Durden, the Buck’s membership and marketing chair.

On June 15, the Bucks downed the Kings Cross Steelers 12-5 to take the Bowl, the mid-tier division of the Bingham Cup. They moved to the championship after taking matches over the Northern Stags and Philadelphia Gryphons and surpassed their goal heading into the championships of just competing for a title.

In a touching moment, the Bucks received the Bingham Bowl Trophy from Alice Hoglan, the mother of Mark Bingham, the gay rugby player from San Francisco who died in the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The tournament was created in 2002 to honor Bingham.

In the top tier, the Sydney Convicts 1 beat the King Cross Steelers 1 18-3 to take the Cup. The World Barbarians took the Plate by downing the Sydney Convicts 2 22-0. The Ulster Titans beat the Muddy York 29-5 for the Shield. More on the Convicts dominance (with photos) from Outsports here.

Listen to the Bucks’ pre-match pep talk after the jump and watch clips from their championship match. (more…)

The Atlanta Bucks Rugby Football Club’s got a new rally cry for the weekend – “Bringing it to Bingham.”

About 40 people from the gay rugby club, including 25 players, are in Dublin this weekend for the Bingham Cup, the championships of the International Gay Rugby Association & Board. They played two matches on Friday and were set to take to pitch again this morning.

I talked with Bullet Manale, president of the Bucks, for my Southern Voice sports column this week:

“It’s an ambitious trip and it is a great feeling to have all of these guys being there. It will be empowering to see such a large group of us together and to be able to share that experience together,” Manale says.

Read the full story.

The Atlanta Bucks Rugby Football Club is in Dublin today, readying for their first match of the Bingham Cup tomorrow at noon.

The Bucks are one of 32 teams at the tournament, the championships of the International Gay Rugby Association & Board named for Mark Bingham, a gay rugby player killed in the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

The Bucks open the tourney against the L.A. Rebellion and play again at 4 p.m. versus the Dallas Diablos. On Saturday, they face the Washington Renegades at 11 a.m. The results of those matches determine whether the Bucks will compete for the Cup, the highest tier of competition, the Plate or the Bowl.

To wish them well, I’ve dug up a video of the All Blacks, the international rugby team of New Zealand, performing a haka. It’s the war dance they perform before matches and dates to 1884 when the All Blacks were the first New Zealand team to tour overseas. 

The Atlanta Bucks Rugby Football Club heads to Dublin later this week for the Bingham Cup, the championships of the International Gay Rugby Association & Board. And if you’re a betting person, you can put down a wager on the event.

Paddy Power, a sponsor of the Bingham Cup, has published odds on the 32 teams competing in the tournament, a first for a major gay sporting event, according to Outsports. The Bucks, who finished a 3-6 season in May, face 8-1 odds for taking the Bingham Bowl, the mid-tier of three levels of competition.

The event, named for gay rugby player Mark Bingham, was first held in 2002 with eight teams in San Francisco, where Bingham lived. He was killed in the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

The Sydney Convicts are 15-8 favorites to win the Cup, the highest level of competition at the Bingham Cup.

Being sporty this weekend has never been so easy. There’s cycling, a pageant and a couple of opportunities to get your drink on.

At 7:30 a.m. on Saturday, some 100 cyclists are expected to push off from their starting line at Emory University to begin a 200-mile bike ride. The 6th Annual Action Cycling 200 is expected to raise more than $75,000 for the Emory Vaccine Center, which develops vaccines for AIDS and other infectious diseases.

At noon, there’s the “Ruggers & Buggers & Buns” cookout and fund-raiser for the Atlanta Bucks Rugby Football Club. The event serves as an early send-off for the rugby team, which travels to Ireland in June to compete in the International Gay Rugby Association & Board championships. A $10 ticket – $15 at the door – means all the burgers, hot dogs, brats, sides and dessert you can eat.

Later in the day, the Hotlanta Softball League hosts its annual pageant for the Open Division. The Mr. & Ms. HSL Pageant raises about $3,000 for the league, which splits it among teams taking part in the Gay Softball World Series in August. Admission is $10. Show time is 6 p.m.

“It’s some of the ugliest drag and some of the studliest men in Atlanta,” says Art Davenport, HSL’s secretary. “It is a real evening of contrasts.”

On Sunday, the Hotlanta Soccer Association is hosting a wine raffle to raise funds for its tournament over the Memorial Day holiday. Tickets to the raffle, which includes more than $2,500 in wine, are $5. The raffle takes place during “Margaritas, Mojitos & Mischief,” an event that costs $15 and includes unlimited margaritas and mojitos. The event begins at 4 p.m.

(more…)

There’s nothing like ending the season with a win.

Just ask the Atlanta Bucks Rugby Football Club, which closed its spring season with a 60-0 win against the Charlotte Royals on May 10 in the Queen City. The Bucks end the season with a 3-6 record.

When it comes to queens, the Bucks own their all-gay opponents, picking up their three victories against gay teams – beating the Royals once and the Nashville Grizzlies twice.

The club now has about a month to tweak their play before they head to Ireland for the Bingham Cup, the championship of the International Gay Rugby Association & Board. To help raise a little money for the trip, the Bucks are hosting the “Ruggers, Burgers, Buns. Oh, My!” cookout on Saturday at the Eagle. For $10, ($15 at the door), you get burgers hot dogs, brats, sides and desserts. The event runs from 12 p.m. to 5 p.m.

Later that evening, starting at 10 p.m., the club hosts its bar night at the Eagle.

Naked is the news today. And it’s all sports related.

On Sunday, about 1,800 people bared all for photographer Spencer Tunick, no stranger to mass nude events. They stripped naked at the stadium in Vienna that will host several stages of the Euro 2008 soccer finals in late June.

Tunick says on his web site that he wants to capture the spirit of sports, the sweeping nature of stadium architecture and the relation of human form to modern structures. But, he says, don’t expect him to stage such an event anytime soon in the U.S.:

“My work is a little edgy. It is tough for me to get permission to do things in the U.S.”

Then there are the naked swimmers fighting to go nude in the city pools of Seattle. They are nudists, you see, and they pitch their cause as a fight for greater freedoms and access.

“My personal feeling is that the discrimination and fear of the human body is one of greatest discriminations there is,” says Richard Cummings, a 63-year-old Seattle resident and member of the Body Freedom Collaborative. “The film and magazine industries have tried to make nudism equal sex. It is not. It is a state of undress.”

Pool officials don’t seem too bothered by the baring of it all. They did, though, make sure lifeguards working the naked sessions were at least 21, a move that the nudists complain has limited the number of available guards and thus, their swims.

Then, there’s the Australian Rules Football and Rugby League players who are baring mostly all for a new calendar. It’s for charity, for goodness sakes. Proceeds from “Naked for a Cause” benefit breast cancer research. Now there’s a making-of-the calendar video. (Thanks to Outsports for unearthing this.)