Tour of Glory headed to local area

The season is over for Georgian Court women's volleyball coach Francisco Casado and his star player, daughter Angie, who has completed her collegiate playing career and her degree work.

But now they are fully involved with something else to do. They are spending these days working with young prospects at High Performance Academy and getting it ready for the Tour of Glory on Jan. 17 and 18 where U.S. men's team coach Hugh McCutcheon will be a guest speaker along with U.S. women's Olympic volleyball team members Lyndsey Berg, Nicole Davis and Stacey Sykons. Also confirming that they will attend are former volleyballOlympians Eric Fonoimoana, Pat Powers, Sinjin Smith and Kevin Barnett, one of NBC's commentators when it covered the Summer Games in Beijing.

The Olympic personalities will be available at High Performance for a meet-andgreet clinic and autograph and photo sessions during the clinic.

"No one around here has seen anything like this," said Francisco Casado with a tone of pride and excitement in his voice. "We have teams coming from all over the country — from North Carolina, Florida."

The Tour of Glory, sanctioned by USA Volleyball and the Garden Empire Volleyball Association, will feature a volleyball tournament and celebrity banquet to raise funds for USA Volleyball's national teams programs.

"This event at a spectacular facility like the High Performance Volleyball Academy is a great way to celebrate the success of our teams at the 2008 Summer Games and to support them financially," said USA Volleyball CEO Doug Beal. "We want to connect the heroes of our sport with our members, especially our younger players."

Twenty-two courts will be in use throughout the weekend at High Performance, which opened a year ago and is one of three national-caliber volleyball facilities dedicated only to the sport. Boys, girls and adult teams will compete after paying $600 for tournament registration. Tickets to the banquet are $200 per plate. Admission for spectators watching the tournament is $5 each. Visit www.tourofglory.com for details or call Francisco Casado at 732-415-1370 or 732-948-1759.