We just ran the 41st edition of Mayor’s Cup — a traditional beach volleyball tournament held in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. On the third weekend this September, players and families descended on Rehoboth to play volleyball, eat boardwalk fare and bid farewell to summer. The farewell to summer bit might have been the reason this tournament was affectionately dubbed Last Rites by many returning players, referencing the First Rites of Summer fall edition.
As usual, Saturday saw women’s and men’s divisions for doubles and triples beach volleyball. The various divisions included all age groups, juniors to seniors. I wonder what seniors really means in this context.
photo by Ricardo Vera
This is what happened.
My bedside alarm went off and wafts of coffee aroma signaled the beginning of set-up day. As had been done before many times, the dedicated crew of volunteers trekked to the beach and began assembling the volleyball courts. Following the 40 year-old tradition, the first court up was photographed and served as the model for the next 10, 20 or 60. Midmorning we saw the jeep on the beach delivering water, spare parts and encouragement. By noon, the field was ready, volunteers posed for the last-courtside team photo and agreed to meet at headquarters for a well-deserved lunch. This was but the briefest summary of the setup and omited the mountain of work that got done in preparation for this and every other of these MAV beach volleyball events. Tons could be written about how a couple of organizers started checking out the beach in January, established a dialogue with city officials and insured all the little pieces were assembled in time. Yup, that is another story.
The organizers of this event — an aging group of friends — were still at it after more than 40 years; acquiring beach-use rights, constructing courts, preparing the beach, setting up and running the event. If you ask any of them why they do it, they might joke around but essentially, they love the reward, which is to see the happy faces of participants enjoying beach ball. And they were there once again on September 18th, 2026 in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware – wind, rain or shine, setting it all up. Shine mostly, as it turned out.
On Sunday, mostly the same group of volunteers and organizers methodically took every court down and returned the beach to its native state. Over the years, the take down crew was know as the vultures due to the way they hang by courts as playoffs wane to get those courts bagged. This year, a strong Nor’easter followed our visit to Rehoboth and redistributed the sand. Always the optimist, I think this is the cycle beginning anew.
