{"id":2448232,"date":"2019-09-01T21:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-09-02T03:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/?p=312140"},"modified":"2019-09-01T21:00:00","modified_gmt":"2019-09-02T03:00:00","slug":"a-labor-of-love-longtime-motherlode-volleyball-tournament-leader-transitions-out-new-group-jumps-in","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/a-labor-of-love-longtime-motherlode-volleyball-tournament-leader-transitions-out-new-group-jumps-in\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cA labor of love\u201d: Longtime MotherLode volleyball tournament leader transitions out, new group jumps in"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
Claudio Borgiotti, left, stands next to Leon Fell near the MotherLode Volleyball Classic grass courts in Wagner Park. Fell, who has organized the annual Aspen tournament for 37 years, is transitioning out of his leadership role after this year. Borgiotti and the MotherLode Fresh Tracks group will head the event moving forward.<\/strong>
Maddie Vincent\/The Aspen Times<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

For the 47th year running, hundreds of teams from across the U.S. have descended on a handful of Aspen parks for the annual MotherLode Volleyball Classic.<\/a><\/p>\n

Coined one of the most popular pro-am volleyball tournaments in the country, the competition includes 21 divisions of play over six days, and is one of Aspen\u2019s oldest summer events.<\/p>\n

But this year, the tournament is experiencing a big change. Its leader, Leon Fell, is transitioning out of his management position and a group of five longtime MotherLode competitors, known as the MotherLode Fresh Tracks group, is heading the event.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a difficult transition,\u201d Fell said Sunday morning. \u201cIt\u2019s my baby, I grew it, I made it into the event that it is and I\u2019m really proud of that. \u2026 I never dreamed I\u2019d still be with it for this long.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since 1981, Fell said he\u2019s worked as the lead marketer, promoter and organizer of the MotherLode Volleyball Classic, which was named after the group who started it: The Mother Lode restaurant on East Hyman Street, where The Aspen Times office is located now.<\/p>\n

Fell explained that the owners of the old restaurant started the tournament as a 14-team reunion with their southern California friends in Wagner Park, complete with a keg of beer and a barbecue.<\/p>\n

They didn\u2019t realize those friends would come back to Aspen with more friends year after year for volleyball.<\/p>\n

\u201cBy 1981 there were 164 teams. It just grew by word of mouth,\u201d Fell said, who played in the early tournaments himself. \u201cIt outgrew the Mother Lode restaurant. At the time, I was working in event production and they knew I played \u2026 so they asked me to take it over and I said sure.\u201d<\/p>\n

Over the next 37 years, Fell said he did everything he could to promote and market the volleyball tournament. It\u2019s grown to include amateur and professional teams from roughly 35 states competing on several Aspen grass and sand court locations, and was what Fell calls the first destination tournament, or \u201cvolleyball vacation\u201d event in the country.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were and still are the granddaddy of all destination volleyball events,\u201d Fell said. \u201cIt\u2019s not a big neon event that has bright lights and concerts and all of that stuff, it just brings a lot of people who love to play volleyball and who have fallen in love with the town of Aspen.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of those people was Claudio Borgiotti, who is heading the MotherLode Fresh Tracks group that\u2019s transitioned into Fell\u2019s management position.<\/p>\n

Borgiotti said he first competed in the MotherLode Volleyball Classic in the early \u201990s because of its reputation for being a \u201cbucket list\u201d item for volleyball competitors.<\/p>\n

About 10 years later, Borgiotti bought a home in Aspen because of his love for skiing, his intent to continue to participate in the annual volleyball tournament and his passion for the city overall.<\/p>\n

But although Borigotti inquired about how he could help Fell with the volleyball classic soon after he started playing in it, it wasn\u2019t until about two years ago that he and a few other athletes started talking seriously with Fell about a management transition.<\/p>\n

That was around the same time a few of the tournament\u2019s top-level winners sued Fell for not paying them their prize money in a timely fashion.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cWe had a couple of lean years as I would put it where our sponsorships were difficult to obtain,\u201d Fell said Sunday, reflecting on the past prize-money issues. \u201cIt kind of prompted the discussions with the Fresh Tracks group. It was obvious that after 37 years it was time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fell went on to explain that he paid the winners who sued him with money out of his own pocket and admitted that he didn\u2019t run the tournament well as a business.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a labor of love, a love of Aspen, a love of volleyball and a love for combining the two and wanting to bring a subset of people Aspen never marketed to here, and to let them know how beautiful it is,\u201d Fell said.<\/p>\n

Moving forward, Borgiotti and the MotherLode Fresh Tracks group hope to pair Fell\u2019s passion and the tournament\u2019s successful precedent with a more robust business plan that aims to make the renowned tournament sustainable, beneficial and enjoyable for sponsors, athletes and spectators.<\/p>\n

Borgiotti said the group also aims to increase the tournament numbers by at least 20% over the next several years, which it already achieved this year with the 296 teams registered.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are dedicated to making the event as great or greater than it\u2019s ever been,\u201d Borgiotti said.<\/p>\n

As for Fell, he will no longer be an active organizer after this year\u2019s 47th volleyball classic, which MotherLode Fresh Tracks headed.<\/p>\n

He also sold his \u201cKing of the Mountain\u201d tournament held in Vail earlier this summer to Volleyball of the Rockies, an organization that runs volleyball leagues and competitions all over Colorado, including the doubles tournament in Snowmass every July.<\/p>\n

However, Fell hopes to help the new MotherLode leaders organize the tournament one more time for the 50th anniversary in a few years as one last hurrah.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s difficult to walk away completely but the reality is it\u2019s their ball game now,\u201d Fell said. \u201cAt 70 years of age, it\u2019s nice to have a group that wants to continue the tradition and excitement of the tournament to its 50th anniversary and beyond.\u201d<\/p>\n

via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Claudio Borgiotti, left, stands next to Leon Fell near the MotherLode Volleyball Classic grass courts in Wagner Park. Fell, who has organized the annual Aspen tournament for 37 years, is transitioning out of his leadership role after this year. Borgiotti and the MotherLode Fresh Tracks group will head the event moving forward.Maddie Vincent\/The Aspen Times […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2448232","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-26 01:48:22","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley's Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2448232","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2448232"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2448232\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2448232"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2448232"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2448232"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}