Matt Pilger

I play senior volleyball with a very nice group of people. They are, for the most part, retired professionals in their 60s and 70s.

By default, they treat people with respect. They're used to collaborating with others. I would not characterize them as troublemakers.

In early October, Bob Ford and I (we're the main organizers of Senior Volleyball) received an email from Matt Pilger (here).

I have explained to our group multiple times that we have no power, that we are at the mercy of the rec center management. I've told them that we need to be on our best behavior. And we have been.

Within three hours, Bob sent out an email to our group (here).

I feel that these two emails typify the relationship between Rec Center management and our group.

We do our best to be cooperative and respectful. They, in turn, treat us with a lack of respect and a hostile attitude.





Matt's email

Hey Tom & Bob, I’m reaching out to you to address some concerns that have been brought to our attention. Over the last few weeks on multiple occasions our front desk has been approached by patrons expressing frustration that they were kicked off the basketball courts prior to the start of the Senior Volleyball Drop-In times. Most recently this past Friday multiple individuals complained to the East front desk about this specific issue. This occurred only minutes after Matt Gazdik - NBRC Supervisor, had walked players down to the courts and told the group of volleyball players they did not have the courts until 1:30pm. I want to make sure it is clear that individuals are allowed to utilize the gym up until the start of the listed Senior Volleyball Drop-In times. This means that during the 15minute setup window, individuals can be using the space for open recreation/gym – volleyball players are welcome to practice setting or some light warmups, but cannot take over an entire court. We are providing this 15 min setup window, because we understand there is time involved in getting the court ready for the program and want you to be able to use the whole time for play. However, if we continue receiving complaints about senior volleyball players kicking individuals off the courts prior to designated drop-in times, we will remove this 15min setup window and require that the nets be setup/taken down during the designated drop-in times – and we will NOT be extending the drop-in times to make up for the loss in setup time. We have been very flexible with the senior volleyball program over the years; at SBRC we allow players to stay on ½ court past the end of drop-in play. We also regularly find gym space during facility closures and do our best to provide ½ courts for Boulder Blaster team practices. I’d like to continue ensuring you can utilize the gyms at our Rec Centers, but will not tolerate rudeness or intimidation of other rec center visitors and/or staff. If you have any questions please let me know. Thanks, **Additionally, I will be taking over the supervision of EBCC and as such you can reach out to me or Nick Lampert, with issues/requests specific to that site. Maddy Green will be moving into the SBRC Supervisor role later this month, but feel free to reach out to me until she is fully in that role. I look forward to responding to your email during my normal business hours: Mon-Fri 7:00am-3:00pm MST Matt Pilger, MBA, MS Recreation Center Supervisor


Bob's email

Friends, I received an email from Matt Pilger, Recreation Center Supervisor, that there have been several complaints from basketball players being thrown off the court by volleyball players during the time that is set aside for the vb nets to be set up. This is the first time I've heard the policy for the transition from basketball to volleyball. Basketball time ends at 1:15 and volleyball time starts at 1:30. In between, the court is available for both while the volleyball nets are being set up. This means basketball players may continue to utilize the area around their goals and volleyball players may utilize the area around their net until 1:30, but neither group may have exclusive use of the gym during this 15 minutes. I think this is very fair to both groups. Remember, it wasn't long ago that we were not allowed to open the equipment room until 1:30. Please be respectful of others during our 15 minutes of shared time. Thank you, Bob



Boulder Senior Volleyball Players