How We Met

After four years of professional European indoor volleyball, I felt ready to turn in my indoor shoes and dedicate to barefoot beach volleyball. But the Greek national indoor volleyball team asked me to join their squad and I decided not to pass up that honor! Beach volleyball could wait. I accepted and had a once-in-a-lifetime experience before I joined the beach volleyball tour in Greece. The next season, I had the great fortune to be among the few-to-none that were allowed to train with the Greek beach national volleyball teams! The two teams were ranked 5th and 15th in the world! So, in the off-season of beach volleyball, I trained with the Greek beach national volleyball teams and played indoor volleyball simultaneously to support myself. It was a unique challenge on the body to switch back and forth from the sand to the hard court.

But the beach volleyball season was approaching and the urgency of finding an appropriate teammate was increasing. I had many meetings with the head coach to try to figure out who to play with, but the options in Greece were very slim. He emphasized to me that I need to find an investment in a partner - someone that has the level and talent to play internationally, and also someone that he would allow in his trainings. But who? It was getting to the point where they said the trainings were going to shift from individual skills to team-only work in preparation for the Olympic qualifying season of the international circuit. If I could not magically come up with a partner, there was no room for a floating player in their trainings. I was so confident that I would find someone and kept telling the coach that I KNOW I will get that teammate despite the grim outlook.

So...... I prayed! I prayed for her and within a few days, the coach called me to the Greek Volleyball Federation to meet my new Greek American teammate! I was overjoyed!!!!!!!!!

Who was she and from where in the world did she come? Christina Hinds had been in Greece for a short time to be in her father's homeland and try the professional indoor volleyball scene. Ironically, she came to play for my "home team", Iraklis-Kifisias. I loved that team and played with them for two years, the second of which we qualified for the European league! The only reason I left them was to focus on beach volleyball. Christina's paperwork did not go through in time to play, and frustrated, she was ready to go back to her home in California and redirect her efforts to the beach game. But Christina's Greek aunt wanted to research some more options for her neice in Greece. She proceeded to send out emails in Greek and in Christina's name to any and all Greek beach volleyball associated sources and links. The emails boasted her beach volleyball skills and expressed her interest in pursuing the sport in Greece. We all laugh about the whole scenario to this day! Luckily, one of those emails reached the best Greek national team player who spoke to her coach and made the connection. It was absolutely an answer to my prayer.... a miraculously imported Greek American!

We met and were both so excited to see the same desire, drive, energy, motivation, passion for the sport, and reach-for-the-stars attitude! Little did we know the amazing journey we had ahead of us! This was three years ago. And we have just recently partnered up again to pursue the Olympic goal with the wealth of experience, knowledge, growth, and maturity we have gained in our years playing and training separately. Our story is amazing and will only get better as we continue to improve, learn and love this sport and this beautiful journey it allows us to take!

Welcome to GoGreekGirls2012Olympics!!! To fill in the gaps of the title, we are two Greek Americans training and playing beach volleyball in Southern California in preparation to qualify for the Olympics in 2012. Both Christina Hinds and I (JoAnna Papageorgiou) come from Greek-Italian families with our paternal sides being 100% Greek. We took the best of all the worlds we are blessed with - training and living in the US, where we were both born and raised, but with the honor and opportunity of representing the homeland of our fathers, where we both have lived and played volleyball professionally.

Our mutual goal is to play in the Olympic qualifying beach volleyball tour (the FIVB) and earn our way to representing Greece in the 2012 Olympics in London. The process of Olympic qualification entails traveling to the worldwide tournaments (from China to Brazil to Russia) held eight months out of the year and work our way up to a ranking of top 20 in the world. Our first tournament in the FIVB this year is next month in The Hague, Netherlands! We are training hard and working hard to raise funds to support our Olympic goal! This process is the most exciting, worthwile, and amazing journeys!

Please follow us on our path to the Olympics! Any and all support is appreciated!
If you are interested in contributing to the cause, please email gogreekgirls@gmail.com.

Thank you and welcome to our dreams, our goals, our world!!

Sincerely,
JoAnna Papageorgiou