SACRAMENTO, Calif. – Every point, set or match in volleyball begins with one event: service. Appropriately enough, when St. Francis seniors Sydney Chow, Mana Jafari, Nika Jafari and Copeland Williams launched a non-profit operation called Volley For A Cause, they did so out of a desire to serve.
Already active with the Troubadours' annual summer camps, the four girls looked to host some sort of volleyball-related activity for younger children. "Going to a Catholic school, they're always talking about being women for others, and using your passion and talents to serve others," said Chow, recently named as the 2025 senior class valedictorian.
"We thought about what we're passionate about, and that was volleyball for us."
Indeed, all four Troubies played together on the SF frosh team in 2021-22, then worked their way through the junior varsity and varsity squads. Last fall, Chow and Nika Jafari split the majority of time at setter, Mana Jafari saw significant time as a defensive and serving specialist, while Williams somehow found time to serve as team manager for first-year head coach Taryn Campbell – no singular feat, given her role as St. Francis' school president. The seized the opportunity to give back to the community in which they had forged their friendships.
"I think we just decided we wanted to host a tournament," Williams recalled. "We thought about what we wanted to give to the people who were a part of it. Our first tournament was for fifth- through ninth-graders. Do we do skills training? Do we just give them time to play? As volleyball players, one thing we all strive for is reps. Especially in the offseason of school volleyball, we wanted to give them time to play with one another in a recreational way."
This spark of an idea arose from a lively brainstorming session at a nearby Raising Canes, during which the four girls looked at everything they would need to make their vision a reality. "We started from the bottom," said Williams. "Do we have to rent this park? Do we need to get insurance? We each covered different tasks, and we figured it all out at this Cane's."
They quickly discovered the logistics of running a fund-raising grass tournament – e.g. permits, facilities, insurance – and learned that forming a registered non-profit operation expedited that process. Nika researched insurance carriers and sought a suitable venue for the tourney. Mana handled advertising, Williams created the Instagram account and drafted the liability form. Chow researched organizations that the tournament could support. Moreover, having such status allowed other St. Francis students to gain their service hours by officiating the tournament and/or helping with setup and strike.
The first Volley For A Cause event was a St. Patrick's Day tournament at Ashton Park, featuring a morning session for fifth and sixth-graders followed by an afternoon session for seventh- and eighth-graders. The March event raised funds for the Sacramento Children's Home, the 157-year-old organization that provides services and programs for at-risk youth and families – particularly those who have faced abuse and trauma.
Additionally, the St. Patrick's Day tourney provided a venue for a bake sale run by the Greater Sacramento chapter of the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, another organization with a long history of collaboration with St. Francis. Vanya Dubey, Brianna Atkins, Arden Garcia, and Sadie Westphal came out to run the bake sale on behalf of LLS.
The girls attempted a second event in July, but a more modest turnout – perhaps due to the heat or families' summer vacation plans – resulted in the four Troubies running an instructional clinic. However, Volley For A Cause regrouped to host another grass tourney, they focused their efforts on serving fellow high school students. Held yet again in Ashton Park on the weekend before the first day of the 2024-25 school year, this third event proved to be a rousing success in support of My Sister's House, a resource for Asian/Pacific Islander women and children who have survived domestic violence, sexual assault and human trafficking.
The girls credit Chow for selecting the beneficiaries. "I know about these charities because of going to Catholic school," she said. "I also wanted to keep our fund-raising for local organizations rather than big nation-wide ones."
Choosing to serve other high school students also eased the foursome's marketing efforts. Middle school students required more direct, grass-roots connections. The girls visited schools throughout the area, such as Merryhill, St. Mary, St. Ignatius and St. Francis. Additionally, they printed fliers to hand out at the summer volleyball camp.
"It's hard to advertise to [middle schoolers] on social media because of a lot of them don't have it," Nika said. "When we did our high school tournament, we could reach them online."
"It was quick," said Mana, referring to the high school tourney. "We could send them the link, and they could take a day to make their team. With middle schoolers, it was a hassle."
Despite running their operation as St. Francis students, the four girls opted to separate themselves from their school and conduct their business on behalf of Volley For A Cause during the March tourney. To their surprise, the SFHS dean of students, Cynthia Cost, received an email from the grandmother of a participant, who lauded the four students in the way they represented the school.
"We tried not to affiliate ourselves with St. Francis, but somehow she found out," Nika said. Williams further noted that the event staff wore all green, mostly because the tourney took place on St. Patrick's Day.
To Chow, however, there is little mystery to the email. "It's because we used St. Francis equipment," she said. Still, that a grandmother from the Bay Area noticed the school branding on one of the nets, looked up the school and located Dean Cost, then took the time to write a praising note speaks volumes of the way Chow, Williams and the Jafari twins conducted themselves.
The girls also credited assistant volleyball coach Bill Hanrahan, who allowed them to borrow nets and scoreboards for that inaugural tourney. Nika Jafari shouted out past club coaches and other acquaintances for providing gear for the two summer events, while Chow tips her hat to own family. They live next door to Ashton Park, resulting in a convenient solution for storing and transporting gear.
The Troubie foursome now have two projects on the horizon. First is the next grass tournament, which will almost certainly match the August high school event. Secondly, with all four graduating in May, they seek to identify their successors, who can continue to run the operation after their departure. Ideally, the next Volley For A Cause leaders will be St. Francis volleyball players, and not just because the name suggests so. The tournament format and even the specialized rules for co-ed play requires experience in the sport to run the events.
"It has to be a volleyball player who runs it," said Chow. "There are so many problems that come up that it really helps to know volleyball to solve."
All four girls admit the work was arduous at times. Planning for the March 2024 event began in November of 2023. Williams jokes that she almost muted the group chat because they had renamed it to Volley For A Cause, while the group avoided Canes for a while because it was "triggering" for all of the effort put in.
That said, the four Troubies are actively planning their final tourney before graduation. In the end, the fulfillment of supporting local charities and the satisfaction of seeing a successful event through outweighs the time and energy invested into it.
"The turnout was so big and the environment was fun and lively. I think we were super-happy and surprised that we could make it happen," said Chow. "It was hard to believe we put this all together. We knew how many were coming because they pre-registered, but it was different seeing them all come together. I don't think I imagined the scene of that many kids with their families, parents, siblings, grandparents and watching them have fun."
For more photos of past Volley For A Cause events plus information on upcoming tournaments, follow the Instagram account @volleyforacauseoperation... The group originally scheduled a tourney for February 15 but had to postpone the event until later in the spring.
