Over a year ago, Juan Raygoza saw a sand volleyball court at Lions Park in Jonesburg that hasn’t been used in years.

That gave him a vision to start a co-ed sand volleyball league in Jonesburg.

“I saw that the court was not being used, so I reached out to the city and said, ‘Hey, are we able to get a volleyball league going on Friday nights?’” Raygoza said.

Since the Jonesburg Co-Ed Sand Volleyball League started in April 2023, it has become very popular in the Jonesburg community, attracting many players from Montgomery County as well as Warrenton and other parts in the St. Louis area.

“They love it,” Raygoza said. “It’s something for us to do on a Friday night to just relax and enjoy the time. Everybody is out here having fun. We come out here and have fun and make friends.”

The league holds matches in the fall, spring and summer seasons. The spring season ended in thrilling fashion as the Tamales – which included Raygoza and his family members – knocked off NKOTB in three sets in the championship match. The summer season will start on June 28.

Raygoza said the league has a bright future.

“I think it’s going to be something that they’re going to continue to do for years and years,” he said.

Also, a nine-team sand volleyball tournament was held during the last day of Jonesburg Homecoming on June 15, with the Dream Team coming in first, followed by NKOTB and the Net Ninjas.

After a sand volleyball league in New Florence was shut down years ago, Raygoza started making plans on establishing a league in Jonesburg. There were nine teams in the first season.

“I decided to take over and go from there,” Raygoza said. “It has been picked up every year.”

Raygoza said before the first season began, the sand volleyball court at Lions Park had to be fixed.

“The first year, we had to clear out all of the grass,” Raygoza said. “Everybody got involved. My brother-in-law who works for Sellenriek (Construction) brought his excavator. We dug it out and leveled it and made sure that we were good at playing in it.”

Raygoza said he installed the lights so matches can be played at night. He and his friends had to provide their own volleyballs and nets.

“Our goal is to let the city know that everybody is involved and we want to continue to do this,” Raygoza said.

Raygoza, who has been living in Montgomery County all of his life, said his family has always been active in athletics. The other members in the Raygoza family include Gerardo, Margarita, Kimberly, Karla and Stephanie. All of them played on the Tamales team that won the league championship in the spring season.

“We like to get together as a family, so we like to do different things, whether it’s volleyball or kickball and softball,” Juan Raygoza said. “Our family is pretty big. We had two or three teams alone and we just said why don’t we get something where we get more people in the community involved. Everybody pitches in.”