Billings has grown over the last few years. Many people have come to Billings from bigger cities that has made our volleyball community grow. There are now 5 adult volleyball programs that run in our city. That’s a huge increase from many years ago. This is why we created an organization to host volleyball tournaments.
The thing we love most about having these tournaments, as it gives everyone an opportunity to meet new people, make new friends and also play some competitive volleyball. Members of our adult volleyball community, travel outside our city and state to play in tournaments, because Billings didn’t offer many.
On June 5th, 2021, We hosted a 4v4 All Men’s Volleyball Tournament in Laurel, MT. This was the first Men’s tournament in the history of Eastern Montana. Participants came from 6 different states to compete.
We offer services in Eastern Montana, South Dakota, Northeast and Central Wyoming.
Bear Mountain Athletics was established in 2023. This is a non-proft organization and was created to bring the adult volleyball community together to participate in a variety of different volleyball formats. To participate in the adult tournaments you must be 18 years of age. You are also required to sign a liability-waiver form online.
Bump, Set, Spike-Play For A Cause was established in 2022 by a few local real estate agents in our Billings community. We will host a variety of different tournaments to give back to the community in fundraising. Proceeds from the tournament registration fees will be given to the organization for fundraising.
Big Sky Memorial Scholarship was established in 2022. A $1,000.00 memorial honor scholarship will be given to one student athlete from either Billings West, Senior or Skyview High School that participates in club or high school volleyball. Proceeds from either adult or youth tournaments will go towards the memorial scholarship. Memorial names will be named soon.
Registrations fees are paid through Stripe and Venmo. The Stripe link app is under the owners name but it gets directly deposited in the Bear Mountain Athletics banking institution account linked to the Stripe account. Venmo account is under @Billingsvolleyball.
We Do Not accept cash. We don’t handle cash for registrations. The only time we deal with cash is to purchase something last minute for the tournament or to purchase ice and or food product the day of.
We typically don’t accept personal checks. But for a charity group or organization, we would allow you to write a check for that specific organization. If you choose to make a donation or sponsorship you may write checks out to the organizations name.
Where Does your money go?
Thats a great question. To be able to operate and run a volleyball tournament, you must first have liability insurance. It gets pretty pricey as you must do an annual policy to protect the organization, schools and participants. All schools require a General Commercial Liability Insurance Policy.
Schools are paid gym-rental fees. They also require you to pay a cleaning fee. You must charge the proper amount for registration fees to cover the cost of the tournament so it’s not coming out of your own personal pocket. We try to have the lowest cost of registration fees for the participants.
Registration money goes towards, Gym Rental Fee, Cleaning Fee, Liability Insurance Policy, Volleyballs, Volleyball Equipment, Paper, Ink, Utensils, Website, Poster Boards, Award Medals, Banners, Food-Drinks, Tournament Coordinator, Petty Cash, and Prizes for top winning teams. Sometimes we receive donations and sponsorship money to purchase many of the items that were listed. When that happens any money that is left over will carry on to the next tournament and will remain the bank account. School Districts are always paid before anything from the tournaments are purchased.
When we fundraise through Bump, Set, Spike-Play For A Cause, The organization in which we are raising funds for will get all of the proceeds except for gym rental and cleaning fees. Those two fees will be taken from registrations to cover the cost of the tournament. If any money is left over from a previous tournament, those funds will be used to pay for the gym rental and cleaning fees. If that happens we will notify the charity organization and they then would be able to collect All proceeds.
Over the course of 2 years we have had the privilege to have random drawings for prizes for members who have participated in our tournaments. We have had local businesses donate gift cards, gift certificates, volleyballs, backpacks and many more. We do spin the wheel where everyone’s name goes online and we spin the wheel for a winner. These drawings typically include, Christmas, New Years Day, Valentines Day, Easter, Father’s Day, Mother’s Day, National Volleyball Day and our organizations anniversary annual mark.
When that winner is selected we contact them. A donation form is filled out from Bear Mountain Athletics given to the business that donated the item and it is documented for both parties tax purpose records. A copy of the winner wheel form is attached to the donation form so that the business or person who donated the prize knows it went to the right individual. We also keep record of the donation receipt.
This is our information binder. If anyone has questions on how our organization’s operates, I would be happy to sit down and discuss any questions you may have. All transparency information is in this binder. Everything gets sent to the Montana Dept of Revenue and IRS. (It’s also public knowledge.)
Bear Mountain Athletics and Bump, Set, Spike-Play For A Cause, Does follow all legal guidelines under Montana State Law. Our attorney represents all 3 group organizations.
It is such great news that Billings has another volleyball organization in our city. Bear Mountain Athletics is NOT Affiliated with Aries Athletics of Billings.
We offer these types of Volleyball Tournament Formats:
4v4 Women’s
4v4 Men’s
6 on 6 Co-Ed
6 on 6 Open
6 on 6 Women’s
6 on 6 Men’s
Rotating Pairs Draw
Mixers
Reverse Co-Ed 4’s
Core Values Our Mission-
Health & Wellness
Great Competition
Leadership
Adaptation
Fun
Diversity
Quality
Safety
Relationships
Building a Legacy
The mission of our organization is to provide a variety of adult volleyball tournaments throughout our community. We believe in creating positive experiences by opening our tournaments up for out of town, and state participants. And also providing both recreational and competitive volleyball.
Goals
Our main goal is to be able to have Billings host one of the 3rd largest indoor adult volleyball tournaments in our region. This would be an example of the Casper Open and Spokane Sizzler etc….
Bear Mountain Athletics 