Tweet Sends Balboa Bay to BJNC 16 Open Title

Becky Murdy
Assistant, Media Relations and Publications
Phone: 719-228-6800
E-Mail: becky.murdy@usav.org

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (July 8, 2011) - The Balboa Bay 16 Quiksilver team would not have won the 16 Open national championship - let alone make it to the 2011 USA Volleyball Boys' Junior National Championships held in Minneapolis June 29 to July 6 - if it wasn't for a single tweet.

The 140 characters read, "now you have canceled flights for the second day in a row! 50 athletes had to forfeit the Jr. Olympics" and the account was @bradbarnez.

Due to weather in Denver, Balboa Bay's flight was canceled the night before its departure to the national championships. As coaches and parents aggressively worked with the gate agent to find a solution, Brad Barnes, father of Weston Barnes, turned to social media.

"I called the airline's 800 number around 11 p.m. on Thursday (June 30) hoping to talk with a service rep," Barnes said. "The wait time for my call was 99 minutes! I hung up and sent a tweet."

Barnes has been involved with social media marketing for years and understands how viral the voice of the consumer socially spreads, making the decision to turn to twitter simple.

The conversation between Barnes and the airline was generic at first until he began to tweet the importance for the team’s attendance at the USAV BJNC as it was in contention for the gold medal.

Barnes, who was fifteen miles from the airport during the morning of the scheduled flight, communicated with his son via text, updating him on the tweets that he was getting from the airline around 8 a.m.

"At one time the airline said they could get us to Denver and they would charter a bus and drive us 15 hours to Minneapolis. I just kept tweeting telling them to find another solution."

A few hours later the gate agent delivered the bad news to the coaches and team, informing them that there was no other solution forcing Richard Polk, the coach of Balboa Bay to tell the kids to call their parents to get picked up.

ABC News was alerted of the situation and sent a camera crew to capture the story at the airport. Barnes sent another tweet prior to the crew's arrival, giving them the heads up, shortly after, senior managers of the airlines were brought in and went to work.

A solution was found.

"The solution was for the airline to fly a larger airplane to SNA for the scheduled 11:15 flight to accommodate the existing passengers and the players," Barnes said. "Once they arrived in Denver, they still had one last challenge; convincing 17 passengers to give up their seats for the boys. The airlines offered a generous deal for the existing passengers and 17 removed themselves, securing Balboa Bay in the 2011 USAV BJNC."

It was a good thing Balboa Bay was able to make it to the national championships as the 16-1 Quiksilver team captured the gold medal in the 16 Open Division after defeating Huntington Beach Club 25-23, 25-17.

"Having him [Weston] miss Nationals would have been devastating,” Barnes said. "It was a team effort from the coaches and parents, we all played a role in getting the boys to Minneapolis. What happened from there was left in the hands of the incredible coaches and the players. That's a story in its own."

Tags: 2011 Boys' Junior National Championships, Boys, boys, junior, Junior Nationals, USA Volleyball Boys' Junior National Championships