Festival Sports (Sugar Land, TX) is a youth sports services organization committed to inspiring, educating, and unifying athletes, coaches, and parents. Its premier event, the Volleyball Festival (Volleyball-Festival.com), has been dedicated to expanding opportunities of young women athletes since 1984. Now in its 37th year, the Volleyball Festival serves over 10,000 athletes on 550 teams annually and is part of the International Volleyball Hall of Fame. In 2020, Festival Sports hosted over 450 teams in the 8th annual Festival Fiesta Classic (festivalfiestaclassic.com) at State Farm Stadium.
The founders of Festival Sports, Bernice and Dr. David Epperson, are members of the American Volleyball Coaches Association Hall of Fame. Since 1999, the education division of Festival Sports, Parents for Good Sports, has conducted innovative parent education programs to school and youth sports organizations throughout the United States. In 2007, Dr. Epperson was named by the Institute for International Sport as one of America’s 100 most influential sports educators.
Anna Epperson Kelley, Dave and Bernice’s eldest daughter, is the current leader of Festival Sports along with her husband Bryan Kelley. Anna played in the 1984 Festival before going on to star on the Rice University volleyball team from 1984-1988 along with her sister Lara Epperson Sweeney. Bryan is also a Rice grad and after over 20 years in the Technology Sales industry, he’s been dedicated to Festival Sports since 2010. Bryan was elected as Governor of the Arizona district of the AAU in 2020.