June 21, 2002

WHEELING, WV — Rookies Jeff Blankenburg, Pete "Pedro" Domaoal, and Rick Dosky have already officially signed to participate in GVI this fall and registration is expected any day from "The Real Stan" Kaniecki and Ron Jeremykowski.  "This is awesome" says Founding Father Grundo, "I just love it when rookies start signing up, it seems to get all the veteran Loozers revved up into a real frenzied "G" state of mind.  The more rookies there are, the more people whose heads the rest of us can screw with and more people to fetch beer for the rest of us."

GVI is on pace to set a record for rookies, with 5 commitments so far and several more expected prior to the July 31st registration deadline.  "This will make the highly coveted Rookie of the Year Award quite a race" says former R.O.Y. Winner, Randy Watson.  "With so many entries this year, these rookies are going to have to be really stupid and obnoxious to make an impression on the Board and take home the prize.  I had it easy," adds Watson, "I just showed up Wednesday night and the guys started 'giving it up for Mr. Randy Watson' about every 5 minutes; 72 hours later they were handing me the trophy.  I've seen the list of rookies and, unlike me, I don't think any of them has a cool enough name/nickname combo to carry them; they're going to have to earn it."

Golfapalooza's first five Rookies of the Year are unofficially as follows: 1997, Mike "Sheiker" Long; 1998, Bill "Schlitzmaltliquorski" Szymonski; 1999, Stacey Bartlett; 2000, Jason "Randy" Watson; 2001, Brian "Elvis" McCormick.