By James Peters

New beach volleyball courts coming to Overlanders Park on Kamloops North Shore

Jun 6, 2018 | 11:42 AM

KAMLOOPS — Local beach volleyball enthusiasts will have all the more opportunity to recreate that iconic scene from Top Gun this summer.

The City of Kamloops is turning existing tennis courts at Overlanders Park, near the Henry Grube Education Centre on the North Shore, into four new beach volleyball courts.

Parks and Civic Facilities Manager Jeff Putnam says the city has more need for beach volleyball courts than tennis courts right now.

“What we found was the use of that particular (facility) at that location for tennis wasn’t what it used to be so, in working with both the (Kamloops Tennis Club) and the volleyball association, we’ve come up with a plan to add four more outdoor volleyball courts where the tennis courts are now.”

Putnam says none of the existing green space will be removed, as the volleyball courts will have the same footprint as the existing tennis courts.

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“That little park actually, Overlanders Beach Park, has undergone several transformations over the years,” said Putnam. “I remember when I was a teen, I used to play ball hockey (there). There used to be a multi-use court there and no beach volleyball. Tennis had been there previously.”

Construction is slated to start in mid-June, with completion by the end of July.

The cost is estimated at $100,000, coming from the annual City of Kamloops Multi-Use Court budget. The Kamloops Volleyball Association will kick in $5,000.

Putnam says once the courts are in place, Kamloops may see more beach volleyball events scheduled in coming years.

“We built the beach volleyball centre in 2011 for the Western Canada Summer Games, and that was a huge success. Since then, the local leagues have been growing quite dramatically, so this is going to really help them. They intend to bid on very large events now, so that’s really great.”