Image Credit: CFJC Today

By Adam Donnelly

BEACH VOLLEYBALL

Kamloops Beach Volleyball Club hosting Volleyball BC tour stop this weekend

Jul 20, 2022 | 12:28 PM

KAMLOOPS — Over the past few years, the City of Kamloops has transformed Overlander’s Park into a mecca for beach volleyball.

“We’ve got eight courts now, and access to water, access to power,” Kamloops Beach Volleyball Club’s (KBVC) Alex de Chantal explains. “And I think some of the best sand in the Interior. We’re really, very fortunate.”

The Kamloops Beach Volleyball Club has capitalized on that transformation, growing two leagues — a Men’s and a Women’s — into one of the hottest sports in town.

“We’ve got a lot of ex-varsity players, a lot of competitive club players in the youth program,” KBVC Board Member Kelly de Chantal says. “I think it’s some really good volleyball.”

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“We had more teams register this year than we did in 2019,” Alex says. “We’re really excited to see that growth.”

That doesn’t mean the club only wants the best of the best athletes to come play. Tuesday night league nights are for everyone — organizers make sure teams are competing at a similar level.

“If you win, you move up. If you lose, you move down,” Alex says. “After a couple of weeks, [the league] starts to regulate itself, and that’s good. We want everyone to have close games and enjoy it out here. Really recreational for leagues on Tuesdays, and then tournaments on the weekends tend to be a bit more competitive.”

This weekend, the club is hosting its biggest event of the year, as The Beach Tour, volleyball BC’s top beach competition rolls into town.

“This weekend’s tournament will be the most competitive one we’ve ever held in Kamloops,” Kelly explains. “There’ll be big cash prizes up, there’ll be teams travelling from Kelowna and Vancouver to come play. The way that it’s run with Volleyball BC is it’s all based on points, so they will have to have competed in other tour events to qualify.”

That top-level competition deserves to be seen. That’s why the club has organized some extra perks for those who want to watch.

“We’ll have food trucks going on here, we’ll have live music. We’ll have all sorts of volleyball action here starting around 9:00 am and going until around 3:00 pm,” Alex says. “It’ll be nice and hot, so you can go down to the beach and have a swim, then come watch some of the games. It’s a lot of fun, and I’m really looking forward to it.”