Halifax hosts successful under-21 beach volleyball championships
Beach volleyball on a parking lot?
Excuse the skeptic who believed trucking 2,000 tons of sand to the Halifax waterfront to convert a parking lot to the FIVB Swatch world junior beach volleyball championships seemed like a far-fetched idea. Would local volleyball enthusiasts and causal sports fans alike follow the sand to the Salter Street parking space?
“It’s what we hoped. You never really know how people will respond to a first-time event like this, but it all came together,” said event director Derek Martin of the under-21 tournament, the first time the tournament has been staged in North America in its 11-year history.
Aside from the qualifying round on Wednesday where entry was free, the 59 teams representing 24 nations played to a strong audience last weekend as a sellout was achieved each day, cramming 2,000 people onto the bleachers at centre court or around the other three courts and two practice facilities.
The atmosphere was tremendous as Canada was in contention for two medals. Attendees waved handheld Canadian fans, chanted, and provided a standing ovation to both Canadian teams following their losing effort.
“With the buzz in the city we would have had good crowds regardless, but having Canada in it has been a fantastic thing for the energy here,” said Martin.
Instructed to nurture that fan energy was Adam Hotchkiss, maintaining the MC job he has at Dalhousie volleyball games.
Besides providing basic details to the audience, such as who notched the last kill and which player is next to serve, Hotchkiss was tasked with entertaining the congregation. To this end, he tossed frisbees, encouraged dancing to the music and challenged separate bleachers to a cheering contest.
“The Canada games were pretty easy to get people going. That’s the easy part,” Hotchkiss said, his voice hoarse from five days of announcing every game at centre court. “The challenge is getting the people interested in the other games.”
Hotchkiss, like Martin, was impressed at the number of people that showed up, from packing the bleachers, to those who stood on chairs at the beer gardens to get a better view of the action, and the others who had an aerial view from the hotel roof behind.
He credited the large crowd, warm weather and party-like atmosphere with setting the groundwork for a successful weekend. It’s a larger-scale formula than what he has been involved with for the past three years with the Dalhousie volleyball teams.
“We have to introduce some of this stuff to a Dal game,” Hotchkiss remarked. “Maybe we could cut open the roof in the Dalplex,” he joked.
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