Eager players hit the beach for volleyball

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This article was published 07/07/2020 (2151 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Life’s been a beach lately but at least you can now play in the sand.

Volleyball Manitoba-sanctioned beach leagues have been officially given the green light to begin. Youth leagues kicked off on Monday, while the adult spikers took to the courts for the first time this season at Maple Grove Rugby Park and the Sargent Park Beach Volleyball Centre on Tuesday night.

“I’m very excited. I think everyone out here is ready to play. I’m sure we’re all going to be a little rusty considering we haven’t played indoor or outdoor in four or five months now,” said former University of Manitoba Bisons middle Dustin Spiring moments before he stepped onto the sand at Sargent Park.

For now, only two-versus-two games are permitted. 

“Generally, the game of two versus two beach volleyball already includes sort of that natural distancing,” said Volleyball Manitoba executive director John Blacher.

“But of course, there will be moments and those brief exchanges in the game where you will come in that two-metre boundary of your partner and quite possibly of an opponent if you’re at the net and they’re trying to block you and the set is a bit tight. That’s why we’re solely starting with two-versus-two outdoor.”

Luckily for the players, no major modifications have been made to the game. Game balls are sanitized after each match and high fives are discouraged, but it’s business as usual for the most part. Seven out of the 10 courts at Sargent Park were being used for league play on Tuesday.

“I think that’s the biggest thing. I don’t know if many players would be out here if we weren’t able to do it that way because it would just take away from the game so much,” said Spiring, 24, who was recently named the head coach of the provincial men’s team for the 2021 Canada Games in Niagara, Ont. 

“At one point I heard rumours we’d be able to play but with no spiking, blocking or attacking. I don’t know if that’s really volleyball. That’s just free balls back over the net.”

But considering it’s a sport that traditionally involves touching hands with a teammate after every single point, that one small change might take a while to get used to.

“I think that’ll be real tough. That’s ingrained in most volleyball players,” Spiring said. 

“We’ll try and maybe do some elbows, fist bumps, or feet touches or something like that, but yeah, it will be real difficult to not reach out and give a high five after a nice play.”

Volleyball Manitoba took a patient approach as it didn’t allow sanctioned activities to take place in June. It announced on June 16 its return-to-play plan had been approved, but volleyball involving more than two players per team and all indoor volleyball including training, camps and competitions won’t be considered until later this summer. There are some four-on-four beach leagues around town at community centres that started this week, but they are not under the Volleyball Manitoba umbrella.

“I think it was just a comfort level and being sure that we get it right. We don’t want to venture too quickly,” Blacher said.

“It’s not just for people to play volleyball. We want the community to be safe and the last thing we’d want is where there’s a situation where there’s a few positive cases among our participants and what that would do. The more we can mitigate that risk and prevent it, we’re gonna take those steps.”

While this week is a step in the right direction, Volleyball Manitoba is still feeling the sting of COVID-19, with key events such as Super-Spike getting axed.

As for the indoor season, Blacher said that remains an unknown. In the meantime, the next move for the organization is to look at larger categories of outdoor play.

“When we start looking at the fall and school volleyball and college volleyball and as you know, U Sports volleyball is cancelled right through to January at the very least, we’re not sure what’s going to happen,” Blacher admits.

“It’s going to be dependent on what the COVID guidelines are at the time.”

taylor.allen@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @TaylorAllen31