This year’s Wesmen Classic is a men’s volleyball tournament
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This article was published 11/12/2017 (2850 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
The Wesmen Classic has been a basketball tournament for 50 years but this year it’s offering sports fans something new this year — a men’s volleyball tournament featuring some of Canada’s top university teams.
From Dec. 28 to 30, the University of Winnipeg Wesmen will host seven other teams from across Canada. It will be a tough tournament, with four of the eight teams ranked in the Top 10 in the country.
In addition to the Wesmen, fans will get a chance to see the Manitoba Bisons, Western Mustangs, New Brunswick Varsity Reds, Brandon Bobcats, Regina Cougars, Laval Rouge et Or and the Ryerson Rams.
“If you look at the field, it is as good a field as you will ever see in terms of the quality of talent that will come in as part of the Wesmen Classic,” said David Larkins, Wesmen media and operations co-ordinator, at the announcement on Dec. 6.
The eight teams will be divided into two groups, with semi-finals taking place on Dec. 30 at noon and a championship final at 8 p.m.
Wesmen men’s volleyball head coach Larry McKay said that heading into the 51st Classic, there is a lot of pressure to live up to previous years. For 50 years, the Wesmen Classic was solely a basketball tournament.
Last summer, the University of Winnipeg athletics department announced that the Wesmen Classic would grow to encompass men’s and women’s volleyball as well as men’s and women’s basketball.
The men’s volleyball tourney is the first in what is a planned four-year rotation. In 2018, it will be a women’s basketball tournament; in 2019, it will be a women’s volleyball tournament; and in 2020 it will be a men’s basketball tournament.
“We’re following in massive footsteps of what’s been happening for 50 years as a basketball tournament, and not just a university tournament but a significant Winnipeg event,” McKay said. “The first task we undertook was to try to live up to the reputation the Classic had as the very best tournament in Western Canada.
“We tried to invite the best programs, and we did invite the best programs that Canada has, not just currently but historically.
“The University of Manitoba has 10 national championships and there’s only one program that’s close to them and it happens to be the U of W, with 10 national championships. Between the two of us we have the market cornered, if you will.
“Following that, it was fairly easy to attract teams from all over Canada to come here to play. We’re happy that they all accepted and they are the top programs in Canada.”
U of M men’s volleyball head coach Garth Pischke said it’s a great development opportunity for his young team.
“We need to play games and we’ve had an up and down season,” he said.
“We need to play as many matches as we can and to have five tough matches at this time is going to be great for our development.”