Despite limited experience on the sand, Prince George beach volleyball players drew attention to themselves at the B.C. Summer Games last weekend in Abbotsford.
In the boys tournament, two P.G. teams went head-to-head for bronze. In the medal clash, Graham Walkey and Ben Shand defeated Nick Hansen and Nigel Thompson 21-17, 20-22, 15-9.
"I couldn't be more pleased," coach Paul Smith said of the strong showing at the Games. "The boys had only played two tournaments and we went down and were competitive every match. If we would have had a couple things go our way in the semifinals I think we had the potential of having two northern teams in the final, which would have been unheard of. But even just getting third and fourth, and beating Lower Mainland teams and Island teams, was pretty exceptional."
In the semifinal round, Walkey and Shand fell 21-17, 16-21, 15-11 to Fraser Valley players Brodie Hoefer and Colton Loewen. In the other semi, Hansen and Thompson lost by forfeit 21-18, 21-3 to Fraser River duo Matthew Armstrong and Jakob Toews. In that match, Hansen was suffering from severe cramps and had to be taken to hospital to get re-hydrated.
Two other Prince George teams - Jared Apolczer/Jonah Gilbert and Aiden Smith/Christian Schneider - also tested their talents in the beach volleyball competition.
In the gold-medal final, Hoefer and Loewen beat Armstrong and Toews 21-16, 21-15.
Prince George was also well represented in the Summer Games girls tournament. Teams were Clara Temoin and Jynessa Kaulback, and Kendra Potskin and Nicole Watt.
"(Potskin and Watt) pushed one of the top four teams in the first round of playoffs and lost in three," Smith said. "It showed that they were competitive. It's experience. The transition from indoors to beach is difficult but with four teams going to the Olympics for Canada in beach, the sport is only going to grow."
Altogether, this zone had the highest number of beach volleyball players at the Games and all of them were P.G. residents. Locally, there is a beach volleyball court in Lheidli T'enneh Memorial Park and it attracts a fair number of players during the summer months.
"I said I'd show up at the courts (on Tuesday night) and we had 10 kids out," Smith said. "So there are kids playing all the time in town and they're getting better and better.
"Hopefully, as the sport grows, the quality of facilities will improve here. That's the hard thing - access to good facilities isn't here yet but it will come."
