There’s a brand-new beach right close to downtown Prince George with no water anywhere to be seen.
That suits Isaak Lank just fine.
He’s pumped about the three-court beach volleyball facility built this year at Carrie Jane Gray Park (on the former site of the horseshoe pits) that will serve as one of the showcase venues for this weekend’s 2022 BC Summer Games.
All that soft sand that was trucked in from Purden Lake means soft cushioned landings when Lank dives for the ball on a return and no more skinned knees and elbows from the rock surface at Lhedili T’enneh Memorial Park that used to serve as a beach volleyball court.
The new facility will get broken in this weekend in the 12-team BC Games tournament (six male, six female) and that means Prince George no longer has to take a back seat to the Victoria, Vancouvers and Kelownas of the province, where beach volleyball is well-established on the summer sports scene with proper courts that don’t require first-aid kits.
“It’s beautiful here and it’s awesome in a small city like this that we get something new like this to practice on,” said Lank, who has teamed up with Esme Long, his Duchess Park schoolmate, to form the male team for Zone 8 (Cariboo-Northeast) in the BC Games tournament.
“I think these new courts are going to help a lot more kids get into beach volleyball and hopefully it will be a bigger thing in Prince George.”
Just four players tried out for the Zone 8 male team and Annaleise Receveur and Alyssa Hansen, both of Prince George, were the only girls to sign up for spots on the Cariboo-Northeast female beach team. Receveur, who played for the Shas Ti Kelly Road senior team last winter, says she won’t miss the old courts at the park.
“I’m really excited to use the new venue, we played at Fort George last year and it was really bad, there was Hardly any sand and it like was a gravel pit,” Receveur said. “Now with the new courts it’s much harder to move in but now that we’ve gotten used it, it’s actually nice.”
With just two players on each team, it’s a much different game than indoor hardcourt volleyball
“It’s more of a strategy game,” said Receveur. ”You’re more focused on shots and placement than hitting the ball really hard.”
Receveur started playing beach volleyball two years ago and with Hansen as her partner they had success last year beating 17- and 18-year-olds. The Games tournament is open to beach players 18 and under, so most of their opponents this weekend will be older.
Lank and Long are both 17 years old, while Receveur and Hansen are 16, and all are too old to play in the indoor volleyball tournament at the Games, which is for 15-and-under athletes. The chance to represent their zone in a hometown Games in front of friends and family members and join the parade of athletes tonight at CN Centre at the opening ceremony is a once-in-a-lifetime thrill for all of them.
“I think it will be a really good experience, playing in actual sand,” said Hansen. “It’s going to be fun and we’ll make new friends and it will definitely be a challenge for us, because we’re 16, but I’m really excited. Obviously, a couple of the girls who live in Vancouver have had much more time for training because of the weather, but I think it will still be fun.”
Hansen, who plays high school volleyball for College Heights Secondary, stands just five-foot-two and says her lack of height isn’t as much of a disadvantage as it can be on the hardcourt.
“I play libero in indoor, so playing beach, you get to dive more and it doesn’t hurt as much, and you get a lot of touches,” she said. “Beach is all about smart plays, it‘s not all about the hitting. Being a short player, it’s a lot better to hit better spots instead of just slamming down the ball. We’ve never played in an actual beach tournament, so it will be a good experience for us.”
Lank and Esme had a practice match Thursday morning against the Kootenay team (Ayden Wells and Riley Murray of Elkford) and it was the first time the local team had a chance to play on a 30-foot X 60-foot court using boundaries outlined by nylon bands laid on top of the sand. Before that, they had just drawn lines in the sand for their practices.
“We’ve been practicing on a lot bigger courts, so we have to adjust our hitting and stuff,” said Esme. ”We’re indoor guys mostly so we drew the lines a lot bigger.”
Long likes the fact he doesn’t have to travel to compete in a tournament with the best in the province. He’s never had that chance in his volleyball career. Most of the tournaments he’s played in for the Duchess Park Condors or Prince George Volleyball Club teams involve day-long roadtrips.
“I think it’s pretty cool that all the bigger places are coming to us for once, usually we’re the ones doing the big drive,” said Long. I heard some guys (from another zone) commenting about how painful a nine-hour drive. It’s good to hear that. It’s cool we get to show off what we’ve got here.”
The Prince George club organized a beach volleyball league last summer which brought out a few players but the lack of a facility was a definite hindrance that stagnated growth. The club now has plans for a youth and adult league.
“Last year when I ran the youth league kids were going home with bloody knees and elbows every time because it was more gravelly than sand,” said PGVC director Ben Receveur.
The BC Games tournament starts Friday at 9 a.m. The Cariboo-Northeast boys open at 9 against Vancouver-Coastal, while the Zone 8 girls play the Kootenays in their first match at 10 a.m. The best-of-three matches continue to 5 p.m. Friday. The preliminary round wraps up Saturday with matches at 9 and 10 a.m.
The bronze medal match is set for Sunday at 9 a.m., followed at 10 a.m. by the battle for gold.
All games and events at BC Games are free of charge for spectators.
