Another year, another Dawson Invitational Volleyball Tournament (DIVIT) is in the books. The tournament, hosted by Robert Service School, was celebrating it’s 40th anniversary, and according to Peter Grundmanis, executive director of Yukon Schools Athletic Association, the tournament went off without a hitch.

“Hats off to all the staff at Robert Service School for making it such a special event,” said Grundmanis. “This truly is a Dawson school event.”

Throughout the tournament Dawson had days of sunshine and temperature around 8-degrees. This allowed the tournament to have a unique feature.

“I got to Dawson and it was so nice,” said Grundmanis. “So I called some people who hadn’t left Whitehorse yet, and told them to bring the beach net. The net allowed the younger kids to play. We probably won’t make this a yearly thing, next year it will probably be 30 below. It was a complete anomaly.”

Teams from across the Yukon arrived in Dawson last Wednesday in preparation for the games which began early on Thursday morning, going late into the night.

“There is a lot of volleyball played because there is so many games and the school only has two gyms,” said Grundmanis. “Everything went according to schedule. The final game Friday was played at 11:15 and we got finished just before midnight. Again that is a testament to the organizers of the tournament.”

For some schools in the Yukon, the Dawson tournament gives the players a place to showcase their skills, as the communities often only have one team. Grundmanis thinks that DIVIT will hopefully attract more young people to the sport, and all other sports in their communities.

“For some of these schools to travel to Dawson is a once a season effort because it is so far,” said Grundmanis. “We had a combined team from Ross River, Mayo and Faro. As well we had Watson Lake bring up a boys and a girls team.

It was the first time in a long time, they brought a boys team to Dawson.

“We are always looking to attract younger players. What a tournament like Dawson does is build history within the school, so kids will want to live up to that, experience that.”

With the gyms consistently packed with fans, Grundmanis says all in attendance were treated to very high levels of volleyball.

“We know what the Whitehorse teams are, as they have competition to compete against,” said Grundmanis. “The level of volleyball from the Dawson City and Watson Lake teams was pretty high. Dawson always brings consistent good teams.”

Unlike the Supervolley here in Whitehorse which plays best of five sets, DIVIT plays best of three. All in attendance were treated to four championship games, junior and senior boys and girls. The championship games lived up to the billing.

“All the final games were very competitive,” said Grundmanis. “The gyms were packed for all the championships, the atmosphere was great.”

In the first matches on Sunday, the Porter Creek Rams boys and girls junior teams swept the championships.

The senior girls championship game saw the Porter Creek Rams take on the F.H. Collins Warriors. The Warriors, who had battled the Rams tightly in their regular season Supervolley matches, but never managed to overcome them, finally got that elusive win, taking the tournament with a final score of 2-1.

In the senior boys final, the Vanier Crusaders took to the court opposite the Porter Creek Rams. The Crusaders, who went undefeated in their Supervolley regular season, kept their winning streak alive, taking down the Rams in straight sets winning 2-0, in a “great game” said Grundmanis.

With the Dawson Invitational Volleyball Tournament finished for another year, all the teams involved will turn their attention to the Yukon Volleyball