The summer tunes were playing and the beach courts at Rotary Park were filled with student volleyball players during the second week of beach volleyball hosted by the Yukon Schools Athletic Association on Tuesday.

The students ranged from Grade 8 up to the seniors. The courts had either had two-on-two or three-on-three games going on.

All the players had to deal with the elements. The wind was gusting by the river and the sun which had been shining all day began to disappear behind the clouds. Even as the rain began to lightly fall the players continued on.

YSAA president Peter Grundmanis said it was the first year there has been organized school-based beach volleyball.

“Beach volleyball is starting to gain some traction,” said Grundmanis. “I thought there might be an appetite and some support through the school base so I put it on the calendar. Last week we got 35 kids and (Tuesday) we had about the same.”

Of the 35 or so players in attendance, Grundmanis said a lot of them are from the younger grades and that is good for the further development of the sport.

“If you look at the numbers most of it are (Grades) 8 and 9,” said Grundmanis. “Sure Grade 12 coming out is great but they are gone next year which is fine. We want to provide opportunities from them as well. But really we are happy to see the growth in the younger grades.”

Beach is a much different game when compared to court and allowing them to hit the sand allows the players to explore the two games.

“Beach is a real team game, not that indoor isn’t,” said Grundmanis. “Friends work really well together. The dynamics of a beach team are quite different than an indoor team. The kids have a chance to explore that and develop that a little bit. It’s all a big learning curve for all of us.”

The courts at the park are highly visible for the public to see.

“It’s important to grow a sport for it to be visible,” said Grundmanis. “If you’re playing out where no one can see you, you can have all the excitement you want if no one catches on.

“People are driving home from work they see something going on, there’s music, it’s obviously an event. That is one of the ways we promote it as well.”

One team was made up of Grade 8 twins from Carmacks, Autumn and Winter Tricker and said they enjoy coming down to Whitehorse to play.

“We have a few nets but there aren’t too many people to play with,” said the twins while finishing each other’s sentences. “It’s pretty cool (to come to Whitehorse).”

The two sisters said they enjoy playing on the beach compared to indoor.

“It’s better than normal volleyball,” said Winter. “We get to play lots and some of the other kids they don’t really want to play as much as well do and there is two of us that really want to play.”

Quinn Howard said he prefers indoor but beach is a good way to continue his training in the summer.

“This is just fun to do in the summertime and it works on the indoor court,” said Howard.

“This helps with the training for indoor, your jump and everything, it’s really fun.

“You can’t overhand pass so it’s a lot of working on your bump and there is only two of you on the court so you really got to work together well.”

Although he prefers the court, Howard did say that he continues to enjoy beach more and more.

“I definitely did fall in love with it a bit last year. This is just playing around and stuff but hopefully, I get better.”

This was the second week the YSAA has held the beach tournament and there will be two more days coming up.

Grundmanis said the courts are always open and hopefully he will start to see more people using them.