Yukon volleyball players had plenty of opportunity this past weekend to refine their skills at the annual Early Bird high school tournament.

The tournament is always a popular draw for athletes in the sport and in addition to the three Whitehorse school's had participation from both Haines Junction and Dawson City.

There were no medals, trophies or ribbons handed out at the Early Bird volleyball tournament, however it allowed all for valuable game experience for participants.

The format of play used involved teams playing either to a best of three sets or up to an hour timeframe.

"It's that typical Yukon scenario where we don't get a lot of games, so this is just a chance to play a little bit," said Al Foster, coach and one of the organizers for the Early Bird tournament.

"It's essentially like a glorified scrimmage really and it's just a chance to see where your strengths are and try kids out at different positions, that type of thing. Then you can go to league play now or go to tournaments and have a pretty good sense of where you want your players to be."

The two-day tournament was open to both Grade 9 and 10 as well as Grade 11 and 12 squads.

This year's tournament was also special for the boy's Grade 11 and 12 teams from F.H. Collins and Porter Creek secondary schools, which will both send a team to the upcoming UBC High School Invitational volleyball championship.

Foster, who is the head coach on the boy's team from F.H., said he is excited about the UBC tournament.

"The line I gave my boys at the end of the tournament was 'I wasn't very excited about going to UBC Friday night, Saturday night I am much more excited,'" he said.

"They started to gel and play a lot better. I am also excited too because both ourselves and Porter Creek have really good athletes.

We have some really high quality basketball players, soccer players, that type of thing, so their fitness levels are really good. For a long grind out tournament, it's good to have that fitness level."

The team is leaving on Thursday and Foster said both it's special that both schools are competing at the UBC tournament.

"We have such a small community here and when we go on this trip, yeah we will be playing for two different schools, but we are really going kind of as one unit," he said. "What we have here is just so special and unique and this just speaks to it again.

When two schools can go down in such a co-operative manner and the fact that we are going to scrimmage together just goes to show that there is a bigger picture here when it comes to sports and life."