Volleyball Source Magazine: Volume 2, Issue #3
Features:
We’re Going World, baby!
Men’s Indoor National team are back in World League.
Silver Surfers
U21 World Championships where a success in Halifax, as the girls brought home a silver.
A Weekend of Firsts at Beach Nationals
New Champions are crowned at Ashbridges Bay.
Quebec Open Delivers beyond expectations
The US and Brazil hog the podium, while the Canadian teams make their mark.
Inside:
It’s been a busy summer for those wearing Canada’s colors - and for those who aspire to wear them one day. Not to worry, as we’ve got the whole scene covered, unlike other media (more on that later). Indoors, we’ve got NORCECAs for both men and women, World League qualifying, Junior Worlds and even the Dutch women’s tour of southern Ontario, which turned out very badly for Sarah Pavan and company.
Outdoors, we’ve got beaching coverage from coast to coast, including events in B.C., Toronto, Quebec and Halifax. We’ve also touched on the London 2012 tune-up, which featured a couple of Canuck pairs.
All our usual contributors are on board, and we’ve added a mysterious ob- server of the beach game who goes by N.O. Vertikal (pun intended, of course). I’ve got one bone to pick before I say goodbye for this time. Most of you are too young to remember that famous commercial that asked, “Where’s the beef?”Yet, it’s obvious that our sport is lacking big time, too, and I wonder if that will ever change.
And who can make it happen?
Maybe you checked out your paper’s sports pages on Sept. 3, a Saturday. If you did, you saw that Canada had smacked Cuba 84-62 in a basketball game with Olympic ramifications and that we had thumped St. Lucia 4-1 in a soccer game that could lead to a World Cup berth a ways down the road.
What you didn’t see in that day’s papers was the slightest mention of a very important volleyball match from the previous day - Canada’s men narrowly falling to Cuba in the NORCECA semi-finals - or of the Junior World Championships (we’re talking beach) taking place right here in Canada. We wound up winning medals in both events, but it hardly mattered - not a word appeared in print.
Not surprisingly, the only media at Beach Nationals was yours truly. It almost makes me wonder if I’m the one who’s missing the boat. Now that I think of it, Mark Heese was a paddler before discovering beach...