On June 6, the beach volleyball court in Hespeler Park saw a renewal of activity as fans and players kicked off the first games of the season. Running from June until mid-September, the local league will play every Thursday night from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. Two teams from Niverville and one from Île-des-Chênes round out the league.
Coordinator Andrew Maronese and his wife Chelsea decided to make Niverville their home just over a year ago. A volleyball enthusiast, he coached a Niverville Junior High team this past winter. He also played in a Winnipeg league himself.
“Apparently these courts haven’t been used in a few years,” says Maronese. “I was talking to Niverville Recreation and they were excited that it was coming back. It seems like there’s lots of interest in the area. Apparently Niverville is a very big volleyball town.”
It was at a Steinbach volleyball tournament that the idea for a Niverville league was born.
“Talking to a few people there, they said, ‘It would be nice to have a beach volleyball league,’ so I thought, ‘Why not start something here?’” Maronese says.
In spring, Maronese put out a call on Facebook and was pleased with the response. Since then, the Niverville Beach Volleyball League’s Facebook page has attracted about 75 members.
Registration is closed for this season, but he hopes the site will garner enough interest over the course of the next few months to grow into something bigger. Currently, the teams are co-ed with 9 to 10 players on each.
Games are played six-on-six, leaving plenty of subs on each team to allow for players to away on vacation over the summer months. Players range in age from eighteen to mid-forties.
Maronese says there’s little difference between beach and court volleyball except for the lack of grip since the game is played barefoot on a sandy surface.
“For co-ed, we’re playing on a lower net so there’s some [different] rules with that,” he adds. “Guys can only hit back row instead of front row and some other rules.”
He intends to keep the games competitive by providing a prize for the winning team at the end of the season.
With registration closed, Maronese invites interested individuals to come out and join the spikeball tournaments every Tuesday night throughout the summer.
Spikeball is similar to volleyball in that players use bump, set, and strike techniques—but the game requires a smaller ball and has fewer team members. The goal of the game is to spike the ball against a horizontal net, using it like a small trampoline, towards the opposing team, but with strategies to prevent them from returning the ball.
Once the ball is served, there are no sides. Players have 360-degree access to the net.
“It’s two on two, but there’s no boundaries, so you can rotate around [the net],” Maronese says. “It’s very active and free-flowing… Last week, there were three nets going. We had one on each side of the court and one on the grass.”
If interest in beach volleyball and spikeball really takes off, Maronese imagines a lot more possibilities in the future, like the introduction of men’s, women’s, and youth leagues.
“If we can get this growing, then maybe we can convince [the town] to put in a second court and grow this a little more and get a little more competitive,” he says.
Maronese also intends to check on school gym availability in the hopes of initiating an adult winter volleyball league.
