Volleyball event’s popularity spikes
The Pacific Northwest Volleyball Qualifier has hit Spokane again this weekend, and, while it’s bigger this year, expect it to grow in 2007 – perhaps even double.
The Northwest’s only tournament that qualifies girls volleyball teams for the Junior Olympic Championships in Atlanta June 28 through July 5, the PNQ is put on by Evergreen Region Volleyball and concludes today.
More than 230 teams have come from Oregon, Hawaii, Colorado, Illinois and Texas – to name a few – and play in age brackets that range from under-13 to under-18. The teams, up from 187 in 2005, play at any of six different locations in the Spokane area, from Whitworth to the Warehouse – located across Hamilton from Gonzaga – to Eastern Washington.
“This is our ninth year in Spokane,” said Russ Poage, director of the PNQ and assistant commissioner of Evergreen Region. “This is the biggest year. We have somewhere between 235 and 240 teams from all over the country.”
Next year’s event should be bigger. There are a total of nine national qualifying tournaments across the country (other locations include Denver, Anaheim, Calif., Dallas, Reno, Nev., and Baltimore), and all but Spokane host both the Club and Open divisions.
The Club division is designed to increase the number of teams who play, but the Open division is designed to showcase a more elite level of talent. Only 28 teams qualify for the Junior Olympic Championships out of the Open division, whereas 48 teams usually qualify for the Club divisions.
Spokane hasn’t had the Open division because it hasn’t had the number of courts necessary to host both Club and Open competition. But with the convention center set to play host to as many as 15 courts at once in 2007, Evergreen Region has been granted its application to host the Open division in 2007, which could double the number of teams that showed up this year.
“I think what it will do is kind of make a complete event,” Poage said. “It gives other teams in this area the opportunity to compete in the Northwest.”
With nearly 5,000 people brought into Spokane for this year’s competition, Poage said next year’s visitors to the region could come close to 10,000.
“We’ve had our application granted and there’s the potential for 400-480 teams,” Poage said. “With 400 teams, that brings nearly 5,000 participants alone (players and coaches). With parents, fans, etc., doubling (the number of visitors) is not out of line.”
The increase in teams means an increase in needed venues, something Poage hopes can be solved by splitting up the event, most likely by age.
“We’re going to be running two (consecutive) weekends in 2007,” Poage said. “We’re going to have 14 to 15 courts at the convention center, 14 at Eastern Washington and six to nine at the Warehouse based upon the possibility of them looking at adding three courts there. We would have the convention center one weekend and Eastern and the Warehouse two weekends.”