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Home > Articles > Intercollegiate Sport > Queen's players to appear on world beach volleyball stages
Queen's players to appear on world beach volleyball stages
Posted: April 30th, 2013 @ 7:35pm
By CLAUDE SCILLEY
From a city known more for its rocky limestone waterfront than any semblance of sandy shoreline, you might not expect a university program to be a pipeline for world-class beach volleyball players.
This summer, however, the world may come to see Queen's University as a special place for nurturing the requisite skills for the sunshine version of the game.
Canada will send three teams to various men's beach volleyball world championships this summer. Of the six male athletes, four are in or have passed through the varsity program at Queen's.
"To have six Canadians involved in those competitions and have four of them be (from Queen's) is pretty rewarding for us," Gaels coach Brenda Willis said, "but it's a reciprocal thing. We're thrilled to have them involved at that level."
Aaron Nusbaum, who just completed his second season with the Gaels, will play at the under-21 world championship in Umag, Croatia, June 20-23. His partner will be York University student Grant O'Gorman.
Will Sidgwick and Will Hoey will represent Canada at the world under-23 championship, June 6 to 9 in Myslowice, Poland. Hoey just completed his freshman season at Queen's; Sidgwick, who played three seasons of intercollegiate volleyball before taking last year off, plans to return to Queen's in the fall.
Queen's grad Sam Pedlow, a five-year Gael, will team with O'Gorman at the World Student Games in Kazan, Russia, July 6-17.
Playing on the big stage is not a new phenomenon for these athletes. Nusbaum and O'Gorman won bronze at the under-19 world championship in 2010. Hoey competed at the world under-19 tournament last year. For Sidgwick, this will be his fourth appearance at a world championship. Pedlow and O'Gorman will be competing in their second FISU tournament.
It's not by random chance that Queen's players tend to be well suited for high level beach volleyball. The characteristics that make an athlete a good candidate to play beach are the same things Willis seeks in potential recruits.
"I'm a big fan of ball control," Willis explained. "I think a large portion of the errors a team makes are because they can't control the ball accurately and at the rhythm they want.
"It doesn't matter how athletic you are. If you're not able to put the ball where you want, you're going to have problems."
It takes a long time for a player to develop the skills that lead to good ball control, Willis explained, and beach volleyball is an excellent setting for doing so.
"You think of the fact that it's a full-size court, with only two players, and there are three touches (on each side), everybody's touching the ball pretty much every time," she said.
"The volume of repetitions is so high, you can't help but develop better ball control and court awareness - where the two defenders are, how much court you have to manage. You have to come to very quick conclusions."
Willis said she's always been a fan of beach volleyball, and supports her athletes' interest in playing it. There's a reciprocal benefit, she believes.
"I do really like players who, if they see an opening and they want to put a ball there, they have the repertoire of shots and the ball control to do that," she said. "It's our style of game to some extent. "Guys who've played beach like that.
"So many of our players have such good ball control, they go to the beach knowing they're going to be successful."
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