Announcement
In the Warm Sands...
It was another glorious day at Sunnyside Beach in Steilacoom , Saturday July 13th, during our final day at the beach in July for ball control training. Initially the sun teased us a bit by playing hide and seek behind a few clouds. But by the time we started the tournament portion of our ball control training, the sun finally opened it’s sleepy eyes and came out to play with us on the sandy courts of it’s namesake, Sunnyside Beach. Even the tide, after realizing the Power Surge kids were there, decided to come in and greet us along it’s gentle emerald shore with a cool and soothing breeze of Aloha.
Besides us volleyball die hards, there were a couple groups of SCUBA divers, and Steilacoom’s natural wildlife creatures of the land and of the sea. Tiny crabs, lots of them, patrolled the water’s edge, some wrapped up in the prolific green seaweed there, looking like scrumptious crab musubi. During a break the girls found a few flat pieces of interesting seaweed with fine scrubbing bristles that looked like a handy wash cloth, most likely used by the little mermaids to exfoliate their shiny slick skin. This is a place where the imagination knows no bounds, where dreams are conceived with a soft kiss, and small beginnings incubate in the warm sands of Sunnyside’s beach volleyball courts.
And speaking of beach volleyball courts, it was amazing, it was tiring, but it was also tons of fun playing in sand. You know what you want to do, you believe you will get there, but just before you reach the ball, you find your face flat in the sand often nowhere near the ball, like someone reached out of the sand and held onto both your feet. And jumping, what jumping? But that’s the gift of playing in sand. It develops strong legs, it forces you to read your opponents better, and, because you’re almost always off balance, it helps you to constantly make the fine and necessary adjustments you need to make in order to pass the ball to your target. That’s why we train in the sand at least once or twice during the summer.
We had tons of fun with ball control school, but the main entree for the day was the family doubles tournament. Although we had a few new teams and new players, the outcome was the same. Ron & Emily Beach (Father and Daughter) won the doubles tournament again. Congratulations for another well-deserved win in the sand.
The format was a little more challenging this time. After pool play we had the top 4 seeds play each other (1 vs 4, 2 vs 3) in a single elimination set to 15, no cap, switch at 8. The winners then played each other in the finals. Team Beach almost got knocked out in their semifinal match by newcomers Madi and MacKenzie, the #4 seed. But Team Beach prevailed in the end, coming from behind to win in overtime by two points. The other semifinal match was also very tough, where Ella Ragazzo and her mom Donna, the #2 seeds, also won by two points in overtime, defeating Kyleigh Sebastian and her Dad Terry, the #3 seeds. Congratulations to all the teams and especially to the teams that made the playoffs. Great effort!
