Thousands of young volleyball players in Waterloo Region for OVA championships
Around 750 of Ontario’s best young volleyball players are in Waterloo Region for one of the biggest competitions of the year.
The Ontario Volleyball Association’s (OVA) Championships, for boys and girls under 18, kicked off Friday morning at RIM Park.
“Waterloo Region was actually the birthplace of our festival-style Ontario championships. We started in 2008 with only two divisions,” said the OVA’s Carrie Campbell.
The last time the event was held in the region was in 2022 and it keeps growing every year.
“We had a 21 per cent increase in membership this year for our indoor competitions,” Campbell explained.
This year’s tournament is so bit there will also be satellite games at Conestoga College in Kitchener.
Officials are also expecting 20,000 to possibly more than 30,000 people come through the region for the event.
Big tourism bucks
Explore Waterloo Region said it’s proud to help host the OVA championships.
“When we assessed the 2022 event, we estimated about $7 million in economic impact per weekend. So that's the total amount of money spent by visitors on hotels, food, transportation, which is really significant,” said Allister Scorgie from Explore Waterloo Region.
The parking lot at RIM Park is expected to be jam packed for the next few weekends. To help, shuttle busses will be taking parents from overflow lots nearby.
Grant River Transit is also doing its part by offering free rides for athletes, officials and coaches on competition days.
For the love of the game
Janelle Boyse, a 15-year-old athlete from Ingersoll, has been playing volleyball since she was only six. She now plays for the Stratford Stingers and said she’s proud to be with her teammates at provincials.
Her team won their first three games at RIM Park – including a game against a Waterloo team.
“We've played that team before and we lost so we have a lot of motivation,” Boyse explained.
Shawn Edwards, the Stingers coach, said the team has upped their game in recent months.
“It’s been a great team to coach,” he told CTV News.
Alice Drouindeck, from the Pumas Smashers, travelled from Ottawa to Waterloo.
“We’re all staying in a hotel together since we do live like six hours away,” she said.
Her team won gold last year at the Ontario championships. Since they’ve moved up a division, the team was taking it easy by playing a game between matches to lighten the mood.
“It’s fun to play games with my friends,” Drouindeck said.
The championships continue throughout April. After the five events in Waterloo Region, there will be two further events in Ottawa.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
NEW Is there a cost to convenience? Canada approves new cancer immunotherapy treatment
A new cancer treatment recently approved in Canada promises to cut treatment time down to just minutes, but experts have differing opinions on whether it's what's best for patients.
Air Canada walks back new seat selection policy change after backlash
Air Canada has paused a new seat selection fee for travellers booked on the lowest fares just days after implementing it.
Canada's new dental program offering hope of free care to millions but many dentists aren't signed up
A new Canadian dental care program is offering the hope of free care to millions, but while 1.7 million people have signed up for the plan, only about 5,000 dentists have done the same.
Province boots mayor and council in small northern Ont. town out of office
An ongoing municipal strike, court battles and revolt by half of council has prompted the province to oust the mayor and council in Black River-Matheson.
King Charles III returns to public duties with a trip to a cancer charity
King Charles III will return to public duties on Tuesday when he visits a cancer treatment charity, beginning his carefully managed comeback after the monarch’s own cancer diagnosis sidelined him for three months.
NDP says Ottawa's new grocery task force isn't living up to government promises
The federal government says the task force it created to monitor and investigate grocery retailers' practices has not conducted any probes and doesn't have a mandate to take enforcement action.
A group of Toronto tenants have been on a rent strike for a year and say there's no resolution in sight
Dozens of tenants in Toronto's Thorncliffe Park area have now been withholding their rent for one year, and it’s unclear when the dispute will end.
U.K. police arrest man wielding a sword in east London, 5 people are taken to the hospital
A man wielding a sword attacked members of the public and two police officers on Tuesday in the east London community of Hainault before being arrested, police said.
Archeologists search for remnants of Halifax's 250-year-old wall that surrounded the city
Archeologist Jonathan Fowler is using ground-penetrating radar to search for historic evidence of the massive wall that surrounded Halifax more than 250 years ago.