The centennial celebration of the birth of beach volleyball comes to an unofficial but fitting end this week with the second Pac Rim Championships in Waikiki. The majority of the three-day event will take place at Queen’s Beach, the historical birthplace of the sport as documented in 1915 when Outrigger Canoe Club captain Dad Center put up a net during a calm malie day of no surf and played with Duke Kahanamoku.
"We’re super excited about our second event," event founder Kevin Wong said. "We’ve doubled the numbers in terms of juniors (ages 14-19) and people coming from the mainland.
"We’re combing it with clinics with some of the best beach coaches out there. People will see what the beach scene is here in Hawaii and we’ll have our best teams here in Hawaii playing at Queen’s, the birthplace of the sport."
Friday’s clinics are open to boys and girls, ages 13-18. The morning session features USC’s Anna Collier, who coached the Women of Troy to last May’s AVCA national championship, and University of Hawaii assistant coach Evan Silberstein. The afternoon session features UCLA coach Stein Metzger and U.S. Olympic coach Dane Selznick.
UH is also involved with Friday’s "International Competition" at the T.C. Ching Athletics campus campus courts. Besides pairs from UH entered are reigning AVCA national champions Kelly Claes and Sara Hughes from USC. UCLA’s twin sisters Megan and Nicole McNamara representing their native Canada and the duo of Miki Ishii and Megumi Murakami representing Japan. The ability for the state to host successfully bodes well for a potential bid to host the NCAA championships, the first opportunity for a two-year bid being 2018-19. (Gulf Shores, Ala., site of the past three AVCA championships will host the first two NCAA championship tournaments).
Wong’s brother Scott, former UH head beach coach, had begun the hosting discussion before taking the indoor job at Pepperdine last January.
"I’ve got very strong feelings about why it should be here as well," Kevin Wong said. "It’s where the sport originated, there has been so much success by players from here who have played at and continue to play at the highest level. It would be a good fit for Hawaii.
"We appreciate the teamwork with UH. They’re one of the vanguards of beach volleyball in college."
Among the junior pairs entered are a number that participated in last weekend’s third Hawaii Prep Beach Volleyball Championships. The state tournament featured 60 teams representing 24 schools from three islands.
In an all-Punahou final, the varsity boys title went to Jameson McKibbin and Ryan Wilcox over DJ McInerny and Kana’i Akana, 21-19, 21-11. La Pietra won its second varsity girls title with Peri Green and Jessica Akiona outlasting Punahou’s Savana Greene and Aria McComber, 21-14, 17-21, 15-11.
FRIDAY
At Queen’s Beach
>> 8-10 a.m.: Serve, pass & defensive youth clinic, with UH coach Evan Silberstein and UCLA coach Stein Metzger
>> 3-5 p.m.: Offensive and defensive strategies youth clinic with USC coach Anna Collier, Olympic gold medal coach Dane Selznick
At UH campus courts
International Pairs Competition
Hawaii, U.S., Canada, Japan
>> Matches at 6, 7 and 8 p.m.
SATURDAY
At Queen’s Beach
Collegiate/International Pairs Tournament
>> 8 a.m.: With Hawaii, Arizona, Canada, Chaminade, Hawaii Pacific, Japan, UCLA, USC
Juniors Tournaments
>> 8 a.m.-10 a.m., noon-2:30 p.m.: Boys.
>> 10 am.-noon, 2:30-5 p.m.: Girls.
SUNDAY
At Queen’s Beach
Collegiate/International Pairs Tournament
>> 8 a.m.: With Hawaii, Arizona, Canada, Chaminade, Hawaii Pacific, Japan, UCLA, USC
Juniors Tournament
>> 8 a.m.: Boys & girls.
On the web
>> PacRimHi.com
