The Camosun Chargers men’s volleyball team will be hosting the Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) national volleyball championships at the Pacific Institute for Sport Excellence (PISE) at Interurban this month. The championships will take place from March 7 to March 10; Chargers men’s volleyball player and fourth-year Sports Management student Doug Waterman says that, for him, the chance to play at an event of this scale in front of a home crowd is surreal.
“It’s a great opportunity. I’ve been blessed in the past to have gone to nationals, just because I’ve been on such a great team with great coaching,” he says. “But with the tournament being at home court this time around, it’s become such a huge advantage. In a sport like volleyball, when there’s big momentum swings, I think having a home court advantage will be really nice, as well as knowing a lot of people will come and watch us compete. Even if we don’t win the whole thing, it’s just a really fun experience overall.”
Chargers men’s volleyball player and second-year Sports Management student Morgan Humphreys says that there are several advantages when a team gets to play on their home court.
“We don’t really have to travel across the country just to face off against the best teams like we had to do last year. It’s going to be really nice to have our families come out and support us in person for once instead of staying at home and watching from a live stream,” says Humphreys. “It should be pretty packed, considering the women’s nationals last year was a really big success; I heard that this year we’re supposed to have even more support out for ours, which is going to be really hype.”
Humphreys says that although this tournament should be big for Camosun, the college shouldn’t stop there. He says that the best way for Camosun to continue to get student interest in the Chargers and college sports in general is to keep trying to hold larger events like this one and to expose the fact that the volleyball program in particular has a good reputation.
“Our volleyball program is known as a winning program, so the more we can advertise ourselves winning things like provincial titles and going to nationals every year, that’s a big draw,” says Humphreys. “When I came here last year, I was like, ‘Oh, Camosun’s won three provincial titles in a row and it’s close to home. That’s the school I want to be at.’”