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Next Game, Tuesday, 8:30am Calgary time: https://twitch.tv/DohaVB
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We have an opportunity to represent Canada in the FIVB World Beach Volleyball Championships in Doha, Qatar this October.
Our parents have been able to pay for our coaching, training, travel and competition fees this season. Going International will be very expensive.
We are asking for your help to fund the cost of competing in Qatar. Anything you can donate will mean that much less credit card debt for our parents.
Last Year
Our beach volleyball story started late last year. Back in 2022 and 2023 we were teammates in court volleyball and won provincial championships both years. In 2024 we were finally able to partner up for beach volleyball and finished 2nd in a 18U tournament just before the Team Alberta tryouts. Despite being 15U eligible, we made Team Alberta as a 16U pair.
We did well in the Provincials, losing to the team that won Gold and ending up 4th overall. The next week we flew across the country to Toronto with Team Alberta. We met that same team in the Nationals Gold medal round. This time...
We Won - 16U National Champions!
This Year
We are both 16 years old. After competing in the court volleyball Nationals this spring, Chase and I met with our Team Alberta beach coach to plan out our training and competition for this summer.
We would do a couple weeks of intense training and then compete in the Canadian Trials for a spot as Canada's Men's U18 Team for the NORCECA qualification tournament in the Dominican Republic. The top 5 NORCECA teams would earn a spot in the FIVB World Championships in Doha, Qatar.
Toronto Trials Mess Up
But Volleyball Canada moved up the trial tournament date. Our parents had to scramble to cancel and re-book flights and we didn't get much practice time.
We did really well in the trials - didn't lose a set until the last game. In that final playoff game we lost out in the 3rd set. The other team was good but we came home feeling like we were good enough to have beat them. They ended up coming in second to the USA team in the NORCECA qualification tournament.
The Season Must Go On
We went forward with our season plan, setting our sights on winning the Canada Beach Volleyball 18U Nationals.
To get ready for 18U Nationals we trained with the Team Alberta U20 Beach pair and entered Men's Open tournaments. We knew we would get our asses kicked but it was fun using the new skills we were learning, in live competition.
After holding our own in the Vancouver Open qualifiers and the Calgary Open, we actually placed 5th in the CBVA Classic men's division. Other teams were surprised to learn (after we beat them) that we were only 16!
Disaster Strikes
Again we played for Team Alberta Beach this year. Our Provincials playoffs got off to a scary start. Halfway through the first set of the first game, Chase badly dislocated a finger. The on-site medic thought his season might be over!
Chase insisted that they tape it up and went back to play. Eleven consecutive points later, we had won our first set of the tournament! We went on to win Gold - 18U Provincial Champions!
Back to Toronto
The day after our provincial championship win, we flew to Toronto. This time to play in the 18U Nationals. We won 8 straight games, through to the Gold Medal round. Then we lost two really close sets - 2 points each time. We finished one win from our goal, only with a silver medal.
Coming home, we found out that Volleyball Canada is sending a second team to Qatar. They asked if we wanted to go to Doha and play in a Qualifier round to win our way into the FIVB World Championship tournament.
Doha? Qatar? We said ... YES!
Now
We are a much stronger and more experienced team than we were at the Spring trials. We think we can make it through the qualifier round and go on to the FIVB World Championship U18 playoffs. We are so excited!
Of course, getting to this point took a lot of support. We owe a huge thanks to our head coach Camille Saxton as well as Grant O'Gorman and Ben Saxton all from O'saxman Beach Volleyball club. Coaching and opportunities from Ray Sewell and the rest of the crew at Alberta Volleyball has been a major benefit for our development as well. The time, money and belief of our parents was what really made this journey possible, and now we are looking for your support to help make our dreams of playing for Canada a reality!
Below we will have weekly updates on our trip preparation and fundraising progress (including GoFundMe, team apparel sales, tournament earnings and earning from coaching opportunities with younger age groups).
Thanks in advance for joining our team for the journey to the World Championships in Qatar!
Prep (week of August 25th):
After taking a week off, following our 18U National Championships 2nd place finish, we got back at it this week. No time on the sand yet.
This week was getting back into the gym and putting together a schedule for our training leading up to the event. Squats, plyometrics and stretching this week!
We also began our part time jobs to help raise money for Qatar. We are both helping coach a U16 club volleyball team. This is a great opportunity to help out the next generation of players and make a little money to support our volleyball travels.
Training (week of September 1st):
Back to school and back to practice. Summer is over, classes are in, and our beach season is still heating up.
In the sand for three sessions this week. It was a little rusty to start with, but came back quick. Cami is making us work! Med ball block jumps and lots of running. Jake Tucker and Jacob "chappy" Chapman joined us for some scrimmaging practice on Sunday.
We had another coaching session with the u16 club and have been working on designing our gear (to hopefully be available soon for friends and supporters).
Pre-Season (week of September 8th):
The webstore has launched! Thanks to Volleyball Stuff for helping set this up. We have t-shirts, hoodies and long sleeve crewnecks available.
And a huge thanks to our sponsors for jumping on board!
School continued with our first full week. We are both 'part-time' court players with our schools until our beach season is over.
This week we had 2 practices in the sand and then some tournament action on the weekend. Both our high school teams were in the Dinos Cup at the UofC. We were able to play some court on Friday, then on Saturday, competed in the CBVA Sand Blaster 4 beach tournament. Our last gameplay before World Championships! It was a long day with 5 games in the hot sun. Good prep for Qatar. We finished 4-1 and ended up 5th overall . Pretty good finish playing in a 24 team men's division.
Off the court, on Friday, we were surprised and excited to receive notification that we were selected as Volleyball Alberta’s 2025 co – winners of the Male Beach Athlete of the Year. Super thankful to Volleyball Alberta for that recognition!
Training (week of September 15th):
Four practice sessions this week. Lots of game play. We started off with a CBVA king-of-the-court night (which Chase won). The next 3 sessions had some guests come out to give us scrimmage looks. Thanks to Jaxson Thys, Jon Isaacs and Jake Tucker for making an appearance!
Training (week of September 22nd):
Final full week of training in Calgary before the tournament. Some cold and windy sessions. Not likely to encounter those same conditions in Doha, but training with adversity always helps. Ben Saxton and Don Saxton both volunteered their time to help us get ready for the tournament. It was great working with them!
Departure (week of September 29nd):
Last few practices before the flight to Doha. 4 more days of game play scrimmage to get ready for the tournament. Ben M., Matthew D. and Jaxson T. all helped raise the intensity!
We will play an exhibition game against Australia at 6am Calgary time on Monday. Later in the day Monday we will get the schedule and seeding. The tournament starts Tuesday. Please follow us on Instagram for updates on the trip and streaming information. We will also post streaming information here. Thanks again for all the support!
Our games will be streamed on the following Website (twitch channel):
First game of the tournament is Tuesday Oct. 7 at 530pm local vs Ukraine (8:30am Calgary time).
If we win, the 2nd game will be 11:00pm local vs the winner of USA and Lithuania (2:00pm Calgary time).
Co-organizers5
Brad Reinsch
Beneficiary