There will be several changes to the volleyball tournaments run by the California Beach Volleyball Association at East Beach this year.
For starters, a new tournament director takes the helm. Dillan Bennett, the indoor and beach volleyball coach at Bishop Diego and a longtime CBVA tournament player, replaces the local Arneson family (Eric, Pam and Chad), who ran the adult and youth tournaments for many years at the famed Santa Barbara venue.
In another change, the Tuesday summer youth tournaments in July and August have been eliminated and instead will be spread out over five months and be held on Saturdays.
There are six dates for adult tournaments, including three for men’s and women’s opens and a season-ending “Big Court” tournament in October.
“I’m very fortunate that the CBVA Team was willing to allow me to continue running the number of tournaments we’ve been accustomed to here each summer, thanks to the work of Eric and Chad,” Bennett told Noozhawk. “This is not a typical scenario as new tournament directors are restricted by the number of events they can run as new members of the CBVA. With this opportunity, I want to build these dates into consistent, quality events enjoyed by our local Santa Barbara community, and gain traction among the players from out of town.
“Santa Barbara is such a beautiful place to spend a weekend and, with the help of local sponsors, my goal is to give CBVA members a good reason to make a weekend trip to the Santa Barbara area to compete in CBVA events.”
Bennett said he reached out to the local volleyball clubs and high school and college coaches to come up with a workable schedule for the youth tournaments.
“I did the best I could to find dates for the youth events (boys and girls U12 to U18) that did not land on major events in L.A. Hopefully, we will see growth in those events,” he said.
The youth tournament dates are March 28, April 18, May 9, May 23, and July 18. The May 9 event is a qualifier for CBVA-AVP West Coast Championship.
For the adult events, Bennett said his “main goal is to promote all of our events to the beach volleyball community at-large through social media and in the local press. The Santa Barbara volleyball community has grown so much since I began playing at the adult level through the success of the City-organized Rec Leagues, both indoors and on the beach. The credit there goes to (City of Santa Barbara Sports Supervisor) Jeff Smith and his team at Parks and Rec.
“While the adult schedule may not be the same as it has been locally as of late,” he added, “I believe some of the changes will build participation and attract more high-level teams from north and south of our area to compete, especially with the recent merger between the AVP and the CBVA.
“We will continue to build around our marquee event, the CBVA Premier Tour Semana Nautica Open in late June, while building up interest in our other adult events through the summer.”
Bennett is excited about the big court “Old School Open” on Oct. 17.
The games will be played under the rules from 20 years ago on a full-sized court, with side-out scoring.
“I am a student of that era of the game, and I have taken on organizing an Old School Open with the CBVA,” said Bennett. “I’m hoping to draw teams from all over Southern California to experience what it was like to battle all day until the sun sets (sometimes later) to win a tournament, which is something the rally-scoring era rarely experiences. I believe this event could take off in popularity and become a crown jewel in the CBVA schedule for years to come.”
Bennett said information on all CBVA events at East Beach can be found on the social media platforms Facebook and Instagram.
Bennett can be reached at cbvasantabarbara@gmail.com.
He said he’s “beyond excited” to take on this new role with the CBVA, in conjunction with the City of Santa Barbara, to provide beach volleyball events to the Santa Barbara community.
“While there will be plenty of learning curves for me in the next few summers, I’m looking forward to building off the success of the Arneson Family, who led these events for the last 12 summers. They did a fantastic job of growing the sport at the youth level here, and I hope to build on that success,” he said.
CBVA TOURNAMENTS AT EAST BEACH IN 2020
Adults
Sun. June 7 — Men’s and Men’s A
Sat. June 27 —Semana Nautica M&W Open
Sat. Aug. 29 — M&W Masters
Sat. Sep. 19 — M&W Open, Women’s A, Men’s A
Sun. Oct 4 — Women’s AA, Men’s B
Sat. Oct. 17 —Men’s & Women’s Big Court Open
Youth Tournaments
Saturdays: March 28, April 18, May 9 (CBVA-AVP West Coast Bid), May 23, July 18.