Last week, over 160 athletes from across the province joined together to train and compete at the 14U Baden Cup. These athletes were selected from their regional tryouts amongst all other 14U athletes to participate in the camp. The 14U Baden Cup is a progressive large scale training camp which introduces athletes to their first glimpse of high performance and begins to pave the path towards Team BC.
This year the 4 day camp occurred on June 28 – July 2nd. Athletes started off the camp for the first day at Spanish Banks Beach where they were introduced to Beach Volleyball. With over 17 courts the athletes trained and competed in a King/Queen of the beach tournament in the afternoon. Temperatures were extremely hot and those with sand socks thrived into the afternoon. Athletes were lead by Head Coaches: Craig Moore and Maverick Hatch. Some fun activities during the day included: volleyball training, team scavenger hunt, sky ball competition, and a King/Queen of the beach tournament.
The next 3 days moved indoors to the Richmond Olympic Oval where athletes trained over 6 courts. These sessions were lead by Head Coaches Bryan Gee and Drew Venables. Athletes were introduced to new skills such as back row attacks, double and triple blocking, and specialized serving.  Other off court volleyball components the athletes  participated in were: “Mindset of an athlete” – classroom session with Doug Reimer, “Technical Warm up techniques” – session with Darrin Moreira, “Video Breakdown & Tactics” – classroom session with Alym Makhani, and most importantly – our “Speed Spike” competition!
The event ended with the “Baden Cup Tournament” where teams competed against each other to be crowned the Baden Cup Champions. The winners of the girls tournament was team: BC All Stars and the Boys was Team: #3! Spirit awards were given out to athletes from each team.
Overall the camp was a huge success. A big thank you goes out to all parents and athletes for attending as well as all the coaches for making this camp possible. See below for pictures from the camp. The whole album is below or can also be seen by clicking here.
