No sand? No problem. ACC students bring back ‘Son of a Beach’

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This article was published 25/03/2024 (919 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It might have been below zero on Saturday, but that didn’t dissuade the Assiniboine Community College Students’ Association (ACCSA) from putting on some “beach” volleyball action.

For the first time since 2016, the association brought back its “Son of a Beach” volleyball event.

Started in the 1980s by the association’s much-beloved office administrator Pat Josephson, the tournament served as an annual fundraising social.

While prior years’ events were held at venues like the Keystone Centre and sometimes involved bringing in real sand to enhance the atmosphere, this year’s event was held on the artificial turf of Triple Crown Sports, located in the basement of the main building of the Wheat City Golf Course.

There wasn’t any sand this time around, but that didn’t stop organizers and participants alike from manifesting immaculate beach vibes.

Bearing team names like “To Kill a Blocking Nerd” and “Sloppy Sets,” players wore everything from tie-die shirts and grass skirts to bikini tops and flower gardens. The stairs leading down to the venue had inflatable palm trees signalling the border crossing into summer fun.

Sydney Huston, the ACCSA’s representative from the school of business said she wanted to bring the tournament back partly because she wasn’t old enough to participate last time around and partly because she wanted to bring fun social events back to the college.

“We are starting from the group up again, bringing it back the best that we can,” Huston said. “We really hope this will be the platform for it to just keep building and building and hopefully get back to what it once was one day — and maybe bigger.”

She said that the original version of the event was spread over two days and featured hundreds of teams. This year’s event featured 18 teams, one of which included college president Mark Frison on its roster.

Because the event was arranged on short notice this year, they were unable to find a space that would allow sand to be brought in.

“We’re just on a beautifully mowed lawn instead of sand,” Huston said. “We want to bring summer to March and Brandon because the weather is quite sad and white with all the snow. We want to show people we can still have fun.”

After the games were over, an afterparty was scheduled for the Eagles Nest Lounge upstairs. Prizes were set to be handed out for the top-ranked team, the best-dressed team, the team with the best vibe and more, provided by sponsors like Smitten, The Keg, Supplement King, the golf course and Opa.

Amanda Hamm, the association’s executive director, said she was glad to bring back an event with a long history and said people should keep an eye out for the tournament to return next spring.

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