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The Tybee Open on the Extreme Volleyball Players Tour is circuit organizer Ross Balling’s “favorite event of the year.”
The Tybee Island Tourism Council on Wednesday ensured the island will contend for that distinction again in 2013.
The group approved contributing $7,500 toward the host fee for the event, clearing the way for the local organizer, the Greater Savannah Sports Council, to sign a contract with the EVP Tour.
The tournament attracts visitors to the island and promotes Tybee as a tourism destination. The event is filmed, and a highlight show airs on cable sports networks around the country.
“This is one of the most consistent events in terms of marketing the island with its beach theme,” said board member Keith Gay during the group’s regular monthly meeting on Wednesday morning. “And it has tremendous potential to grow.”
Interest in the EVP Tybee Open has doubled since its debut in 2010. Sixty teams participated in the semi-pro tournament in the first year; the field grew to 136 teams this year.
And with beach volleyball’s main professional circuit, the AVP Pro Beach Volleyball Tour, under new ownership after having gone through bankruptcy earlier this year, the field should be bigger — and more talented — in the future.
“The AVP was basically defunct this year, with only two or three tournaments, and many of the players other than the elite Olympians trickled down to this series,” said Ben Wilder, director of the Greater Savannah Sports Council, the local organizers of the event.
Local participation in the EVP Tybee Open continues to grow as well. Club Savannah, founded in 2000 to grow the sport locally and develop young players, had close to two dozen teams from its ranks participate in this spring’s event and expect more entries for the 2013 tournament.
And the club’s involvement led to word-of-mouth advertising within the volleyball community. Several out-of-town clubs, including those in Atlanta, entered teams in the 2012 event.
“It was a last-minute thing this past year; we put little into it, and it just blew up,” Club Savannah Director Matt Linebarger said. “And the pros did a nice job of interacting with the club players.”
The 2013 EVP Tybee Open is likely to be played on Mother’s Day weekend, May 11 and 12, on courts set up on South Beach near the Tybee Pier and Pavilion.
ON THE WEB
Visit www.evptour.com for more information on the EVP beach volleyball circuit and www.savannahvolleyball.com to learn more about Club Savannah, the local volleyball organization.
