EVERETT — It may take a village to raise a child, but it seems like the entire county is pitching in to put on this year’s Class 3A and 4A state high school volleyball tournaments.
With less than two weeks remaining before the Everett Events Center hosts its first non-ice event, dozens of businesses and volunteers are pulling together in an effort to make the tournaments a success. More than 500 high school volleyball players and coaches from around the state will be in Everett Nov. 14-15 for the two double-elimination events.
“This is a large community,” tournament director Jo Levin said. “But it has a small-town attitude when it comes to everyone helping out.”
Area restaurants are donating food to nourish volunteers and officials at the tournament, and are giving discounts to teams while they are in town.
Radio personality and AquaSox announcer Tom Lafferty has agreed to be the tournament announcer.
The Everett High School boys basketball team is installing the four sport courts the games will be played on.
Volunteers are coordinating hospitality efforts, such as an ice cream social the night before the first matches, and the souvenir goodie bags the players will take home as a reminder of their time in Everett.
Parents of players at area schools are selling discount tickets in an effort to make sure there’s a huge gathering.
And the person overseeing this mammoth project is Levin. Levin is a physical education instructor and leadership teacher at Everett High School who has worked with the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association as an announcer at the state basketball tournaments in Tacoma the past three years. She was asked by the WIAA to be the tournament director after Everett was awarded the tournaments last spring.
“I accepted, but then I thought, ‘Oh my gosh, this is big,’” Levin said. “Thankfully a whole bunch of people in this community has helped put it together.”
The WIAA had been looking for a site in Western Washington to hold the tournament. In that pursuit, the WIAA contacted the recently created Everett Regional Sports Commission. The commission is a 20-member panel made up of individuals representing restaurants, hotels and other businesses in the Everett area, along with the owners of various sports facilities in the region.
Daryl Bertholet, from the mayor’s office of economic development, was one of the creators of the commission.
“There’s a national trend that shows sporting events surpassing conventions and conferences as the primary part of the tourism industry,” Bertholet said. “We went to the chamber of commerce and started the commission with the intent of luring events like the volleyball tournament to Everett.”
This will be the first time the 4A tournament has been held outside Spokane, and the first time both the 4A and 3A tournaments have taken place simultaneously at the same arena.
“We just want to make this as special for the players as possible,” Levin said. “Anything from a coupon for a sub sandwich to something they can put in a scrapbook when they get home.”
Even though there are just two spots for Western Conference teams in the 4A bracket, several of the conference’s schools are helping spread the word.
Coaches without teams at the tournament will help run scoreboards. Parents of players on the Marysville-Pilchuck, Snohomish, Stanwood and other area school teams have been selling discount tournament tickets.
“The quality of volleyball will be very high,” Levin said. “It’s family entertainment for two days, and it’s cheaper than a movie.”
One of the primary benefits to holding the tournament in Everett — aside from a boost to the local economy — is the potential windfall of fan support for the local teams. When the 4A tournament was in Spokane, distance and the need for overnight accommodations limited the number of fans from the west side of the state.
“There have been a lot of obstacles in the past for students to come support us,” Marysville-Pilchuck coach Shelly Johnson said. “Now students don’t have to solve the problem of getting to Spokane and finding a place to stay the night. There should be great fan support for the Wesco teams at state.”
Johnson said the Wesco players also should have a performance edge.
“Having it so close has to be an advantage for teams on this side of the mountains,” Johnson said. “We finally got used to traveling over to Spokane. It’s going to be great for the kids to sleep in their own beds.”
The WIAA will evaluate the efforts of Levin and her staff and determine whether Everett will host the tournaments in 2004. Bertholet said he thinks that’s little more than a formality.
Chris Beatty writes for The Herald in Everett.
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