The Vancouver draft has come and gone, teams have been decided, and we’ll get to them in due time. But now it’s time for the co-Main event! It’s time for the NBVL Calgary to get it’s share of the limelight.

The Calgary beach scene may not be as well recognized as where we just came from, but they more than make up for it in enthusiasm. The Owners, Athletes, and of course the Beach YYC have been extremely receptive to the NBVL, and having shown a willingness to go the extra mile to see the beach volleyball community rise to new heights in Calgary and beyond.

The teams will be well represented, and we’ll go into detail on each of them over the next few weeks. For now we’ll introduce them as we announce tonight’s Draft order that was decided earlier in the week via coaches call. So without further ado, your teams making their debut for the NBVL Calgary Season:

Tonight will be a be the start of a new experience for most, if not all of the teams and players at the NBVL Calgary’s Combine and the Draft. So it will be difficult to say where the cards will fall, but let’s have a little fun and take a stab at it, shall we?

Due to long winters and a strong indoor volleyball scene, Calgary’s players will be predominantly athletes coming from the hardcourt, but there is by no means a lack of beach talent. At the top end, there are more players with international beach playing experience here than in the NBVL Vancouver, but two of the strongest women’s players are taking an Ownership role and can’t be drafted. This could affect the draft in a couple of different ways. Either there will be a rush for the top end men to be chosen early on to counter balance the rosters, or else the remaining Owners will be desperate to get the remaining top end women to stay competitive on the women’s front.

Since I am only doing 1 mock draft, here’s which scenario I predict will play out for the first round of the 2020 NBVL Calgary Draft:

1. CBVA selects Scott Lahey – Knowing that the women’s opponents will be guaranteed tough competition, taking Lahey depth of experience and talent would be a step towards trying to assemble a dominant male half of their team for the 2020 season
2. ACE selects Jarron Mueller – Following CBVA’s lead, ACE won’t want to get lost on the weaker end in both the male and female side of things. Jarron has the skill and physicality to compete against anyone, and would make a good building block for any team.
3. Dome Defenders select Luis Castillo – Camille Saxton had a strong case to be the top pick overall, were she not a player/owner, so I think the Defenders will look to complement her with a solid player with NORCECA experience in Castillo. Someone who already has a history with Volleydome training groups.
4. PlayBeach selects Colton De Man – Not wanting to get left behind, PlayBeach will close out the all male 1st round, with another top male prospect. Since PlayBeach has the unique case of missing their 2nd and 3rd picks due to Moppett-Beatch and Mike Funk’s involvement in PlayBeach, their next pick won’t be until #13, so they can’t afford to miss out if the men are being snapped up early on.

I’m a little less familiar with the players in Calgary, so for all I know this could be way off, again it’s only a prediction. Regardless, I’m very excited to return to the city where I learned how to play the game, and to bring a new way of playing it with me.

Athletes start arriving for the Combine tonight at 5:00 PM MST

Then the Draft, including a live stream on Volleyball Source youtube channel starts at 8:PM MST