For Ben Feist, there's just something about playing professionally on sand that draws in the crowds.
"If you're going to play a sport, why wouldn't you pick the one where you can play on the beach every day?"
Feist, a University of British Columbia alumni volleyball player, wrapped his second year as the organizer of the volleyball tournament at Kelowna's Centre of Gravity sold-out sport and music festival July 29 to 31.
He has seen the festival grow from its inaugural showing four years ago and said this year's was the best to date.
The event started as a volleyball festival in 2007 called Volleyfest. Today, that has grown into a three-day multisport event with an evening concert series.
This year's festival saw athletes come to Kelowna from various parts of Canada to compete in motocross, mountain biking, wakeboarding, basketball, as well as grass and beach volleyball.
"Since the inception of the tournament, it's been running more and more smoothly each year," Feist said.
The Kelowna native who now lives in the former Olympic Village on False Creek has been retuning home for the festival since the inaugural Volleyfest.
"I observe it from the organizers' stand point and then experience it from the athletes' [perspective]," Feist said.
Keeping the hyphen in his titles, the once student-athlete and now athleteorganizer said the dynamics of his position work because he is on both sides.
"I think, if I don't like that, then clearly other players won't like that," he said.
The 31-year-old started playing volleyball at 13, but success didn't come easy. Falling short of making the varsity team in his first year at UBC, Feist and a couple of other relegated players banned together to practise harder and try to make the team the following year. The next season, Feist made the cut. He then played as a UBC Tbird for five years.
"So many people have aspirations to be something great and it's not always in the cards," Feist said. "I wasn't a great beach volleyball player and I just kept playing until I was good."
Since university, Feist has become an annual participant in the pro series at Kits Beach. He placed in the Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»Open beach volleyball tournament. He's also tried on the coaching cap as a team Canada trainer at the 2009 Deaflympics.
Then in 2010, Feist decided the timing was right for a different kind of cap. That of organizer.
With another full-time job on the clock and an August wedding in the works, Feist said he took on the job, however stressful, for one simple reason: he loves it.
"It's hard to do," Feist said. "But if you love the sport you're helping to organize, it makes it very easy."
He added, "Everyone says, 'You look so haggard.' And I say, you know what? I'm doing what I love to do."
Twitter: @kimiyasho
