Cocoa Beach Leaders Want to Build College Sand Volleyball Reputation

Cocoa Beach is known for its surfing, but now it wants to be known for its serves and spikes.

City leaders are hoping to make Cocoa Beach the capital of college sand volleyball.

For the first time, a collegiate sand volleyball tournament was held at Shepard Park beach.

College and university teams from across Florida and the south came to compete at Cocoa Beach.

The sport, which has grown in popularity with the Summer Olympics, became an NCAA emerging sport for women in 2011.

“Actually I was going to play indoor, and then at the last minute I heard beach (volleyball) was starting, NCAA’s new sport and it ended up working perfectly for me,” said Julie Basset, a Stetson University sand volleyball player.

The University of Central Florida hosted the Cocoa Beach tournament.

Even though they don’t have a sand volleyball team yet, they are considering adding the sport.

“Thirteen schools or so started last year and it’s just growing and growing,” said UCF Assistant Volleyball Coach Nicki Holmes. “We expect the NCAA to actually have a championship in two to three years.”

If that happens, Cocoa Beach wants to be considered as a site.

“We’re interested in exploring that with the community to see if Cocoa Beach can possibly become a destination on the East Coast for tournaments, training, for practice, for anything that might be involved with sand court volleyball,” said Cocoa Beach City Manager Bob Majka.

Majka hopes it can put the city on the sand volleyball map.

“That transcends itself into the future, people tend to remember that,” said Majka. “They may be in college now and maybe in 15 or 20 years from now and they’re looking for somewhere to go with the family, they’ll remember us and they’ll want to come back.”

The sport also attracts a crowd, bringing more people to the area.

“It’s just an all-around fun sport, basically hanging out at the beach,” said Kaley Melville, a Stetson University sand volleyball player.

It’s fun to play and fun to watch, and something Cocoa Beach considers a valuable sport as it continues to grow.