Easter volleyball entries pour in

Positions in the Aitutaki Easter 4x4 Volleyball Tournament are quickly filling up, and teams intending to join the fun are being asked to get in quick or risk missing out.

Three teams from Rarotonga have already signed up for the competition, the first time any have done so since Cook Islands News began sponsoring the event four years ago.

Organiser Rere Mataiti said that there was still room for more Rarotongan teams to join, but positions were filling up fast and they would need to be quick to reserve their spot.

So far, two Rarotonga teams have signed up in the open women’s competition and one in the under 16s boys competition.

Mataiti said he’d welcome more teams from Rarotonga to test their skills against the volleyball-mad people of Aitutaki.

About half the spots in the main competition – the open men’s and open women’s categories – are now taken and Mataiti said the 16 openings in each were on track to be filled by the 6pm deadline for registrations on Friday.

Mataiti warned that the other categories – the 40-plus mamas and papas competition, under 16s boys and girls classes, and under 13s boys and girls groupings – were also filling up.

“As usual, most of the registrations are coming in during the last week and as always the people are looking forward to the Easter competition, which is the biggest competition in Aitutaki to be held annually,” he said. As proof of the building excitement, teams have been seen in training more and more often as the tournament approaches and others have been hard at work creating and designing their uniforms.

By Easter Monday, the teams training and preparations will be put to the test during a long day of volleyball from 9am to about 5pm.

Mataiti said that referees, team captains and team managers are required to meet at Araura College at 4pm on Friday to discuss the draw and the competition’s rules.