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Courts installed at CentryLink for volleyball...

Posted at 6:18 PM, Feb 11, 2016
and last updated 2016-02-11 19:23:11-05

This weekend, thousands of volleyball players will be in Omaha for the Presidents Day Classic Tournament at CenturyLink.

Before a volleyball court is ready to be played on, it is snapped together, piece by piece.

“Right around 100, 100 folks from our club and friends of friend that come in and do it,” said tournament director Tony Carrow.

His club, Nebraska Elite, is getting the space inside the CenturyLink ready for the tournament.

“It’s one of the top events for the city ever year, we actually will fill pretty much all the hotel room in Omaha this weekend and for that to happen in the middle of February in Omaha is a good thing.”

The courts are put down in chunks and snapped into place by stomping on them.

“We do a lot of kicking, it's a whole body work out as you can see I am a sweaty mess,” said parent Jen Lienemann.

“It's a lot putting down different tiles and tape, but it's worth it,” said player Kate Bilyeu.
The courts would take about 25 minutes to put together.

“So we have a crew that started at 8 putting down carpet underneath it so the tiles stick together, then we have a group that does a starter strip that is the begging of the courts, then we have the next group come in that builds out,” said Carrow.

This tournament will have 424 teams from ages 12 to 18 playing on 40 courts at Century Link, and 12 other courts across town. This is a huge opportunity for players to be seen by college recruiters.

“They are competing for an opportunity to get a college scholarship, we should have over 200 college coaches here this weekend, looking for their next superstar,” said Carrow. 

“It's a great opportunity to play right here in Omaha and we can just have college coaches come watch us, it’s great,” said player Sydney Daniels.

On Friday teams will start to show up in Omaha and the three day tournament begins on Saturday.