“For anyone who ventured onto the beach in Seaside last Saturday, there was a treat in store for them there,” the Signal wrote in August 1982. “The first annual Seaside Lifeguards Beach Volleyball tournament was in full swing. Volleyball enthusiasts and casual observers were treated to a variety of games and a variety of talent in the tourney, and it was a smashing success.”

In any other year, this would have been the week of Seaside volleyball. But due to the coronavirus pandemic, volleyball players and fans are benched.

The tournament found its origins when Seaside High School student and volleyball fan Debbie Hauger received a Rotary scholarship for a year in Argentina. She brought back the idea for a beach volleyball tournament in Seaside.

“She was a lifeguard on the beach, and she talked to the lifeguards and a couple of other people into turning out this beach volleyball idea,” longtime tournament volunteer Doug Barker recalled. “That’s where it got its start.”

Hauger approached volleyball aficionado and Seaside Chamber of Commerce member Steve Hinton to successfully solicit donations and equipment from local businesses.

The first tournament took place Sept. 4, 1982, drawing 57 teams from Oregon, Washington state and California, with 215 competitors in doubles and traditional six-person teams. Players on the top three teams in each category received prizes donated by local merchants and sponsors.

The next year the tournament grew to two days and expanded divisions.

The tournament grew in popularity each year, expanding in 1983 to two days and added divisions, operating under the supervision of the Seaside chamber.

“After the third year, they turned it over to the chamber and the chamber’s been running it ever since,” Barker said.

The sport’s national surge in popularity didn’t hurt.

“What really set it off when volleyball became a team sport in college and was adopted in the Olympics,” Barker said. “All of a sudden you had all these teenage girls, 10 to 18, who really got involved in it.”

That audience is still the majority of people who come to the tournament today, he added.

By 2008, the event distributed $19,000 in prizes and participation of professional quality college-age athletes.

The tournament celebrated its 30th anniversary in 2011, with 975 two-person teams and 1,600 players from all over the world that competed on 115 volleyball courts for cash prizes, setting the world record for the “Largest Beach Volleyball Tournament,” according to World Record Academy.

By 2012, the event drew between 8,000 and 10,000 participants, a number that has grown since.

In 2016, Bad Boys Open Volleyball partnered with the chamber to oversee organization and management of the tournament.

The “bad boys” — organizers Deng Thepharat, Mike Griffin and P.T. Thilavanh — brought more teams, national sponsors, streamlined play and more age groups to play. A smartphone app enabled players to receive net assignments digitally.

Since managed by the chamber and sponsored by the AVPFirst and AVPNext divisions of the AVP Pro Beach Volleyball Tour, the tournament contributes to a national pipeline for youth, semi-pro and professional beach volleyball.

Last year, the tournament featured about 1,600 teams playing among three divisions, including doubles, quads and sixes. Organizers put up 184 volleyball courts on the beach, about 20 more than in 2018.

This year’s contest is past, but players and organizers hope to continue the tradition next year.

“Please keep practicing, playing, and staying active,” chamber CEO Brian Owen said in a Seaside Volleyball website message. “We’re looking forward to hosting you and your team in what will be an amazing event in 2021! We are looking forward to seeing everyone Aug. 12 to 15, 2021.”

Founder of the event Deb Hauger distinguished herself well beyond the volleyball court: she attended George Washington University, earning a degree in political science and beginning a career in public service.

She served as a Latin American affairs policy adviser to the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs committee before she died of a heart ailment at the age of 34.

Hauger was named to the Seaside High School Hall of Fame in 2006.