North Pacific Juniors founder Adam Ellis.

An annual event since 1982, the sand at Seaside Beach recently transformed into one of North America’s largest volleyball tournaments.

For four days, between Aug. 8 and Aug. 11, around 1000 players descended upon Oregon’s North Coast from all over the world. The Seaside Chamber of Commerce estimates nearly 40,000 people take in all the spikes, sets and food stands for this long summer weekend.

Another thing that was ever-present over the event is hats and other apparel labeled NPJ, which is an abbreviation for North Pacific Juniors — the largest junior volleyball club in the Northwest. North Pacific Juniors has locations in Salem, Bend, Seattle and Portland.

Adam Ellis founded the club in 2009 and is the senior director and head coach of Salem’s post.

“I grew up playing indoor volleyball,” Ellis said. ““I didn’t start playing beach until I moved up to Oregon. I came to Seaside for the first time in 2003 and just fell in love with beach volleyball. After that I decided I better get good at it because it was a lot of fun.

“Once my knees went out I wanted to start a club to help female athletes use volleyball as a tool for where they want to go later in life. What I’m proud of is every one of our kids who’s wanted to play volleyball in college has done so or is still currently. We’ve sent over 200 kids off to play volleyball on scholarship.”

2024 marked the 20th year that Ellis made the trip to the coast. Whenever his teams are present at Seaside they make an impression. This year was no exception as NPJ won 17 sets and only lost two during the entire weekend.

“I’ve seen this event grow so much in my 20 years coming here,” Ellis said. “The Seaside Chamber of Commerce puts on the event and they do a great job.”

Ellis says what makes the Seaside Beach Volleyball Tournament stand out is the variety of age groups that participate. There’s 12 and under all the way to golden and masters or 55 plus.

“You also have doubles, quads, sixes,” Ellis said. “Where normally it’s just like one specific age group here you’ve got a huge gap from 12 year olds to 55-60 year olds playing.”

With so much to offer it’s no surprise athletes from all over the country come to the coast to experience it. This year saw athletes from not only West Coast states like California, Washington and Arizona, but also players from Michigan and elsewhere joined in on the fun.

“There’s no better place to have a tournament,” Ellis said. “You have over 200 courts from the south side to the north. There’s no place else in the country and very few in the world who will set up this many courts on the beach.”