Some of the top youth volleyball talent in Canada arrived in the Queen City to take part in the 2026 Canada Cup. Taking place at the Bunge International Trade Centre (BITC) until Sunday, 14U and 18U players from across the country are taking part in the event, which Regina is hosting for the first time. A total of 49 teams competed, representing nine provinces and one territory. While they have competed in the Canada Cup in the past, Prince Edward Island, The Northwest Territories and Nunavut were not able to send teams this time around. “Our sport has grown tremendously, especially since about 2021. We’ve seen double digit growth across the entire country in the sport,” said Dawna Sales, the director of athlete and coach pathways. “It’s a game that parents and youth are all enjoying across the country. We have our national championships, we had over 1,900 teams participate this year, and that’s just a fraction of the teams that exist throughout the country in every community.” The Regina Hotel Association and Saskatchewan Volleyball submitted a successful bid in order to host the event at the BITC. “I think what we’ve seen is that we’ve seen Saskatchewan Volleyball really embrace every community,” Sales said. “We have a lot of small communities in the province who have club programs going. The university programs here have seen some success; we see athletes coming through those programs in the club system here. But really, it’s about consistency, and running programs consistently year after year.” A unique element of this year is having two ‘All Nations’ teams that represent First Nations communities, with 25 different communities listed across a men’s and women’s team. There is also the Canada Cup red and white teams, typically ages 15 and 16, that have specifically been chosen to represent Canada through the national team program. Those athletes have competed this week against older ages. A number of those players will go to the ‘National Excellence Program’ in September, for both men and women. “Certainly for a lot of the athletes, physical capacity and being physical is a big part of our game,” Sales said. “But it’s also their skills and what they’re bringing to the table, their coachability, competitiveness, those types of things.” Traditionally, the Canada Cup has between 48 and 53 teams in total, according to Sales.
