Sierra Shootout/Chuck McCollum Invitational

Placer Valley Tourism is joining forces once again with Sierra College Aquatics to bring two huge high school water polo competitions to Placer Valley on back to back weekends after Labor Day. The Sierra Shootout/Chuck McCollum Invitational will feature boy's teams on Sept. 6-7 and on Sept. 13-14 the girl's teams hit the pools for the fierce competition.

Scott Decker, Sierra College Aquatics Director and Women's Water Polo Head Coach, explained that this has been and continues to be the largest high school water polo tournament in the Western United States with both tournaments capping out at 64 teams this year. Several local high schools will be represented including Del Oro, Granite Bay, Whitney, Rocklin, Roseville, Oakmont and Woodcreek. They also have many teams traveling from Oregon all the way down to Fresno to attend.

In order to accommodate these considerably-sized tournaments and keep a steady flow of games going, they will utilize five different locations: Sierra College Aquatics Complex, Del Oro, Whitney, Rocklin and Rio Linda high school's pools. Games are scheduled to start by 7 a.m. on each day and continue well into the evenings.

"This is the 25th year of the girl's tournament and the 15th year of the boy's tournament," commented Decker. "When it first started, it was only girls and there were only eight teams participating, obviously it has grown substantially and is one of the most popular high school tournaments for water polo anywhere!"

Decker added, "We are proud of the growth of the tournament, as it has helped expand girl's water polo in Oregon and California and we'd love fans to come on out both weekends to check out the exciting action!"