Lake County leaders

serve up committment to a volleyball complex — and the tourists they hope the site will attract.

Lake County will add $2 million field house to 21-court complex

Taking its commitment to a niche sport a notch higher, Lake County is committing up to $2 million in tourism taxes to build a field house for a 21-court beach-volleyball complex in hopes of attracting more and larger tournaments.

The 4,000-square-foot field house is considered an important addition to the facility at the 68-acre Hickory Point Recreational Facility along Little Lake Harris, about 30 miles northwest of Orlando.

The beach-volleyball complex opened in 2014 in an effort to distinguish Lake for its sports tourism. It’s a partnership between county government, the Florida Region of USA Volleyball and the Lake County Water Authority, which owns the park that also features nature trails, boat ramps and barbecue grills.

“This will help with the growth of high school and collegiate beach volleyball,” said Steve Bishop, president of the Florida Region for USA Volleyball. “It will have a concession area dedicated space, a pavilion, dedicated training rooms.”

The volleyball courts, which are also open to the public, were built with about $400,000 from a 4-percent tax collected on hotel and motel stays.

“Right now, it’s the thirdlargest dedicated sand-volleyball complex in the U.S.,” Bishop said. “It is certainly the largest in the state.”

Lake officials are hoping to capitalize off the burgeoning sport, which had its first NCAA women’s college championship last year. Beach volleyball has about 65 NCAA teams, including Stetson University in DeLand and and Florida State University.

“We always wanted to be what Omaha [Neb.] is for the College World Series of baseball for women’s beach volleyball — and the fieldhouse is part of that,” said Adam Sumner, Lake’s economic development and tourism manager.

Since its opening, teams from more than 90 Florida cities, 19 states and 14 countries have competed at Hickory Point Beach, generating an estimated $1.6 million in economic impact.

“Our goal is to bring in the bigger tournaments that are going to generate the overnight room stays,” Sumner said.

Having Bishop, and his connections, based in Lake has gone a long way toward gaining officials’ confidence in the project, he said.

“The president, his office is in Lake County — they’re in Eustis,” Sumner said. “He and his staff are at Hickory Point almost daily.”

In three months in 2014, the patch of grass was transformed.

About 500 truckloads of sand from a sand mine in Astatula transported enough sand to fill two Olympic swimming pools.

Bishop, who has also said it’s the biggest beach volleyball complex in the Southeast, has helped attract the U.S. National Beach and the RoxVB Volleyball Series National

championships to Hickory Point since its opening.

Later in the summer, a U.S. men’s Olympic gold medalist in beach volleyball will hold a clinic there, he said.

“The crème de la crème is still the NCAA national beach championships,” Bishop said. “That’s been awarded now through 2022. Our next target is obviously going after conference events at the collegiate level.”

At a recent meeting, Lake County Commission Chairman Tim Sullivan praised Bishop and his team “for supporting our efforts in the sports and tourism world, which is a big part of our economy moving forward.”

He added, “If you have not experienced the beach volleyball and what they do, it’s pretty amazing.”

American women’s volleyball won accolades on the international stage in recent summer Olympic games. At the London 2012 Olympics, Team USA women’s volleyball duo, Kerri Walsh Jennings and Misty May-Treanor, won their third consecutive gold medal.