Mac Olsen
Express Staff
@SmokyRiverExprs
The volleyball season has passed and the coaches for the Georges P. Vanier teams have offered their thoughts about it.
Bob Owens coached the junior girls’ team and he was pleased with their progression during the season.
“They got better as the season progressed,” says Owens. “There were some injuries late in the season, so this impacted their competitiveness.
But I was pleased with their effort overall. They worked hard.”
The junior girls’ team participated in seven tournaments and won their divisional tournament, which they attended in High Prairie on Oct. 29.
They made it to the finals in some tournaments and the playoffs for the rest.
Pam Heckbert, the junior boys’ coach, says the growth this season was amazing, given that the team was made entirely of rookies.
The team won gold at their own invitational tournament on Oct. 15 and took second place at divisionals in late October.
They went to zones in Valleyview in November and finished in the middle of the pack and made the playoffs.
“To finish that well was good,” says Heckbert, adding that she looks forward to coaching them next season.
David Morin, the senior girls’ team coach, commented that they had a very successful season.
“Although the numbers weren’t large, as we only had nine girls come out this season, we had a good season. The girls played well in virtually every tournament we attended, other than one tournament we were missing two girls due to injury and never got our footing.”
The girls picked up two silver medals this year, as they won silver in High Prairie with a hard fought three-set loss to Glenmary, and then another Silver in Valleyview where we lost two very close matches to Charles Spencer.
“We had some other smaller successes throughout the season as we had some semi-final losses against some very tough competition. We ultimately came up just four points short of our ultimate goal which was to get to Provincials.”
The school hosted the AA Zones in Donnelly and Falher and finished his team finished second in round robin pool play, which had them meet up with Glenmary in the Quarterfinal.
“We played well but ultimately loss 26-28 and 23-25 falling short on our goal.”
Darcy Servant, the senior boys’ coach, took stock of the season, saying it was a rebuilding year.
The team comprised Grade 10 and 11 students; there were no Grade 12 players
The team went to a few tournaments and had some fairly good results, but he declined to comment further. However, they learned to play well as a team during the season, Servant adds.
Servant is looking forward to coaching them again next season.
Look for a story about the Ecole Heritage Lynx volleyball teams’ season in next week’s Express.