Spartans build for future

Times Editor

 

The Strathmore Spartans junior varsity boys volleyball team capped off a successful season with a solid showing at the Zone Championship this past weekend.

The Spartans traveled to Foothills Composite High School in Okotoks Nov. 19-20 for the South Central 3A/4A JV Boys Volleyball Championship.

After placing third in round robin play, the team put forth a valiant effort versus Chestermere in the quarterfinals, but ultimately lost two matches to one.

“It was up and down,” said head coach Darren Jones of the weekend. “We’ve had probably some of the best volleyball we’ve played all year and some of the worst couple of points of the year as well. As far as it goes, I think that was probably one of our best tournaments all year.

“The boys definitely came to play and, you know, that’s volleyball – it’s a momentum game. Sometimes momentum goes the other way.”

After a grueling round robin portion of the tournament, the Spartans were one of six teams to move on to the tournament playoffs. They gave Chestermere a very difficult challenge in the quarterfinals.

Chestermere won the first match, before the Spartans dominated the second match. In the third and deciding match, Chestermere was a little sharper en route to the win.

“The second match was fantastic,” said Jones. “In the third we came out a little flat, and once they get a few points rolling, it’s hard to get the momentum swing back your way.”

According to Jones, the two highlights of the year were winning the High River tournament and defeating one of the top-ranked teams, Strathcona-Tweedsmuir prior to the league playoffs.

“We can play with anyone (when we’re on our game),” said Jones. “They’ve shown me all year long that they can play with every single team we’ve come up against. I don’t think that there is a single team that, if we are on our game, we couldn’t play with and possibly beat.”

That bodes well for the future as the Spartans boys volleyball program is in a rebuilding stage. Jones hopes that most of the JV players will graduate to the senior level and a new flux of Grade 9’s make an impact for next season’s JV squad.

This season was the first time the high school didn’t have a senior boys team and Jones hopes to keep that unfortunate statistic to one year.

“It’s a rebuilding program – I’m not sure what’s coming over from the junior high, but hopefully we have some good kids coming up and hopefully this group stays with it,” said the coach. “I think that they can do fairly well next year (at the senior level). Hopefully all these players will return, and if they do, I know a few of them will be playing club (volleyball) over the year and that should improve them (even more). 

“I don’t think that they’ll have an issue bumping up to senior.”