Cougars have a great season

Justin Seward
Times Reporter

 

The Crowther Memorial Junior High School Cougars volleyball teams both had successful volleyball seasons, as both teams were able to make it to the zone tournaments.
The boys team went to the very end of their zone tournament as hosts, only to lose in two sets to the Ecole Okotoks Junior Ocelots. According to coach Brad Huntley, the silver medal showing was nothing to be ashamed of.
“The boys came into the tournament with an undefeated match streak over the previous two tournaments. They always stayed humble but you could definitely see and feel an optimism that this year just might be the year we could win zone,” said Huntley. “Although they were disappointed in the loss, they never let down. As I told the boys, ‘you didn’t lose to yourselves; you lost to a very good team.’ They just ended up with a few more points than us.”
The most noticeable attribute that was seen by the team was their teamwork, as they never gave up.
“The biggest strength the boys had that day was their teamwork. There were several moments where our backs were against the wall and it was up to the boys on the court, and the other players cheering from the bench, to pull themselves through,” said Huntley. “There were three key game-changing moments that come to mind in this tournament that, if handled differently, would have saw our team receiving a third or fourth place medal. Instead, I was privileged to observe a maturity not often seen in junior high sports.”
Huntley admitted it was a real honor to watch the progression of the boys throughout the season.
“The biggest strength of our team this year was our team spirit and our team personality, it really was the dream team to coach. I didn’t have a single negative personality on the team, everyone looked out for and supported one another. It was some of the most fun I’ve ever had coaching any team,” said Huntley.
“There wasn’t much that I wasn’t proud of for this team. If I had to choose one particular thing I was most proud of, I’d have to say their perseverance during the zone tournament. They hit several big roadblocks that would have crumbled most teams but these boys showed their strength that day.”
The girls team showed some signs of what their capabilities were on the court, but still needed to work on consistency.
They made the zones in Brooks where they finished third in their pool, but played some tough teams and were defeated early in the playoff round.
“It was a tough group of seven, very strong volleyball teams. We finished third in our pool, and were eliminated early in the playoffs, but during the round-robin, we forced many of our best of three matches to three sets,” said coach Chris Iversen.
“The girls played well in nearly every set they played, but we just didn’t consistently get the break we needed on the scoreboard.”
He was really impressed with the teams hard work and improvements made in every match.
“Overall, it was a very good season. We saw big improvement in all of our players, from our experienced veterans to our rookie alternates,” said Iversen.
“My biggest goal as a coach is to see players develop and improve, which is definitely what happened this year.”
He really liked the fact that his team was able to still have fun playing volleyball and really being able create a bond.
“Their ability to just have fun and enjoy themselves playing volleyball. We had numerous timeouts during matches, where we could laugh and joke, and enjoy our time together as a team, even when things weren’t going our way,” said Iversen.
“After those disappointing matches, where the players were unhappy with a loss, they were able to shake it off quickly, and not let it bother them, and move on.”
It seemed at times that the girls did lack some consistency and had to battle through a lot of matches.
“At every tournament this year, they had one or two matches, where they played amazing, passers were passing the ball accurately to our setters, making it easy for them to make a nice set for our hitters to make a great attack, just like we had been working on all week in practice,” said Iversen. “Then in another match, not so much. But that is the nature of coaching a team of young people, inconsistency is part of the game at this level.”
Both teams will look to be stronger and aggressive come next season but otherwise they had very successful seasons.