Hawks volleyball look to have strong seasons

Justin Seward
Times Reporter

 

The Holy Cross Collegiate Hawks volleyball teams have many new faces on each of their teams, but the coaches see a lot of poise and dedication to have success on the court this season.
“I’d say the strength is youth,” said Junior A boys coach Tomas Rochford,
“We do have a few big middles which is something we haven’t had before. It’ll be very much a development year because we only have two returning starters. The rest either didn’t play before or they played on the ‘B’ team. It’ll be not quite as strong to start the season as last year.”
Rochford added that with a fairly inexperienced squad that there will some basics techniques taught to the players, and he knows there will have to be patience shown by the coaches in the development process.
“A lot of just starting with the basics,” said Rochford.
“Probably being patient with them as they learn the basics, getting the rotation out … and getting used to each other on the floor for the first month.”
He thinks where the team’s success lies is with their height but cautioned that players will be hitting them more aggressively compared to ‘B’ level, and this is where positioning will be key.
“I think that’s the major thing in progression of volleyball, is it always gets faster,” he said.
“It’s similar to hockey in it always gets faster and the ball comes harder and positional play and technique is so important. If you’re thinking about all that and playing at a high level you’re going to lose because it has to become automatic.”
For Jason Burns’ Junior B squad, his players are eager and ready to learn the sport and are excited to see what that attitude will produce on the court.
“We’re excited,” said Burns.
“I think three or four Grade 8’s are on there, mainly Grade 7’s and they’re excited to get that first game or two under their belt and settle in. We’re going to work a lot on communication with each other, we’re going to work a lot on serves making them count and the big one is service reception to avoid getting pinned in.”
Burns said that the biggest goal will be learning to bump, set and put it over the net, as he is not expecting techniques such as spiking to be perfected just yet.
He hopes that the early tournaments on the road will give them momentum into winning their home tournament in late October.
Senior boys coach John Reinhart will have a few decisions at many positions this year as size at the net will not be on their side compared to previous years.
“Being a little bit shorter from last year, we’re going to have to create some offence,” said Reinhart.
“We’ll still be able to block but we’re going to have to play defense behind the block. If we can create some offense then the other teams won’t be able to set up on us as much.”
Reinhart added the players will learn the senior level fairly quick with the pace of play as the ball will be coming at them a lot faster than in junior high.
“It going to be quite an experience because everything just happens so much slower at the junior high level,” he said.
“There’s not the quantity or quality of hits that you’d see at senior high where you have six players that can hit.”
With the players available on the roster, there will be a feeling out process as to where players will fit in but Reinhart thinks early on in league play will be a good indicator as to who he will go with in matches later on.
“I want to see who’s a player, ” said Reinhart.
“It’s a bit of a feeling out process. I obviously want to win … if we’re getting that success and winning, doing well part way through the season, I’m totally satisfied with that. I want to see who those players are, I want to give those Grade 10’s a chance to get on the court under pressure and learn the systems.”
On the girls side, Alex Hutcheon has seen a lot of growth, which is leaving him with some optimism that the Junior B’s will win games this season.
“There was honestly no rust at all to knock off the chains,” said Hutcheon.
“They were right ready to go. Their skill level is phenomenal for Grade 8 girls for sure. I’ve set the bar high for these guys just from these last two practices.”
His goal for the team is to hopefully win at least one of the four tournaments and it would be a bonus if they can win the home tournament.
Vito Peraino’s Junior A Girls team will have a lot of club volleyball players on the roster this year and it will be quite a strong unit that will have experience on the court.
“The team seems fundamentally sound so far,” said Peraino.
“The fundamentals automatically leads to good team chemistry and when you have good team chemistry, everything comes together after that.”
Peraino added that with the experience gained from the club level the girls are dedicated to playing and the expectations are higher than they were at previous volleyball levels.
“You can see the desire to play,” said Peraino.
“Having a club team in the community has increased the skill levels of the girls that are coming out. I think in the past you might’ve seen Grade 9 girls for example make the team and more of the Grade 8 girls would’ve beat them out but because of so many of the Grade 9 girls playing club this year, there was that big difference in skill level.”
He coached the ‘B’ level last year and said the intensity will be the biggest difference he will see going into coaching the ‘A’ team this season, because of going from teaching a lot fundamentals to coaching more experienced players.
“We’re bringing it up a notch,” said Peraino.
“We’ve already told the girls the intensity is going to be the same thing as it is in club season. We’re going to be pushing these girls to play as if it was a club team. No point waiting until club season to do that, this is a school team, we want to do well as a school, whether it’s a community, Holy Cross or Strathmore.”
The senior girls team are developing into a young, energetic team that have already seemed to gel early on in the season and coach Josh Jalbert is excited to see what the season unveils for the team.
“It’s a fun group,” said Jalbert. “Everyone enjoys each other’s company. We’ve already had a lot of fun in practices, it’s a very upbeat positive team.”
The team has a lot of new players and there will be a lot of systems to go over. It’s a matter of getting girls adjusted in practice because the pace of play is quicker than at the junior high level.
“It’s just getting accustomed to a little bit quicker volleyball,” said Jalbert.
“Our passing especially off the serve, moving our feet a little but quicker, that’s kind of the main thing.”
Jalbert’s main goal for the team is to be competitive at zones and considers that a high point in the season.
Holy Cross Collegiate have created a Junior C girls development league for those who are new to the sport and want to learn the game, and Jalbert is thrilled to give those girls extra gym time.
“I’m really excited about it because it just gives the girls the opportunity to get out and get lots of touches,” he said.
“No one got cut which is awesome and you can develop all these different players. First off, it’s great for these kids to be involved in extracurricular and second of all give them the opportunity to play more volleyball. It’s something that’s really popular in our school.”