Chaos volleyball having strong first year

Justin Seward
Times Reporter

 

The Chaos club volleyball teams have exceeded expectations on the court in their inaugural season.
The U14 girls have showed resiliency on the court all season long and it showed at provincials in Rally Pointe in Calgary on April 18-19 and the Ponoka tournament on April 11-12.
“We came in second at our provincials in the round robin and our playoff round we won and that put us into the gold side. We lost that playoff game 15-13, which put us in the fifth place game and everybody played,” said Greg Appleyard. “Then the weekend before that we played in Ponoka in an open tournament and we went unbeaten until the gold medal round and we lost to Sherwood Park, but the girls played amazing.”
He knows the upcoming international tournament in Okotoks will be a true test to see where the girls skill set stands.
“We’re playing all the Division 1 Calgary teams and to make sure we really get a view of how we compete at that level,” said Appleyard.
Then the team will compete in the Nationals from May 14-19 in Calgary where over 800 teams will be participating.
“I’m pretty excited to give these girls the opportunity to experience this,” said Appleyard. “There’s two international matches happening that the ladies team is playing Puerto Rico and the men’s team will play Cuba, which is for all these kids to go watch and witness some of that stuff is a lot of fun.”
Appleyard’s goal at the beginning of the season was to develop players, but with all the success thus far, the team has exceeded expectations.
“The expectation was to create a development program in Strathmore because not everyone can go to Calgary and try to play club ball and trying to find a team,” said Appleyard. “We were overwhelmed with 27 girls trying out and we were trying for 14 or 15 on the U14 side.
“We practice 8-10 hours a week and the growth in the girls has been amazing, it’s all because of their effort and commitment. You touch a ball that many times and we only really got started the third week in January, you’ll really see it going into the school year in that the girls have played so much.”
He has seen many improvements on the court as a result of the amount of practice time the teams have had.
“The thing I try to entrench in everybody is ‘hardwork will always beat talent, if talent doesn’t work hard’ and I talk about that all the time,” said Appleyard.
Meanwhile, the U13 girls played just as well at their recent provincial appearance.
“Randell Breaker coached them, I think they had fun at provincials the same weekend, but they were in Edmonton,” said Appleyard.
He hopes that the girls will continue to bond well and compete hard on the court.
The club will be holding development camps in August for those who are interested in competing at a U13 and U14 levels.