Campbellian Middle and Senior School

Page 99

teams from: Aughnacloy, Drumglass, Dungannon, Holywood Steiner, Lismore, Markethill and Strangford. The C team of Harry Latimer, Matthew Davidson, Pablo NavarroLazaro, Henry Wilson and Louis Matchett-Griffiths narrowly lost out to Markethill High School in the 1st Semi-final, while the B team of John Harrison, Ethan Yandall, Dominic Clear, Eddy Wolsey and Ewan Bailie lost out to the A team, consisting of Harvey Whiteside, Jake Bodels, Conor Watson, Matthew Johnston and Josh Tipping. The A’s went on to win the title, comfortably defeating Markethill. Harvey Whiteside was awarded player of the tournament; the icing on the cake of a league and cup double. The U16 Squad was arguably the strongest group of players that Campbell has ever had at this level. Matthew Rodgers captained a side containing Niall Burton, Zac Wilson, Joshua Jordan, Hugh Cunningham, Justin Savage, Rory Butler and Harry Dobbs. They breezed through the group stage of the U16 League without dropping a set, and defeated Markethill in the play-off semi-final before a disappointing performance against Craigavon Senior High left them as runners-up in a season when they had hoped to go one better.

The U16 Cup was again held in Lisburn Racquets club. Campbell entered 3 teams, with the year 9 & 10 players making up the C team, in an attempt to gain experience at this level. This led to the upset of the day, when the C’s defeated the B’s in the Plate quarter-finals. Campbell’s A team reached the semi-final, where they met a Carrick Grammar side coached by OC Conor Doherty. Carrick caused an upset by defeating Campbell 28-26 in a tense match, leaving us to reflect on what could have been, while Carrick went on to win the Cup by defeating Lismore in the Final by 16-14 in the deciding set.

The U18 League season was one of rebuilding in preparation for the Cup. There were no expectations of success for this squad at the start of the year, but they proved themselves to be capable volleyball players. A large squad of players meant that the U18s were completely independent of the U16s for the first time in several seasons. Led by Paddy Fleetwood, the squad of Max Johnston, Thomas Armstrong, Oliver Doherty, Constantin Schreck, Jason Li, Omar El Alfy, Matthew Reel and Peter Barton built up an excellent team spirit. The team started badly, losing to Lismore in the opening match, followed by a heavy defeat to Portadown College, but soon we began to work well: in particular the setting of Max Johnston combined with the power of Schreck and Fleetwood, and the formidable blocking of Peter Barton resulted in wins over Larne, Armagh, Lurgan, Methody and Dalriada leaving the team in joint second place in the final table. Their best league finish for several seasons. The U16s joined the group for the Cup, with Burton and Rodgers joining the older players to make a strong team capable of challenging Portadown College for the title. A strong second team was also

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