GO SABRES GO! BY KYLE NYSTAD, SENIOR SCHOOL ATHLETICS COORDINATOR Back in 2010, a very young and inexperienced, Stratford Hall senior girls volleyball team attended the Western Canadian Independent Schools Volleyball Championships for the first time. Also attending the tournament, were well established and historic independent schools, such as St. John’s-Ravencour from Winnipeg, Crofton House from Vancouver, Notre Dame from Saskatchewan and the tournament hosts StrathconaTweedsmuir School in Calgary. Facing such renowned volleyball company, I wish I could tell you this was a story of a plucky underdog team that everyone counted out rising to the occasion and achieving shocking victory. Alas this was not the case. From the very first point of the tournament to the very end we were thoroughly outplayed in every aspect of the game. While our opponents were jump serving, running back row attacks and doing speed sets to
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the leftside hitters, we tried to ensure we were in the correct rotation. We may have even finished the tournament having serve received more volleyballs using our face then we had spikes for kills! While the experience was humbling to say the least it served to open the team’s eyes to the heights at which volleyball could be played at the high school level. It also motivated our coaches to help our athletes reach those heights with the Stratford Hall volleyball program. After that initial foray to WCISVC, Stratford Hall took a four-year hiatus from the tournament. During this time, the process of building a volleyball program that would support success at a higher level began. Our first athletes began to play club volleyball, and attend summer camps. The coaches would attend clinics put on by VolleyballBC in Vancouver
and Gold Medal Squared in Seattle, seeking to deepen their technical understanding. In 2014, Stratford Hall would make a return to WCISVC hosted by Notre Dame School in Wilcox Saskatchewan. Although the outcomes of the games were no different, the quality of volleyball played by Stratford Hall was significantly better. Last year the team traveled to St. Michael’s University School in Victoria seeking that first elusive win at WCISVC. While there were many highly contested matches and close sets that first victory remained out of reach. Nevertheless, our athletes once again demonstrated that all the hard work and time put into practice was paying off with a much more competitive and confident Stratford Hall team taking the floor.