Hope Springs eternal as school captures first provincial title

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This article was published 08/12/2010 (5723 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The significance of winning the first provincial championship in their school’s history was definitely not lost on the members of Springs Christian Academy’s varsity boys’ volleyball team.

“I was aware that the closest we ever got was third a couple years ago,” said Grade 12 setter Josh Simard, who was named the tournament’s most valuable player as the Eagles soared to the AAA provincial title in Virden on Nov. 27.

“It was great for the whole school. Everyone was excited for us. It felt good to come back with the banner. We got a great welcome.”

It was first MHSAA championship banner for the private St. Boniface school, which was founded in 1989.

Head coach Richard Wiebe, a former member of the Canadian national volleyball team, said the excitement over the win was still reverberating through the school last week.

“The school is so pumped right now,” Wiebe said. “The athletes knew the gravity of what they had just accomplished.”

After finishing the round-robin portion of the tournament in second place in their five-team pool, the Eagles were matched up against a formidable quarter-final foe in Calvin Christian.

“No one could remember the last time we beat them,” Wiebe said.

But after Springs won a close first set, the coach said he could see a change in his team’s demeanour — a change that lasted until the final point of the tournament.

The Eagles went on to win an ultra-close three-set semifinal over Linden Christian — the top-ranked team through most of the season — and avenged a round-robin loss to Sanford with another three-set win in the final.

“They honestly believed they could do it,” Wiebe said. “The motivation was there, the effort was there, and it allowed me to take a step back and let them go.”

Playing all three elimination games on the same day certainly tested the team’s endurance, but Simard said the last thing the Eagles wanted after their quarter-final upset was to sleep on it.

“I think it helped (to play three matches in one day),” he said, “because we started off strong and we were able to keep that momentum. It just transferred to each game, and we knew we couldn’t lose.”

It also didn’t hurt that one of the team’s strengths was its depth — an easy thing to exploit in a tournament that calls for a lot of volleyball in a short period of time.

The Eagles were able to use a lot of players, keeping everyone fresh as they entered the knockout portion of the tournament.

Wiebe said he had to tell his players to rest between games instead of walking around and wasting energy.

“There was so much adrenaline at that point,” he said, “fatigue wasn’t going to be an issue.”

Simard, who has attended Springs since he was in kindergarten, described the celebration immediately after the final point as “surreal,” with players and coaches storming the court.

“Everything was just going right,” he said.

The Eagles will be the team to beat next season, as Simard is the only graduating player on the roster.

“It meant a great deal to me,” Simard said of winning a provincial title in his final season. “I knew it was my last year, and I had to lay it all on the court. I’m just really impressed with the team. It was pretty great.”

avi.saper@canstarnews.com