Shaftesbury volleyball squad serve resiliency

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This article was published 03/12/2021 (1642 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

After a year-long break from the court, the Shaftesbury High School Titans set their sights on a triumphant return.

“They’re resilient. A lot of the time we’re going into the fifth set because we get knocked down early but manage to come back throughout the game,” head coach Daniel Gussakovsky told The Sou’wester before the team’s final game regular-season game on Nov. 18.

“When things are tough, they manage to step up. I think that’s one our strengths that’s unique to this team.”

The AAAA boys’ varsity volleyball team finished the season with a 21-25, 22-25, 21-25 win over the Portage Collegiate Trojans, securing the third place in Tier 2 of the West Winnipeg Athletic Conference.

Gussakovsky, who has been coaching for six years, said the skill level across the league is similar, allowing for “neck-and-neck” games.

“On any given night anybody could win,” he said. “It’s been good for the players because it’s been competitive and helped them develop skills.”

Left side and power player Brendan Driedger credits the team’s chemistry for their improvement over the season.

“At the start of the season, we weren’t doing that good, but as we got deeper into the season we started jelling more,” the Grade 12 student said.

“In practice, everyone’s working hard and everyone’s friends with each other so that helps on the court.”

It was assistant coach Andreas Davison’s first year supporting the Titans. Games have been close, he said, with nine of 12 going to the fifth set.

“This season was a lot of just going back to the basics,” Davison added. “Pretty much the first month of practice was learning everything over instead of trying to improve since we had a full-year loss.”

It was exciting for the team and coaches to get back into the groove of things after the COVID-19 pandemic halted in-person sporting events.

The Titans have done “relatively well” despite the setback.

“Last year we tried coaching at the very beginning of the season everything shut down in October,” Gussakovsky said.

“It was a routine in the end, and when you disrupt that routine, it disrupts your day-to-day life. We’re finally kind of getting back into the routine of things here.”

Getting back into the game after a year-long hiatus was difficult, right side and centre player Joe Scarpino said.

“We would’ve had a good team last year but COVID kind of ended that,” he added. “This year, we lost a lot of guys — all the Grade 12s from last year, which would have made up most of the team — so we had a couple Grade 9s and a couple Grade 11s.”

Scarpino said the coaches set up their defense well, and well team has a “hustle” that helps them “change and adapt” to their opponent.

The Shaftesbury High School Titans boys’ varsity volleyball team last won the league championship two years ago.