Hawks get revenge while soaring to JV volleyball title

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This article was published 24/11/2010 (5525 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Sometimes a loss is more valuable than a win.

For the Mennonite Brethren Hawks junior varsity boys volleyball team, losing in the Kilcona Peguis Athletic Conference final two weeks ago to the Miles Macdonell Buckeyes may have been the wake-up call they needed to spur themselves to a provincial title.

The Hawks, ranked No. 1 in the province for most of the season, responded by going on a tear in the provincial tournament and avenging their defeat to Miles Mac (25-19, 25-20) in the Nov. 20 final in Brandon.

“I think after the KPAC final we decided we had to start practising harder and putting more work into it,” said team co-captain and provincial tournament MVP Josh Olfert. “We wanted to finish the season off properly.”

Olfert, a 6-foot-3 left side from St. Vital, said the provincial title was a clear goal from the start of the season for a team that has played a lot of volleyball as a unit over the past four years.

Most of the roster, which consists exclusively of Grade 10 students, has been intact since Grade 7.

“We were an extremely talented group,” said coach Ian Livingston, an MBCI grad who played on the school’s last JV championship team in 2002. “They had some really good coaches from the last several years. One thing they had going for them was that they all had older brothers who were good volleyball players and they’d been exposed to it for a long time.”

The biggest challenge the coach faced throughout the season was convincing his team — which won four of the five tournaments it entered — that the No. 1 ranking didn’t come with a gift-wrapped trophy.

“It’s kind of a curse to be No. 1 all year,” he said. “It’s hard to keep young kids motivated when they’ve been winning all year.”

No one knows how the provincials would have played out had the Hawks breezed to a KPAC title, but the loss to Miles Mac certainly refocused the team as it prepared for Brandon.

Olfert said he got the sense “everyone was on the whole weekend,” with an intensity level that hadn’t been shown all year.

The coach was especially proud that his team saved its best performance of the season for the more important match.

“It was a real big celebration because of the style we won in,” Livingston said. “It was bar none the best we’ve seen the group play.”

After swarming the court in victory, the Hawks went in search of a restaurant for a victory meal. As it turns out, there aren’t a lot of restaurants in the Brandon able to accommodate an unannounced group of dozens late on a Saturday night, so they settled for a “victory Big Mac” at the nearest McDonald’s.

“So far yes, it was the best McDonald’s meal I’ve had,” said Olfert.

Adam Schriemer and Jordan Fiddler were also named tournament all-stars for the Hawks along with Mike McMurray and David Bommersbach of Miles Mac, Nolan Parrington of Dakota and Matt Fehr of Steinbach.

On the girls’ side, Neelin beat Lord Selkirk in three sets to win the championship.

avi.saper@canstarnews.com