For 16 years, past volleyball stars have returned to R.F. Staples to team up against the current roster as part of the school annual alumni tournament.
Four teams of alumni girls and three teams of alumni boys, representing teams dating back to 1995, went head-to-head with current players during the tournament on Saturday, Sept. 3.
Perry Kulmatyski has organized the event since the very beginning and hopes to see it continue well into the future.
“After you coach these guys, they become almost like family,” he said. “They just go off into their lives everywhere else and you kind of just wonder what happens and so it really is an opportunity for them once a year to come back.”
On the women’s side Team Boogie, a collection of 2009/10 players, claimed the title, while last year’s senior boys team — the 2010 group that graduated in June — were declared victorious.
Many students make an effort to return to R.F. Staples for the alumni tournament, Kulmatyski said, adding that there was a slight drop in teams this year due to the event falling on a long weekend.
Usually, the tournament has between six and eight female alumni teams and slightly less for males. Despite the decrease in participants, Kulmatyski said he is satisfied.
“We’re really happy with the turnout and next year will probably be stronger again,” he said.
Having the alumni at the tournament gives coaches and players an opportunity to catch up, but also benefits the current players, said both Kulmatyski and Keith Szautner, the senior girls volleyball coach.
“They get to see kids who have gone on. They get to see that you can play volleyball all your life,” Szautner said. “They get to see a different level and they get to see that as you get older, the number of mistakes are a lot less.”
Through his 20-year career coaching volleyball, Szautner said he knows every student that returns for the alumni tournament each year.
After a strong season last year, the coming months could prove challenging for the R.F. Staples Thunderbirds. Both senior squads made it to the provincial championships last year, where the boys lost in the finals and the girls lost in quarterfinals.
Szautner said he is confident that the senior girls team will progress to provincials this season, but is undecided about the boys.
“The boy’s team lost seven or eight of their nine players — they’ve only got one returning — so they’ve got a pretty uphill road,” Szautner said. “And that team last year might have been the best team ever to come out of R.F.”
Having to rebuild the team grants the senior boys an underdog status and progressing to provincials this year might be a “stretch”, said Szautner.
The girl’s team, on the other hand, has a definite shot at heading to provincials.
“Once we get there, it’s tough competition and who knows what’s going to happen, but I think we’ll be very competitive in the zone,” he said.
