The R.F. Staples JV boys volleyball team capped their year with a gold medal at the Alberta School Athletics Association (ASAA) North Central Zone Championships.
Hosted at R.F. Staples Nov. 3-4, the boys defeated the Morinville Community High Wolves in a hard-fought final Saturday evening to claim the zone championship. Playing at the same event, the R.F. JV girls managed to finish fourth.
In the final the boys lost the first set to Morinville, but scored back-to-back wins, capping the match 15-9 in the third.
“That final was really crazy,” said JV boys head coach Aaron Deas. “I did not expect it to go to a third set. They really surprised me.”
In round robin play, Morinville beat both Westlock and Barrhead, while Westlock defeated Barrhead to finish second in the three-team tourney.
R.F. Staples then handed Barrhead another defeat in the semifinal to advance.
Deas said he was particularly impressed with his team’s growth, pointing out that spectators could tell the difference in play from their first home-tournament appearance Sept. 29-30 to their gold medal finish this weekend.
“You can see a huge difference in the way we played. The boys really took it to them,” he said.
While the taste of gold is sweet, Deas noted that the development of the players was the main goal and on that front he was very happy with what he saw.
“We have some young guys that, even though they’re the youngest ones on the team, I think that they really stood up and took on a leadership role,” he said.
“These are different boys in the school that don’t usually hang out with each other either, they’re now much closer because of this tournament.”
Across the court, the girls side of the tournament was considerably more competitive with seven teams entered.
R.F. Staples finished fourth in their pool in six games on Friday and Saturday, losing to Barrhead, Morinville and Parkland.
In the quarterfinal, the girls came up against Parkland and played the hardest they have all season, said head coach Denise Sturkenboom.
“It was a really good game. I think that’s where we gave it our last bit (of energy),” she said.
In the bronze medal final versus Barrhead, the girls lost in two sets as fatigue had set in.
Still, Sturkenboom said she was happy with their performance, noting they were down to seven players from the usual 10 due to injuries.
“They definitely gave it everything they had; they played the best that they played (all season) this weekend,” she said.
Overall, Sturkenboom said the team improved a lot throughout the year.
“Starting out in our first tournament, we didn’t do so well, and now we came out fourth. So that was really good,” she said. “That’s more of what a coach want s... to get better by the end.”
The zone banner was eventually claimed by Morinville who defeated Parkland.
