It was a golden weekend in Abbotsford, B.C. for Mark Ritter and his Northern Alberta Volleyball Club (NAVC) Green Bears teammates last weekend, May 13-15.
Ritter, a Grade 11 student at St. Mary School, travelled to B.C. with his team after posting a fourth place finish at the 2011 Alberta Volleyball Provincial Championships April 30-May 1 in Calgary.
This is the second time Ritter has competed in a national volleyball tournament, having gone to Calgary with his club team in 2010. He said the experience is one that never gets old.
“It was fun to play,” he said, adding these events are big and crazy, with a lot of people watching. “It was a good time.”
The tournament started for the Green Bears Friday with three games. In the first game, Ritter’s team took on the Alberta provincial champions, who showed why they were the champs in defeating the Green Bears.
Ritter’s team followed that loss with two wins over Apex from B.C. and the Storm from Ontario, to take second place in their pool and earn a spot in a “power pool” on Saturday, he said.
On Saturday, things did not go the Green Bears’ way.
“We didn’t play so well,” Ritter said.
The team dropped all three of its matches, falling to the Crusaders and 204, both from Manitoba, as well as the Fusion from Ottawa, Ont. That put them in fourth in their pool and relegated them to Tier 3.
“From there we won every single match and we ended up playing the team that got second in provincials in Alberta,” Ritter said.
In the gold medal match, the Green Bears took on the Wolves out of Grande Prairie, and easily defeated them in two sets, 25-18 and 25-12, to win the gold.
That gold medal performance marks the end of the indoor club volleyball season, but it’s not the end of the volleyball Ritter will play this summer.
He said he plans to keep busy, playing club beach volleyball with one of his teammates, as well as taking part in Team Alberta training in July. All that will keep him in shape and keep his skills sharp as he prepares for another round of indoor tryouts in December.
Ritter said he appreciates the work his coaches, Rob Dyba and Shamus Dowler, have put in to make the team successful. With their years of experience and qualifications, the coaches are able to bring out the best in their players, he said.
“You pick up something new at every practice,” he said.
For the upcoming 2012 indoor season, Ritter said he has a goal in mind as to how the team should perform.
“As a team, I think we should finish in the top five in the nation,” he said. “I think we’re on our way. We’ve improved since the beginning of the year.”
