One kind of net has been put away, and another one is just getting broken out.
Yes, with volleyball season over, it’s time for our proud cagers to take to the hardcourt and bring some basketball glory to Barrhead.
But before we get ahead of ourselves, it would be a good idea to look back at all the hard work our volleyball teams put in to do their school and the wider community proud over the last three months.
Now, we mustn’t focus solely on the last matches they played, for that would downplay all the good we saw from the boys and girls who pulled on their Gryphons uniforms and went out there game in and game out to do their best.
Looking at the senior boys, there are two ways to look at their fourth-place finish at the provincial tournament in Medicine Hat. On the negative side, it was a disappointing end to the team’s three-year reign atop the province, especially considering the team failed to make the gold-medal match.
Yet, taking a longer view, it’s a mark of sustained success that the boys finished the year as one of the top four schools in the province for the fourth year in a row. Sure, it’s not gold this year, but three golds and a fourth-place finish in four years at the provincial level is nothing to sneeze at.
And the senior girls. It would be accurate to say being eliminated in the first round of provincials in St. Paul had to be disappointing, but that would ignore all the team did leading up to that point.
This is a team that received a body blow right when the season was getting started with news teammate and friend Heidi Peters was diagnosed with cancer. To have used that news as motivation is a sign of true success.
To have survived that news, and to have gone on to win their zone and qualify for provincials is truly remarkable. So while they may not be champions on the court, the senior girls are champions in the only arena that matters — life.
And let’s not forget the JV boys and girls. Playing under the radar beneath their senior Gryphons brethren, these young athletes put on a show of their own.
Double gold. That’s what the JV Gryphons did this year.
The girls, hosting the zone tournament, beat back their rivals from Westlock for a stirring title.
The boys, also at home, defeated all comers en route to their own gold medal.
It was quite the volleyball season in Barrhead this fall. Four high school teams, four zone championship banners ready to be hung in the gym.
Let’s see the cagers top that.
