The Dragon Lake Elementary grade 6/7 boys volleyball team took the district title last week, after two nail-biting days.
On Monday (Nov. 27), Dragon Lake hosted, with three teams in the pool including Barlow Creek and Lakeview.
Dragon Lake came out on top after the days’ games, and moved on to day two, which took place at Voyageur Elementary, against Riverview and Parkland.
Dragon Lake again came out undefeated to win the tournament.
“I’ve been coaching grade 6/7 volleyball for 26 years, and I can honestly say that coming through both days of playoffs undefeated is a rare occurrence,” says co-coach Don Schneider.
“Darrell Dinsdale and I co-coached the team, which has been practicing both faithfully and enthusiastically since September.”
Schneider says he and Dinsdale worked hard to teach the boys the “three-hits” style of play, to grow their skills throughout the season. He says his students embraced the tactic.
“We’re really proud that they stuck to the game-plan and played this style of volleyball during both Monday’s preliminaries and Tuesday’s playdowns.”
Schneider says there was one major hiccup that occurred before the competition on Tuesday: one of his players broke his foot when he slipped on the snow in the playground, a few hours before play downs began.
“My heart absolutely broke for him. The only positive in this whole situation was that this student – Harvey Birch – also happened to serve the winning point over the net in our victory over Lakeview on Monday. Our final game on Monday ended with Harvey being carried around the gym by his team mates, and I’m so very thankful that this was how his season ended.”
He says he’s proud of how his team supported each other throughout the season on the court, win or lose.
“They did this incredibly well, by offering each other high-fives, fist-bumps and words of encouragement. And the truly wonderful thing about Monday and Tuesday is that all of our players had moments where they made crucial contributions: effective first passes, clutch serves, remarkable digs, huge tips (or even spikes!).
“Each and every player was genuinely an asset to the team.”