The Last Ten Matches of Durham Attack 18U Black

Its been a great experience, the past 5 years, as we have watched our 1991 girls develop into amazing young women. Starting at 14U, under the guidance of Evan Williiams, who is also this year's head coach, they have dominated volleyball in their age bracket in Ontario and in Canada, with a string of Provincial and National Championships. As the team breaks up this summer most will be attending universities in Canada and the U.S. under athletic scholarships, to pursue the next stage of their volleyball careers, and to prepare to go out into life to accomplish equally great things off the court.

There is a USA volleyball article, written by their technical director, that basically says "your kids won't remember whether they win or lose, or the score of this match or that. They will remember the time spent together with teammates, that time in the hotel, the funny thing that happened in the restaurant, the times spent together." And its true, the five years of volleyball has gone by in a blur, and the memorable moments are the fun times spent with athletes, coaches and parents on the thirty or so road trips the team has made. The girls have worked extremely hard together and faced intense pressure, and through it have forged strong friendships that will last long beyond their volleyball days.

So it is with some sadness that I write this final article and close the club volleyball chapter on the girls of Big Black. Ali and Jen will be back for 18U next year, and the rest we hope you follow in their university careers.

2009 Nationals

Enough sentimentality, the girls had a job to do. They prepared all season to achieve their final goal - to win their fifth straight National Championship and close out their club careers with a perfect provincial and national record. Coached by Evan Williams, Ian Eibbitt and Lindsay Gosse, they pushed hard all year and overcame some huge obstacles that reduced their active roster by two. The team did volleyball-specific physical training each week under Mike Slean, and many players did their own workouts on off days. Ian did mental training with each player throughout the season. And they did numerous teambuilding exercises, ranging from random acts of kindness year long, to a search and rescue operation in real fire gear, and scavenger hunts and the Amazing Race designed to keep them loose before big tournament days. And they did all this on top of the time commitment and pressures of grade 12, university entrance requirements, recruiting and university visits, and time off to be teenagers.

So we set off to Nationals knowing we had done all we could to prepare, but cognizant of just how difficult it is to win at the 18U level. Winning Nationals has gotten increasingly difficult each year. An Ontario team has not won women's 18U Nationals since 1999. Last year's 17U final was a tough 30-28 victory in the second set, and we expected this year to be even tougher, with some of the top players in Canada no longer playing up a year, and bolstering some of the top teams in the country.

Day One - #10 - Griffons (QC)
We opened at 7:30 at Aberdeen Pavillion, which meant on the court at 6:30 to warm up, our earliest match ever. Unfortunately the hotel we were staying in was in disrepair, with many of us having problems with our rooms (such as no hot water in the shower). To make things worse none of our parking passes would open the doors to the parking garage, and we were delayed 20-30 minutes.

Luckily our first match was one of the easier ones. It was still pretty dark in the building when we started at 7:30, and some balls just plain disappeared from sight in the glass skylights and dropped on the court. We had a good start against a smaller team called the Griffons from Quebec and won 25-10, 25-9.

#9 - FSJ Ice (AB)
Next up was FSJ Ice from Fort St. John, AB. The Ice have a big, 6'3" outside hitter who touches 10' 2". She is a great hitter and scored some points, but we coasted to a 25-12, 25-18 win.

#8 - BCO Elite (BC)
To close out day one we went back to Carleton to play BCO Elite from Vancouver BC and came out with a 25-21, 25-14 victory.

The team went out for a nice Italian dinner and then afterwards the coaches ran a teambuilder called The Amazing Race. Though popular with the parents, for some reason it was not too popular with hotel management.

Day Two - #7 - Peel Selects (ON)
Day Two started with an 8:30 match back at Aberdeen Pavillion. We drew our first Ontario team - Peel Selects, who had pushed us to a tie-breaker in one of the OVA tournaments. We played a solid match and won 25-20, 25-13. This match was watched by a number of Ontario university coaches, and quite a few scouts from other teams. In fact there were always a few people charting our team or shooting video while we played.

#6 - Oasis (BC)
Next up was Oasis from Abbotsford, BC. We played this one back in the Carleton main gym, and won 25-17, 25-22. Again more scouts and video, with the Wesmen paying particular attention.

#5 - Winnipeg Junior Wesmen (MB)
Our final match of the day was against Winnipeg Junior Wesmen, a great team run by the University of Winnipeg program. The University of Winnipeg head coach had scouted our matches and knew our team inside out - every offensive tendency and every defensive weakness. They developed a plan and executed it consistently, and we lost our first match of the year 24-26, 25-19, 13-15. They simply dug too many balls we hit, we let too many balls drop without adjusting our defense, and we made too many serving errors. We could have had this one but for a few too many errors, but hats off to Wesmen who have some really strong players and who executed their plan well.

Many teams left the gym assuming we would win, and they were surprised to learn their gameplan for tomorrow was turned upside down. Forest City videotaped the match, assuming we would play them in the morning. They had planned to use the same game plan as the Wesmen. As it turns out they used the tape to help them beat the Wesmen on Day Three in the quarters.

With the loss we finished 2nd in our power pool and had another 7:30 am start. But the loss was a good thing. Every player left the gym extremely angry that they had been beaten. It was a very quiet ride back to the hotel.

Day Three - #4 - Aurora Storm (ON)
The loss meant that we faced a very long Day Three with four matches, and that we would face our Ontario rivals Aurora Storm in the pre-quarters. When the Aurora girls found out that evening that we had lost they were 'sick to their stomachs' as we had already played them 4-5 times this season. So we entered the gym at 7:30 to commiserate with the Aurora parents. Aurora played great ball in set one and were up mid-set, but could not finish it, and we won 25-23. We continued to push hard and won the second set 25-12.

Aurora has been our strongest competitor for the past two seasons, and it says a lot about the clubs, the coaches, the parents and the players that we can fight each other tooth and nail every tournament, with no animosity, and through it have developed many strong friendships. Some of their girls stayed for part of the day to cheer our girls on. Thanks Aurora!

#3 - Pakmen (ON)
Next up was another familiar rival from Mississauga. Ms. Pakmen have been getting stronger through the season and we knew we could not take them lightly. Bolstered with a couple of strong 16U players from Defensa, they put up a tough fight and didn't give up. We won 25-23, 25-18.

#2 - Fraser Valley (BC)
Which brought us to the semis against the perennial BC powerhouse Fraser Valley. FVVC is coached by the coaching staff of Trinity Western University and has medaled at 18U each of the past six years. We played them in pool play last year in Ottawa and in the power pool at 16U in Calgary. This year's team was much tougher. We were pretty fired up and came out strong, to an 18-12 lead. But then things started to happen and we accrued enough errors for them to catch up, pass us, and close the first set 23-25 in their favour. We continued to make errors in the second set and were down 17-10, facing elimination. As tradition has it, this is a team that you do not want to back into a corner, that never gives up, and has in the past dug deeper than any other team when the chips are down. Opposing coaches will simply say the team 'knows how to win' better than anyone else. They fought back to 23-24 and at set point for FVVC we had a huge stuff block that went straight into the floor. The gym erupted. We won the next two points to close out the set 26-24. With the momentum on our side we powered through the tiebreaker, changing sides at 8-4, final FVVC timeout at 11-7, and won 15-8.

It took everything we had to win this one - every minute of physical training, every mental preparation, every teambuilding exercise, every bit of support from the coaches and parents. Evan calls it the toughest fight of his life.

It was a heartbreaking loss for FVVC, which was the second best team there. Deflated and minus their starting setter who had to leave for an exam, they lost to Forest City in the bronze medal game.

#1 - Calgary Dinos (ON)
Which took us to the main gym at Carleton, which had been converted to a single court for the finals. It was a beautiful setup, like the girls will play at in university, with officials and ball girls and five TV cameras covering it for Rogers TV. And the gym was packed by game time, with 2500 people in the stands and standing around the court. But none of this phased our girls in the least. We had a great warmup, with everyone crushing the ball. And we carried this energy into the first set and jumped out to 7-1 and 14-6 leads for Dino's two time-outs. The fans in the stands were eerily quiet as there was nothing the Dinos could do to stop us. Final score was 25-11.

We dropped our energy level in the second set and battled back and forth to the end, but were able to finish the set 26-24 to claim the girls' fifth and final Canadian Championship of their club careers.

All-stars
Congratulations to Ali Loynachan, Jordyn Moloney and tournament MVP Jen Cross for their well deserved all-star selections.

In Closing

Its hard to put into words the magnitude of what these girls have accomplished. To win a National Championship at any age level is extremely difficult. To win at 18U is nearly impossible. But to win five in a row is absolutely insane. As Evan Williams put it to an Ottawa Sun reporter, "This is the most amazing group of athletes I have ever worked with, and the best team in the history of Volleyball Canada." Another highly respected, veteran OVA coach believes the team is "the best team that has ever played youth volleyball".

How did this happen? With volleyball being traditionally dominated by the West, it is a testament to the OVA that Team Ontario and our men's and women's club teams have now climbed their way to the top of volleyball in Canada, and an indication that their development programs and philosophies are right on track. And foremost to the Club has always been the goal of providing a playing experience for as many athletes as possible. The team's five championships underlines the importance of LTAD - of early talent identification and player development, and an ever-evolving roster, which requires a broad base of players at the younger age groups. When these girls started volleyball we had four 14U teams. The squad that played this past weekend had more players that started out on the 14U Red team than on the 14U Black team. This is a point that every aspiring Red team player should take to heart.

We had an incredibly talented trio of coaches, who were 100% committed to the team goal of winning the final National Championship. They toiled endlessly outside normal practice hours to make it happen, with daily discussions on strategy and how to improve the team, Ian's one-on-one mental training sessions for each player, and teambuilding exercises on non-tournament weekends. Each of our assistants could easily head coach other teams at this level, and each brought something very special to the team. Diminish any of this even slightly and we could not have won.

And we had a great supporting crew with Mike Slean as personal trainer for the team, and Curtis constantly scouting on our behalf.

It's difficult to end this article, as it is probably the last one I will write for these amazing girls. (OK Hellyer, I know its a little long already.) Except for Ali and Jen who are playing another year, they are all heading off in different directions, to continue to do amazing things, in volleyball and in life. Some you can watch on the OUA or CIS circuit, and others in the NCAA you can follow on the web. But regardless of where they are, the athletes and coaches of Big Black will always have a special place in this Club as members of the history-making team that won five straight Ontario and National Championships.

2009 Attack 18U Black -
Ontario and National Champions

2008 Attack 17U Black -
Ontario and National Champions

2007 Attack 16U Black -
Ontario and National East & West Champions

2006 Attack 15U Black -
Ontario and National East & West Champions

2005 Attack 14U Black -
Ontario and National East Champions

2005 Attack 14U Red -
National East Bronze Medalists

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