Five 麻豆传媒映画senior girls volleyball teams are vying for space in the B.C. AA and AAA top 10 rankings and all of them are from the small, regional private school sports league.
The LMISSA (Lower Mainland Independent Secondary School Athletic Association) counts six 麻豆传媒映画teams and two more outside the city. Four are ranked in the top 10 teams in the province.
All in the numbers
In AA, which is based on the number of senior girls enrolled at a school, York House is ranked second, Notre Dame, unranked in the first week, has since moved to fifth and is now fourth, and St. Patrick鈥檚 is steady at ninth. In AAA, Little Flower Academy, now ninth, was ranked as high as fifth and Crofton House slipped out of the top 10 this week after starting the season at No. 6.
鈥淎ll of our schools have one head person that has reached some really high level of volleyball,鈥� said Ross Ballard, a teacher and coach at Little Flower Academy who played varsity at UBC and competed at two World Cups for Canada鈥檚 national men鈥檚 team while playing professionally in Europe and South America.
The Angels won the B.C. championship in 2012, defeating the defending champs from Seaquam.
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At try-outs this season, 60 Grade 8 girls came to play. At LFA, 96 students registered in Grade 8, said Ballard.
鈥淲e will keep 12 on the [junior] team but because we had so much interest from grades 9 to 10, we created a training team. By the time you get to the senior level, most likely you鈥檙e going to have a good squad,鈥� he said.
鈥淭he programs are a reflection of the commitment and buy-in within the schools.鈥�
鈥淵es, LMISSAA is very strong this year for senior girls volleyball,鈥� wrote Maurizio Di Donato, the new head coach at Notre Dame, in an email. 聽鈥淎n excellent example of the high quality being played was apparent at this year鈥檚 VIU tournament. Six of eight quarterfinalists, and three of four semi-finalists were all from LMISSA this year.鈥�
York House lost in the final of the 麻豆传媒映画Island University to Timberline, the No. 1 AAA team from Campbell River.
At Notre Dame where the Jugglers have risen in the provincial rankings every week since Sept. 23, and Di Donato said Dawn Oswald is one of the reasons for their success.
鈥淪he makes my life much easier,鈥� he wrote in an email about Oswald, the program co-ordinator who played varsity volleyball at SFU and led the Jugglers to a 2005 B.C. championship.
鈥淚 get to focus on the senior team and implement strategies that are collaborated over for the entire program. We start at the Grade 8 level with Dawn as head coach and try to establish systems that are maintained right up to, and including, the senior team,鈥� he said.
鈥淭he seven grade 11s and 10s on this year鈥檚 team have played together since Grade 8,鈥� added Di Donato. 鈥淭hey are a great mix of girls who love the game and enjoy being around each other at all times. This makes for some great cohesion, which will hopefully lead to success this year and next.鈥�
Role models of success
York House has stormed the LMISSAA standings and is undefeated with eight wins, in no small part to their deeply talented roster (three players have committed to post-secondar programs including the dominant UBC Thunderbirds and the NCAA Div. 1 Tulane University).
Chris Ruse, the head coach of the Tigers, played on the same Thunderbirds team as Ballard, who coaches the rivals next door at LFA.
Ruse said the reason for the league's depth is that the coaches are not only long-term teachers at their school but many also continue to play volleyball in their own lives outside of work. Their coaching spills into this world, too.聽
"I've been coaching at York for over 10 years and in that time, virtually all of the coaches from the other schools have remained involved and unchanged," Ruse wrote in an email. "While we compete against each other, we also collaborate and push each other to get better."
He plays in a men's volleyball league with the coach at Crofton, Chris Berglund, who is also a member at large with Volleyball B.C. "[We] are constantly exchanging coaching ideas and have discussions about our teams. This leads to growth and improvement for both schools and this happens across all the teams in the league."
Also at Crofton, program coordinator Gerald Lambert is an internationally sanctioned volleyball referee. Ruse said the schools create an environment where students look forward to playing and have role models who show them volleyball is about more than what happens on the court.
Vancouver鈥檚 private schools do not play in the public school league since the 麻豆传媒映画Secondary Sports Athletic Association changed its policy in 2010 to limit its leagues to teams in the public school district. Volleyball and basketball leagues were already separate but four years ago, the LMISSAA grew to add field hockey, badminton and tennis. The region is also divided into two zones -- one called 麻豆传媒映画and the other Independent -- and each feeds zone winners to the Lower Mainland playoffs, which in turns qualifies teams for provincial championships.
Independent schools have the ability to hire teachers based their extra-curricular interests and the added benefits they can offer students outside of class. In the public system, extra-curricular work like coaching is labelled volunteer time and is not part of teachers' contracts.
Celtic tradition
At St. Patrick鈥檚, which is the only 麻豆传媒映画senior team in the league with a female coach, Adele Renzullo said success breeds success. She鈥檚 been at the helm for 29 years after a varsity career as a power hitter at Simon Fraser University.聽
鈥淥ur league has always been very competitive. When you play good teams all the time, you can't help but improve throughout the season,鈥� she said. "In the past 15 years we sent at least three of our league teams [to provincials], which is a great record. Our league teams also place top eight, almost always.鈥�
The Celtics won the provincial title in 2001, 鈥�02, 鈥�04 and 鈥�08 under Renzullo.
She said, 鈥淥ur team alone has been the most consistently represented AA team in B.C. at the BC鈥檚, making it 25 years out of 28."
