By Sarah Kloos
Special to the Valley Echo
On September 29th, David Thompson Secondary School (DTSS) hosted a senior volleyball tournament for both boys and girls. Boys’ and Girls’ teams attended from Selkirk, and Sparwood, and a girls’ team from Fernie attended. This tournament was one of the first times the athletes from DTSS. got to play teams from the same district.
“I think the tournament went fairly well, it would’ve been nice to finish a little higher than we did, but the girls played really well. I’m excited for zones because the girls have a very good chance of making it to provincials.” says the girls’ coach, David Sharp. The girls’ Lakers team started off the day strong, winning against the Selkirk Storm two sets to one. Next, they played the Sparwood Spartans. Sadly, the Lakers lost two sets to one, however the scores were very close. Immediately after, the Lakers faced off against the Fernie Falcons. Although they fought hard, and played well, the girls lost two sets to zero. Because the Lakers girls didn’t win a set against Fernie, they were tied for second place with the other two teams, but unfortunately, they did not score enough points to put them in the championship final. The girls ended up playing Selkirk for third, and lost two sets to one. However, the girls had fun, and fought hard every game. “It kind of sucked that we lost our home tournament, but we played really well, so I’m not that disappointed.” says Maddie Hromadnik, a setter on the girls’ Lakers team.
“I think the boys played really hard and they always have a positive attitude on the floor. They work very well together. We’re a really young team, with only two grade 12s and the rest are all grade 11s. We played some really hard teams and I’m really proud of them. They have a great energy on the court,” says Sue Bradley, coach of the senior boys. The Lakers boys’ team only played two games on Saturday, as there were only three boys’ teams in the tournament. Like the girls, the Lakers boys also started off the day playing the Selkirk Storm. The boys played very well, but Selkirk beat them four sets to one. Afterwards, they played the Spartan boys’ team. It was a very close game, and the boys made many outstanding saves and beautiful hits, however the Spartans won three sets to two. “It would’ve been kind of nice to do better, but we did okay, and we’ve got a whole season to improve so we can crush the other teams,” says Ben Wiegert, a grade 12 student on the Lakers volleyball team.
Altogether, the tournament was fun to watch, and the athletes got to experience the calibre of the teams they’ll be facing in zones.