By Lethbridge Herald on April 1, 2022.
By Justin Seward
Lethbridge Herald
The Lethbridge Volleyball Club junior Kodiaks U18 boys team are rolling heading down the stretch into the season.
The Kodiaks competed in their first premier tournament at the beginning of February and were seeded 14th heading in and ended up winning the gold medal over Calgary’s Canada West.
Premier two was held at the end of February and played the same Canada West team in the final and took home silver.
In a Premier tournament a couple of weeks ago in Calgary, the Kodiaks came out on top yet again.
“The boys have been you know pretty consistent,” said head coach Shane Orr.
“I mean we’ve had our ups and downs and we’ve had matches where we haven’t played as well as we would have liked and stuff like it. It seems like when the game is really on the line, these boys really find another gear and dig deep and find a way to turn those into wins.”
Orr feels he has a deep team.
“And I feel like we definitely have that,” said Orr.
“We’re able to play lots of different guys in some tough situations and make sure that guys are rested and ready when we make the final push in the playoff round — semi-finals and finals — that we’ve got guys that are fresh.”
Orr said the boys are really coachable.
“I tell the boys, ‘Hey, this is important.’ And they really don’t question,” said Orr.
“They say, ‘OK let’s do it.’ And I think in part that has showed up on the court as well, where the boys have really worked hard in practice and leading up to Premiers.”
Orr says the teams that set themselves apart from everyone else are well-rounded.
“We have that,” he said.
“We have guys on our team that can hit the ball really hard — that can put balls away, put kills on the floor and put points on the board.”
The team competed in the Best of the West invitational tournament in Calgary this weekend.
The team will go to Provincials in Edmonton at the end of the month and next month Nationals in the same city.
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