Senior Boys Volleyball Head Coach Brady Doland returns just four players from last year’s SMUS team that finished fifth on the Island, but a key returnee and two rising Grade 11s figure to make the Blue Jags competitive for Lower Island and Island titles with a shot at a top 10 provincial AA finish.
At outside hitter, Doland will rely on returning senior Leupold Wang, an outstanding multi-sport athlete with an impressive vertical. Rising Grade 11s Elliot Mariet, who, at 6 feet, 8 inches tall, will provide blocking ability and quicks out of the middle, and Connor Kipling, a club setter with “nice, soft hands,” should also factor in significantly for the Blue Jags this year.
Among the other returnees to the SMUS Senior Boys team are Jack Dube, Kaden Fuller, and Nicholas Lee. And, if he is ruled eligible to play, Lincoln Faulkner, a Grade 12 who is new to the school from Grand Forks, is a player Doland says has “a ton of volleyball potential.”
Doland has coached in the SMUS volleyball program for six years, guiding his team to the B.C. tournament in three of those seasons. He predicts that rivals Pacific Christian and Lambrick Park will provide the toughest local AA competition for the Jags in 2023.
The team opened its season with the Camosun tournament this past weekend, but was missing some key players for that event due to other school activities.
Doland predicts that hitting and blocking will be his team’s main strengths: “Passing will be our challenge,” he notes.
The key to the Blue Jags’ success, he says, is in the preparation, practice, and effort.
Says Doland: “No amount of talent trumps hard work."
