One thing is certain for this year’s SMUS Senior Boys Volleyball team members: They are going to be spending a lot of time on the hardwood.
With a schedule that includes five tournaments and seven multi-school league play nights over the first 2 ½ months, the Blue Jags should be battle-tested by the time playoffs roll around in mid-November.
“The guys will see a lot of volleyball,” smiles SMUS Head Coach Brady Doland, who started the boys’ program at the school nine years ago. “It should be an interesting season. I’m looking forward to it.”
In fact, the season is already in full swing. It started with the Camosun Chargers tournament last weekend in which the Blue Jags finished 12th overall and third in the Tier 2 playoffs. SMUS also played host to the first week of league play this Wednesday, with visiting teams from Oak Bay, Glenlyon-Norfolk School and Vic High.
This coming weekend, the Blue Jags will be on the Lower Mainland, taking part in the Trinity Western University tournament on Friday and Saturday, following which Doland should have a pretty good idea of where his team stands among BC AA contenders.
“That will be a good opportunity to see where we would be ranked,” he says. “I would say somewhere in the top 20.”
Leading the way for SMUS this year are a pair of returning seniors and club volleyball players – athletic 6’1” setter Connor Kipling and middle Elliot Mairet who, at 6’7”, can be a force at the net. They are two of eight Grade 12s on the squad this year with other senior notables including liberos Ryan Liu and Martin Winnett.
Among the Grade 11s who figure to contribute are middle Sebastien Allard (6’4”), right side Jaiden Daniels (6’3”) and power Tommy Hong.
Doland says his team has “firepower” up front but ensuring that the ball is delivered on time and on target to that firepower will be the key to the Blue Jags’ success this season.
“The most critical thing for us will be on our serve-receive passing,” he says. “Our practices for the first half of the season will focus on that first contact to the setter... and by the end of the year, we should also be a good blocking team.”
Doland rates Lambrick Park as the AA team to beat on the Lower Island. “They are very, very strong. Their entire team plays club.” SMUS will meet Lambrick in league play on September 25 at Oak Bay and at home on October 23, as well as potentially in tournament action.
The top four teams on the Lower Island will make the Island AA tournament, which will be hosted November 15-17 by Lambrick Park. The provincial tournament goes November 27-30 at Kalamalka Secondary in the Okanagan. Last year, SMUS finished third on the Lower Island and seventh in the Island tournament to miss out on a BC berth.
“It’s going to be tough to make provincials,” admits Doland, who has taken the Blue Jags to the BC tournament three times in eight seasons with a best finish of 10th place. “Often, the top AA teams in BC and the Island can be as good or better than the top AAA teams.”
Last weekend at the Camosun tournament, the Blue Jags managed to extend both Mark Isfeld of Courtenay – one of the top AA teams on the Island – and highly-regarded AAA squad Claremont in three-set losses. SMUS wins came over Duncan Christian, Reynolds and an Oak Bay squad despite the Blue Jags having no Grade 11s available (outtrips) for Saturday’s action.
In addition to the Trinity Western tournament this weekend, the Blue Jags’ jam-packed schedule includes the Spectrum Spikes and Aces tournament September 27 and 28 and a Mount Douglas tournament in the latter part of October. In between those events, SMUS and Oak Bay will co-host a major 24-team tournament October 4 and 5 that will include a number of Lower Mainland teams.
