After winning provincial bronze in 2021, the Cedars Christian Eagles upgraded to a silver medal last year.
Could this be their year to bring home gold at the provincial single-A boys volleyball championship?
The 16-team tournament starts this week in Vancouver/North Vancouver and for the first time in the school’s 46-year history Cedars Christian will carry the No. 1 ranking to the court Thursday when they line up at 11 a.m. to play St. Ann’s Academy of Kamloops.
“We’re looking pretty good and our team is feeling pretty solid,” said Eagles head coach Frank Crosina. “If we play our solid volleyball at the level that we’re used to, we should be in the mix.
“This is the deepest team I think I’ve had; everybody on the bench is a solid contributor as well.”
Prince George is one of the hotbeds of high school volleyball talent and Crosina says the Eagles have benefited from having strong opponents in close proximity.
The Duchess Park Condors and D.P. Todd Trojans are ranked third and sixth respectively in the province as double-A teams and Cedars has fared well against both teams this season.
They went 3-3 in tournament play against D.P. Todd, including wins over the Trojans in the final of the Cedars tournament final and the Kodiak Classic final, the unofficial city championship. The Trojans beat them in an exhibition match last week during the junior boys provincials to earn bragging rights. The Eagles also defeated Duchess Park at the College Heights tournament, the only time they met this season.
“People in the Vancouver area always say we always play against easy single-A teams up here and I always end up telling them that’s not entirely true, we hardly ever play single-A teams, we play double-A and triple-A teams and usually the ones at the highest rank,” said Crosina.
Seven of the 13 Cedars players were on the team that lost to Vancouver Christian in last year provincial final in Nanaimo.
Sam Nelson and Ryan Crosina are the starting power hitters for Cedars and are considered the team’s best passers. Grade 11 middle blocker Olu Okebie earned his starting role at last year’s zone tournament and he and right-side hitter Joshua Olatubosun bring athleticism and diving ability that have helped make the Eagles’ defence even better than it was last year. Carter Ceaser is the Cedars setter, Liam Reusch and Josh Macdonald are the liberos and Joe Redden is the other starting middle.
The team also includes Derek Hempstead, Jonah Oliver, Jude Poulin, Jacob Claus and Cole Staves and assistant coach Carter Karpenko.
The Cedars Christian senior girls, ranked No. 10 in B.C., begin their provincial quest Thursday in Nelson. They open at 1:45 p.m. against White Rock Christian.
