Recruiting is a key element on any successful high school volleyball team.
If you’re unable to convince a steady stream of student athletes to sign up to play for the school team, chances are you won’t go far when it comes time to compete for BC Secondary Sports Association provincial championship.
That time is now for the College Heights Cougars senior girls' volleyball team, on a quest to bring the triple-A provincial banner back to Prince George.
The 13 players on the senior team realize the importance of building that tradition of competing for provincial medals. While the majority of their College Heights Secondary School classmates were home enjoying a day off school Monday on a professional development day for teachers, the Cougars were putting on a full-day volleyball clinic, sharing their volleyball knowledge with students from the feeder elementary schools in their neighbourhood.
According to head coach Hali Drezet, that spirit of togetherness and willingness to collaborate in their efforts to teach the game to young girls bodes well for the Cougars as they get set to take on the top teams in the province at the 16-team tournament that starts Thursday in West Vancouver.
“They do things like that always as a team and always for other people and I think that’s why they do so well on the court, because off the court they’re always hanging out together, spending time together and they’re really close as a team,” said Drezet.
They’ve gone out together on movie nights, attended a Prince George Cougars hockey game as a team, hosted their own potluck suppers and all season long they’ve gathered early Sunday mornings for circuit training - whatever it takes to try to build that sense of family - and that’s translated into a winning season.
So what makes the team tick?
It starts with Grade 12 seniors Lorenn Caceres, the setter, and power hitter Kayleigh Kennedy, both of whom play club basketball. Alaina Goodlet and Hailey Silva are savvy veterans who cast long shadows at middle blocker, Ella Dreher and Grade 11 Olivia Young are the left-side hitters, while Andi Schreiner and Nadia Lennox cover libero duties.
College Heights is ranked sixth at the 16-team tournament in West Vancouver, while Duchess Park is ranked ninth.
The Cougars defeated Duchess Park on the Condors’ home court two weekends ago for North Central zone bragging rights.
“It was a five-set match and both teams played so good,” said Drezet. “It was a really stressful game for me and the girls pulled it out in the end.”
College Heights and Duchess Park faced each other twice in tournament play, in Kamloops and Kelowna, and in a handful of local tournaments, so the teams know each other well.
“We’ve played them almost every weekend this year,” said Drezet.
College Heights won six of the seven Prince George tournaments this season and was third in the one they did not win. The Cougars also posted top-10 finishes in all their out-of-town tournaments.
“They did so well but yet they always stayed humble and always stayed level,” said Drezet. “A big thing I tried to instill in them is respect, and I find that as we’re out of town we had a lot of refs and a lot of out-of-town teams coming up saying how nice that group of girls was and how hard they worked.
“Skill is skill and you can win the game if you have the best hitter, but I always want my teams to be known for being good people. It makes me really proud when I can see that they’re a team and I never see anyone get mad at anyone on the court and just know I don’t have to be worried about drama.”
The other Cougar team members are Masha Wood, Emma Young, Maggie Glover and Avery Johansen.
The College Heights coaching staff also includes Kim Forrest, Annaleise Receiveur, Amanda Heinze and Gabby Biederstadt.
Three other senior girls teams have qualified for provincial tournaments, which start on Thursday.
North Central has two berths in the single-A tournament at Nanaimo. The Cedars Christian Eagles are ranked sixth and the McBride Mustangs are 16th.
At the double-A championship this week at Mill Bay, the D.P. Todd Trojans are seeded 14th.
Including the three senior boys teams (Duchess Park, College Heights and Cedars Christian) involved in provincial tournaments this week and the six junior teams that played in the BC Invitational championship tournaments last weekend, that adds up to 13 teams from Prince George that qualified provincials this fall.
“It just shows that Prince George isn’t the small little redneck town people think it is,” said Drazet, who played university volleyball for five years at Thompson Rivers University in Kamloops and was part of the junior national program.
“Having left PG for seven years, I lived in the south and I can say that.
“Our volleyball community is so big and obviously that’s thanks to the volleyball club. We have over 650 kids in our club and that helps the high school season and high school coaches help our club season, so it’s a nice circle to be in.”
