The St. Mary Sharks are preparing to host the 1A Zone Championships at the Rotary Spirit Centre Nov. 19.
The winner-take-all tournament will bring in the top eight teams from schools around the region, including Neerlandia, Hinton, Entwistle and Thorhild.
“The top spot takes it all,” said Sharks head coach Vance Nakonechny. “A lot of teams are evenly matched, so we go from there.”
St. Mary won the bid to host the zone earlier this year — typically each school in the zone takes turns hosting the event.
“It’s an honour to host,” said Nakonechny. “We try to host as much as possible. It’s a nice change to showcase our Spirit Centre and for a lot of schools, because they are smaller schools, a lot of those gyms only have one court. So I think a lot of the schools enjoy coming here. It’s a nice way to showcase Westlock.”
Nakonechny noted that one benefit of the regional gathering is the friendships that are made.
“We’ve played together in tournaments for two months,” he said. “A lot of the kids recognize each other, know each other, compete against each other. So there are some relationships that are built up.”
The tournament is expected to bring in a moderate economic boost as well.
“Some teams will stay overnight in hotels, they’re eating in restaurants, that sort of thing,” said Nakonechny. “They’re travelling to our town, so there are some spin-offs.”
Nakonechny added that he was ironing out the wrinkles in the club’s game plan, but didn’t see a need for any dramatic changes going into the tournament.
“We’ve got three practices left,” he said. “It’s more fine tuning and working on finishing. More attention to detail, those small little things. Those are the differences between losing a point and winning a point when it comes down to this level.”
The winner of the zone tournament will represent the zone at provincials which go in Bow Island Nov. 24-26.
The senior girls season has come to an end following a conference match-up in Thorhild Nov. 8.
“Thorhild is a high ranked team in our volleyball pool, so it would have been a difficult one to win,” said girls head coach Carina Sturkenboom in an e-mail. “The girls had some good rallies going. We had a player missing, so we tried some different line ups.”
The team had a strong developmental season, but unfortunately was not able notch many victories.
“Even though the skill level in the pool was a little too high for us this season, the girls make great progress over the season to play as a team,” said Sturkenboom. “At the end of the season, it didn’t matter who I would let play, they would always know what their position was and how to communicate with the rest of the team.”
Sturkenboom added that the hardest part of the loss was that many of her players are graduating.
“The season is over. For five of the players, it also meant the end of their high school volleyball career,” said Sturkenboom.
“I wish them the best of luck in their journey through life and hope that they keep on playing volleyball.”
Sturkenboom also expressed thanks to the parents and community for the support the team has received over the season.
