The St. Joseph High School Falcons boys and girls volleyball team is looking to spike the competition this season in the Senior 3A league.
Head coach of the senior girl’s team Kathleen Robinson said the program is still very new, has been built slowly over time, and had a large number of students out for tryouts this year. This resulted in trimming down the roster by the second week of school.
The Falcons opened up the season against HJ Cody and Maskwacis within the first two weeks and Robinson said the team is still getting used to playing with each other and building chemistry.
“We’re very lucky to have very strong athletes on our team this year,” she said.
The team has 12 Grade 11 and 12 students on the team and five are returning from last year’s squad. Last season they were made up of mostly Grade 12 players and lost most of the team through the summer. The team is fairly young and new to this level of volleyball but Robinson explained she has high hopes for her team.
“We’re a strong defensive team as of right now so we’re working now on the offensive piece and working with two very strong setters that we have on our roster,” she said.
Robinson joined last season as an assistant coach but got promoted to head coach this season after the previous head coach decided to step down. She explained it’s been an easy transition for her and that they run a tight ship in the program.
“The goal that Sherry and I have set out is that we are working on mastering the basic skills. And like I said previously we are a very strong defensive team so our goal is going to be pushing the offensive piece of it and really getting in strong hitters, utilizing our setters, and utilizing our attacks from all areas,” she said.
The girls are coming off as 3A zone champions and hope to repeat again this season and head to provincials once again.
The senior boy’s head coach Tobi Blais said the team is looking good and improving every week so far.
“I’m expecting them to do not too bad this season,” she said.
With five returning players made up of Grade 11 and 12 students, Blais said the team is a mix of all three grades.
“I do actually see us finishing first or second in the league for sure and hopefully going to provincials,” she said.
Blais admitted their passing, coverage, and overall defensive skills need improvement after a loss to HJ Cody to begin the season. She is satisfied with their serving abilities and is offensively sound while playing.
“What we’ve been focusing on this year is that are able to play multiple positions. So, we have some players who are playing three different positions so we’re not specializing… It’s something a little different than last year so we don’t have some set positions for some of our athletes,” Blais said.
