The first metro Edmonton senior men’s volleyball championship for the Paul Kane Blues was served up Wednesday in Stony Plain.
The four-set victory over the Bellerose Bulldogs in the division two final was a banner moment for Paul Kane, an original member of the metro high school league when it was formed in 1988.
“I’m pretty happy for the whole team but I’m happy for a number of Grade 12s who have been good volleyball guys for a long time and they can basically say there is something in the rafters there for them,” said head coach Andre Charrois. “I was talking about it all last year as well. I said there was something missing in our gym and it was a banner for volleyball. It’s something I personally wanted and we needed it as a team. The players needed to put their name in history in their lifetime.”
As the wins mounted for the Blues, so did the pressure of pulling off the historical feat.
“As it got closer and closer, I guess now it’s a bit of a relief in a way,” Charrois said. “We set the goal early on in the season and I knew at the first tournament it was a little bit of a different team than we had in the past, just with the early success, so now we’re all relieved and everyone is pretty excited about the fact that there is a banner hanging in PK again. It’s a pretty wonderful feeling for sure.”
The last Paul Kane volleyball championship was 2011 by the senior women in the premier conference before the merger of the metro and Edmonton public leagues.
The origins of this year’s triumph started in 2015, when Charrois took over the bench duties and the Blues finished 9-3 after losing the division two quarter-finals in five sets to the eventual champion Louis St. Laurent Barons.
“The process probably started last year a little bit that we were able to attract a few more people to tryouts.” Charrois said. “There were a lot of good players that got cut from the volleyball program this year. We had about 55 kids show up to our tryouts and I think the culture is changing so that is something that is pretty exciting.”
With half of last year’s team back, plus eight Grade 12s on the 12-man roster and the injection of talent from the 14-1 junior Blues, the 2015 division two finalists, the senior squad rolled up a 9-1 league record.
The 33rd victory in 44 league and tournament matches overall was against Bellerose (7-3) and the scores were 25-17, 13-25, 25-20, 25-15 at Memorial Composite High School.
“Something so close seemed so far sometimes,” Charrois said of the final. “Throughout the match Bellerose didn’t quit at all. I have to say they dug up balls and continued to show a lot of heart. It was kind of fun and stressful in that regard. They weren’t going to give it to us by any means.”
In league play, the Blues swept Bellerose 25-19, 27-25, 25-21 Oct. 24 at Paul Kane.
Bellerose finished 7-3 with a lineup of four Grade 12s on its 10-man roster, as well as six returnees from last year’s 7-5 team that reached the division two quarter-finals.
The only senior men’s volleyball title for Bellerose was 2002 in the city conference.
