Lucas Punkari
After both teams fell to the Dryden Eagles in the NorWOSSA finals a year ago, the head coaches of the Muskie junior and senior boys’ volleyball teams are looking to seal the deal at this year’s playoffs Nov. 8 in Kenora.
“Our goals and expectations are to do better than what we did last year,” said senior boys’ head coach Allison Hyatt.
“We have a lot of good kids coming back from last year’s team, and we have some nice-looking players coming up into the team so I’m really excited to get started,” she enthused.
“I would love to shoot for a gold medal this year,” echoed junior boys’ bench boss John Gibson.
“It’s hard to really set a goal at this stage as you have to wait and see what kind of team you are going to have, plus you have yet to see what Dryden and Kenora are going to look like,” he conceded.
“But I remember what the feeling was like when we won the gold two years ago, and I would to do that again.”
The senior spikers took the Eagles to the limit in last year’s thrilling final in Dryden, which saw the home squad triumph in five sets (22-25, 23-25, 25-18, 25-17, and 8-15).
“The year itself was a good one,” Hyatt recalled.
“We placed really well in our first tournament of the season, and we also beat Dryden there, which is something that we hadn’t done in a couple of years,” she noted.
A total of 13 players attended the first day of practice for the senior team last Thursday afternoon, with Hyatt hoping to have a squad of 10-12 players decided on after practice last night as she begins to prepare the team for its first tournament Sept. 21-22 in Kenora.
“It really depends on the athletes that we get and the positions that they can fit in on our roster as to how many players that we will carry,” she said.
“We’re a shorter team this year, and we will also be a younger team as we lost a lot of seniors, so our team will be one that is scrappy and aggressive, with defensive play again being our key,” Hyatt added.
The junior boys, meanwhile, will look to build off last year’s runner-up finish to the Eagles.
This year’s campaign also will see Gibson having some help on the sideline as Muskie senior girls’ head coach Duane Roen will be joining him on the coaching staff.
“We actually talked about doing this back in the spring,” Gibson noted.
“To be working with the junior boys again, like I have in the last couple of years, is something that I love to do, and to have Duane’s experience on board is awesome,” he added.
The opening practice last Thursday afternoon at Fort High saw 30 hopefuls try out for the team, with the final cuts expected to be made tomorrow.
“We have a tournament in Kenora on the weekend of the 14th, so we want to be able to spend the week prior in developing the skills of the players,” Gibson said.
“The actual number of players that will make the team isn’t set in stone, but we like to have a few more players than what you would see on the senior team as we like to help that development process,” he explained.
The NorWOSSA regular season is slated to get underway here on Tuesday, Sept. 25, when the Eagles visit the Fort High gym.
