Joey Payeur
It was redemption all the way around, especially for one player who missed out on the fun last season.
The Muskie senior boys’ volleyball team capped an unbeaten NorWOSSA campaign by winning its first league title since 1999 with a 3-0 sweep (25-21, 25-22, and 25-18) of the five-time defending champion Dryden Eagles in the gold-medal match here Friday night.
Fort High went 8-0 during the regular season, then turned away the Eagles (coached by former Muskie girls’ volleyball star Allison Hyatt) to earn the right to defend its NWOSSAA crown from last season.
That best-of-three series goes this weekend in Thunder Bay against the host Churchill Trojans.
Muskies’ starting setter Ian Jodoin went from not even making the team last year to being the fulcrum for the black-and-gold machine this season.
“This is awesome . . . it’s sweet to be part of this team,” beamed Jodoin, whose team lost only two of 26 sets in NorWOSSA play this year.
“It’s such a positive environment all the way around.
“I was pretty determined to come back,” added Jodoin.
“I love this sport. You couldn’t ask for a greater bunch of guys.”
Muskie veteran Brandon Geyshick heaped praise on Jodoin’s shoulders.
“We have to thank your setter because he made it all possible,” lauded Geyshick, one of five Muskie players still around from last year’s NWOSSAA-winning crew (Fort High advanced because the Eagles already had a bye to OFSAA as host team).
“All season against Dryden, we have fought hard,” Geyshick added.
“They wanted to win. We wanted to win,” he noted.
“We just wanted to win more.”
The Muskies made sure to avoid any bad luck on Friday the 13th, using a dominating attack led by Brandon and Henry Geyshick and Thunder White to keep the Eagles at bay in the battle at the net.
Dryden was a shadow of its usual dominant self this season, but hung tough in all three sets Friday.
Fort High never put together any huge string of points, but never trailed any later in a set than at 15-14 in the second.
When the Eagles’ Matthew Waites put his serve wide on match point, the Muskies revelled in the joy of knowing they had reached a pinnacle not seen by the team in 16 years.
“The boys worked hard all season and it was a fight today,” said rookie Muskie head coach Shana Windigo, whose agreement to lead the team just two days before the season began was the only reason there was a season at all.
“They came out really intense right away and played aggressive,” she noted.
“They were hitting really good tonight, especially Brandon and Henry as always.
“The Eagles have always been really dominant forever in volleyball,” Windigo, who was assisted this season by Nancy Indian, said about the 17-time former champs.
“But we worked hard to get there and the hard work paid off.”
Brandon Geyshick also tipped his hat to the vanquished Eagles.
“Congratulations to them . . . they were really strong throughout the season, and got better and better,” he noted.
But in order to advance to the OFSAA ‘AA’ championship Nov. 26-28 in Kenora, the Muskies will have to go through a Churchill team that ended its Thunder Bay campaign with a 16-1 record.
It lived up to its No. 1 playoff seed by sweeping second-ranked Westgate in the league final on Monday.
“The guys that have been to NWOSSAA before know what to expect from the Thunder Bay teams,” said Brandon Geyshick.
“We have to bring our ‘A’-game.
“It’s going to be fun if we can get to OFSAA in Kenora, but our No. 1 focus right now has to be NWOSSAA,” he stressed.
Jodoin, meanwhile, will get his first taste of the NWOSSAA wars, but is confident his team is ready to repeat.
“Having that experience of our veterans is crucial in stuff like this because they have the knowledge to fight through the adversity,” he reasoned.
“It would be awesome to make it to OFSAA,” added Jodoin. “That’s always been our goal.”
Game 1 goes Friday night, with Game 2 on Saturday morning and Game 3 (if necessary) that afternoon.
