Plamondon hosted a smashing weekend of intense volleyball action, as the community held the 1A Girls provincial volleyball championships Nov. 24 to 26.
In total, 10 of the top girls teams in the province, travelling from all four corners of Alberta, competed for Alberta School Athletics Association (ASAA) gold. This was the first time Plamondon has hosted a provincial volleyball tournament, and games were played in the École Beauséjour and École Plamondon School gyms.
"The parents and volunteers did an amazing job,” said coach Etienne Vaillancourt. "Some teams were saying it was the best provincials they ’ve ever seen.”
The École Beauséjour Lynx played well as the home team, cruising to victory in their first game Thursday morning against the Fairview Kodiaks in two sets, 25-21 and 25-17. However, they ran into some tough competition later that day, dropping their next game to the Daysland Darls team, 15-25 and 10-25.
Their next game was a heartbreakingly close loss against the Bow Island Gators, when the Lynx were just one point away from putting the eventual bronze medal winners away in the third set.
The Lynx finished their round robin on a high note, beating the Bassano Broncos 25-16 and 25-17. Their two-and-two record was good enough to get them to the playoff round, where they lost to the Calgary Crusaders 25-16 and 25-23. The Calgary team went on to beat the Acme Redman in the final.
"We played really well – it was probably our best volleyball of the year,” Vaillancourt said.
But the girls weren ’t the only Lynx on the prowl for provincial glory last week. The École Beauséjour boys were in Camrose Nov. 24 to 26 for the 1A Boys provincial finals. Like the lady Lynx, this was the first year the school has represented the northeast zone in the provincials.
However, the boys had a tough weekend, dropping all four of their games. They lost to the Bawlf School Wildcats, the Acme Redman, the St. Mary Sharks from Westlock, and the St. Mary ’s Celtics from Taber.
"It was our first time in the provincials. It was good experience, but it was pretty tough,” said the boys coach Claude Lamoroux. "We were able to compete, but we just couldn ’t finish. People said the level of play there was the strongest volleyball they ’ve seen in five or six years.”
The Acme Redman ended up taking gold, beating the Bawlf School Wildcats in the finals. Lamoroux said that although the Lynx fell short in their final weekend of the season, he ’s still very proud of the way they played throughout year.
"We won five tournaments this year,” he said. "Our goal was to make the provincials, to get past the psychological barrier of zones.”
For a school that only has 28 high school students, sending two teams to the provincial finals is extraordinary, Lamoroux said.
"You won ’t see that again for a long time,” he said. "Hopefully they ’ll remember this for the rest of their lives – they wrote a piece of history for their school.”
