Sports | DrumhellerMail

Hoop season begins at DVSS

    Off the gridiron and into the cage, the valley is on the cusp of hoops season and DVSS is ready for another competitive season.
   Last year the senior boys Dynos earned silver at provincials and are looking forward to another competitive season.
   They have been practicing for about three weeks and have a strong contingent back in the fold.
   “We have eight returning players and four rookies this year, and all 12 players have shown a lot of enthusiasm and a strong will to learn and improve,” said head coach Jeff Messom. “Even though we have eight returning players, we are an inexperienced team this year, as we graduated all of our starters and some key bench players in last year's run to provincials.”
   The team has a busy schedule this season, playing in the Golden Hill League and in six tournaments including their own two home contests. They are also heading out of province to play at a tournament in Middle Lake, Saskatchewan.
   Messom is looking forward to a season of progression.
   “This is always an exciting time for me, because I get a chance to begin to mood the team into my vision,” he says. “However, the only thing I am sure of is what we look like at the beginning of the season will be different by the end of the season.”
   The junior high boys Dynos are already practicing for the upcoming season. They had an incredible turnout with 35 players participating in tryouts for the squad. Al Molzan is back coaching the Grade 8/9 team. The school is still looking for a fulltime coach for the Grade 7/8 squad. Until then, Messom and Molzan will be pitching in.
   The girls are also getting into the action. Messom says the senior high school girls are
in tryouts on November 19 and 20, and the junior high girls tryouts are November 20 and 21.

Junior boys Saints volleyball team ends season at regionals

    The junior boys volleyball team at St. Anthony’s ended their season following the regional playoffs this season.
   The young but scrappy team was able to place at regionals, and were set to go to zones. However the tournament at PCA was postponed due to weather and the Sabres were not able to make the playoffs.
   Despite this, the team had a successful year including a big tournament win in Bassano where they were able to go through the whole tourney without a loss.
   On Monday, November 4, the team played in its championship night and placed second behind a strong Morrin team.
   The team will be in good shape next season to make some waves. This year virtually their whole squad was in Grade 7. This means they could have a strong returning roster.
   “They got some big wins and have some good stuff to build on next year and year after that,” said Coach Greg Lemieux.

Acme volleyballers vie for provincial championships

    Acme School dominated the courts this past weekend when all four of its volleyball teams headed off to zones.
   Both of the senior volleyball teams will be heading off to provincials in Vermillion this coming weekend, after the boys placed first at zones and the girls second.
   “It was a great weekend for us,” said senior boys head coach Murray Huddle. “We have a pretty good history of being able to put competitive teams on the floor.”
   Last year, the senior boys came home from provincials as champions, while the senior girls earned second place. For the boys, they are heading to provincials with a brand new squad after most of last year’s team graduated. The new team has had its share of adversity, but are ready for provincials.
   “My team is a very young team. We didn’t do very much during the season. We made the semi finals of some tournaments, but we’re starting to play great now. It’s the right time of year to do that,” said Huddle. “I had eleven guys on the roster and only one was returning, so everyone was new and young. It’s great to see them develop. There’s quite a jump between junior ball and senior ball. You basically have guys who are almost men slamming the ball at you. The biggest challenge was to make a team out of a bunch of young lads.”
   The junior varsity teams also performed well. The junior girls came home from Duchess zone champions while the boys won second place. However, provincials are not held at the junior level and both teams season’s are over on a high note.
   “We won the zones, but at this level we don’t head to provincials,” said head coach Tracy Leinweber.
   The junior girls went undefeated at zones and had a strong season from start to finish. The team had a good league record and won a couple tournaments over the course of the season.
   “We’ve had a good season. One of the unique things about this team is we had five girls from Carbon join us this year. With the addition of the Carbon girls we had a really strong team. We had a really successful season and the girls went to zones ready to play,” said Leinweber.
   With their season over, the junior teams are already looking ahead to next season. Many of the players will move up to the senior level and a new group of players will begin their volleyball careers.
   “It’ll be mostly new girls. Like any small school it changes from year to year. It was a good season and this team might be hard to top,” said Leinweber.
   The senior teams leave for provincials in Vermillion on Wednesday. Over the next two days they will play in a round robin, followed by, if they succeed, playoffs and the chance to be named provincial champions.

The Acme senior boys and senior girls volleyball teams are heading off to provincials this weekend in Vermillion after placing first and second in their respective zones tournaments. The boys team, pictured here consists of Logan Pratt, Austin Keet, Austin Marsh, Liam O Brien, Brendan Campbell, Taylor Klassen, Jeff Wong, Taylor Jeninga, John Friessen, Brock Toews, Russell Malaka, and Calvin Stern.

The Acme junior varsity volleyball teams ended their seasons this past weekend. The JV boys came home from zones with a second place finish and the JV girls earned a zone championship. The JV girls teams pictured here consists of Destinee Campbell, Jessica Woolley, Shayla Westman, Abbie Neufeld, Maria Penner, Micayla Code, Sam Penner, Cianna Hambling, Shaelynne Bystrom, Jenna MacCarahan, coach Tracy Leinweber, and assistant coach Colby Reimer.

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