Three-tiered Championships will feature 3 returning MVPs
By Bob Carter
Next week’s Big Kahuna BC Volleyball Championships will display plenty of panache in a fourth appearance at the Langley Events Centre.
The high school event, scheduled for Nov. 29-Dec. 2, has added the AAAA girls tournament this year, elevating the number of overall teams to 52. In a rare circumstance, the Championships will feature all three tiers’ MVPs from last season.
Returning are Semiahmoo’s Mike Dowhaniuk (AAA boys), Langley Christian’s Brodie Hofer (AA boys) and Belmont’s Savannah Purdy (AAAA girls). All have been Team BC players as well.
Mike Dowhaniak helping his Totem team.
That’s only the top of a long list of standouts that includes Mount Baker’s Caleb Peters, Abbotsford Christian’s Cole Brandsma and Handsworth’s Kayla Oxland.
In addition, the LCS boys and Belmont girls – both top seeds – will have a good chance to repeat as champions. Semiahmoo, the defending AAA boys titlist, may have a more difficult task as a seventh seed.
Mount Baker, led by 6-5 outside hitter Caleb Peters, will go in as the No. 1 seed in AAA.
The Wild, from Cranbrook, placed 11th in the 2016 provincials, but will bring a bigger and better team to the LEC this time. Baker can put up a front row that averages nearly 6-6.
“We knew we’d have a strong team with lots of height,” coach Karley Ferner said.
The Wild, who faced some good competition at four Alberta tournaments, could be challenged in Langley by a large group that includes Delta, Earl Marriott and Semiahmoo of the Fraser Valley; Oak Bay from Vancouver Island and the Okanagan’s OKM and Mount Boucherie.
Oak Bay coach Al Carmichae sees a lot of parity in the tier and thinks as many as 10 teams have a shot at a medal.
Marriott, a Surrey school with a superb volleyball reputation, had a top boy and girl fall to injuries earlier this month. The fourth-seeded boys lost Malachi McMullin (ankle), and the second-seeded girls lost Danica Cowie (MCL). Both outside hitters were first-team provincial all-stars last fall.
The Mariners may not be done, though. The girls won the Fraser Valley title last week, and the boys finished runner-up to Delta, which was seeded second for the BCs.
Oak Bay (Victoria), the third AAA seed, is powered by 6-5 middle Cam Hayes and 6-7 setter Riley Cronk.
“We’re still on a steep learning curve,” said Carmichael, who has coached five teams to BC senior titles.
AA BOYS:
Brody Hofer celebrates.
Langley Christian of the FVC has Brodie Hofer back after the 6-6 attacker broke two toes in August. He played the final month, helping the defending BC titlists unseat then-No.1 Duchess Park with a 3-0 win over the Condors in the George Elliot tournament final.
Carol Hofer, Brodie’s mother and LCS coach, said losing such a key player was difficult for the team at the start. “But they came together,” she said. “The team has never been about one player.”
The Lightning’s Trevor Koch and Caleb Kastelein helped fill some of Hofer’s absence and the team stayed strong until its standout returned for the last few weeks.
Second seed Duchess Park (Prince George) has an experienced team, a new head coach in former TRU setter Colin Carson, dominating hitters in 6-5 Cody Boulding and 6-6 Ryan Hampe and an athletic setter, Carter Karpenko.
The lanky 6-5 Brandsma, a member of Canada’s national U16 select team, led No. 4 seed Abby Christian to a solid season, and rising Okanagan champ George Elliot, the third seed, also figures strongly in the AA picture.
Other AA contenders include the 5-8 seeds: Richmond Christian (Lower Mainland), MEI (FVC), the Kootenay’s Prince Charles and Prince George’s College Heights, last year’s AA silver medalist.
AAAA GIRLS:
Savannah Purdy of Belmont girls hopes to lead her team in the 2017 AAAA Girls Championships.
Defending champ and No. 1 Belmont of Victoria was heading toward an unbeaten regular season until AA Langley Christian beat the Bulldogs in a close, 3-setter at the Red Serge tournament early in November.
Purdy, a 6-2 outside hitter who is headed to Trinity Western, said the loss might end up being beneficial. She said her team had a bad serving day but was quick to praise LCS.
“They played very well,” she said. “You have to give it to them. The match will remind us to work hard all the time.”
The Bulldogs return a full squad from last year’s group that won the championship without any Grade 12s. Returnees include sisters Hannah May, a right side who was a first-team BCs all-star, and middle blocker Gracie May.
Host Handsworth lost to Belmont in the provincial final last year in North Vancouver, and the third-seeded Royals again have a potent team, directed by setter Oxland, who is also a good hitter.
The two-time provincial all-star, a UBC recruit, exhibits diverse skills, competitiveness and leadership. Her father, Tom Oxland, coaches the Royals, and three older sisters also played high school volleyball.
Belmont has beaten Handsworth twice this fall, but Bulldogs coach Mike Toakley said the Royals’ defence is always impressive: “It’s like playing tennis against the wall.”
Teams such as Marriott, Lord Tweedsmuir and Semiahmoo of the FVC and Burnaby’s Moscrop will certainly challenge last year’s finalists, though a title rematch is hardly out of the question.
Few things are in this year’s expanded edition of the Big Kahuna BC Championships.
Qualifiers for the 2017 BC Championships have been Determined
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By Allan Carmichael
The Zone Championships have been completed, and the qualifiers for the BC Championships have been determined. The tournament format has teams grouped in Power Pools for an initial round-robin. Winners of pools will move up to a higher group, last place in a pool will move down a group, and then be ranked 1-16 for sorting into the playoffs. AA:
AAA:There were upsets at some of the AAA Zone Championships, notably Penticton dropping from 1 to 4 in the Okanagan, Delta prevailing over Earl Marriott in the Fraser Valley, Argyle over Van Tech in the Lower Mainland, and Dover Bay reaching Island #2 over Royal Bay. This speaks to the competitive balance in the AAA from 1 through 20. Three teams received wild cards, Kelowna, Penticton, and Reynolds.
GIRLS AAAA Seeding for Championships1 Belmont 9 Kelowna A
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Girls happy to join the boys in 52-team Big Kahuna Championships
“I’m excited,” said Seaquam head coach Todd Clarke, the BCs’ girls coordinator. “I feel this is the right direction for girls volleyball, worth the effort, worth the try. It’s going to be a unique event, and whoever wins it this year will have a unique memory.”
By Bob Carter
High school volleyball’s biggest provincial party will look a little larger, and more feminine, this fall.
The Big Kahuna BC Volleyball Championships have expanded from the normal array of 36 teams (20 AAA boys and 16 AA boys) to 52 with the addition of 16 AAAA girls squads. The four-day BCs will be held Nov. 29-Dec. 2 at Langley Events Centre.
The boys, as in the past, are scheduled to compete Wednesday through Saturday, and the girls’ three-day championship runs from Thursday to Saturday. The three tournaments will come to a stirring conclusion with all bronze- and gold-medal matches set for the final day.
Organizers are eager to see how the experiment develops.
“I’m excited,” said Seaquam head coach Todd Clarke, the BCs’ girls coordinator. “I feel this is the right direction for girls volleyball, worth the effort, worth the try. It’s going to be a unique event, and whoever wins it this year will have a unique memory.”
Sharon Carter, the Championships’ director, recalled the U.S. Nationals as a club coach and seeing “hundreds of athletes competing side by side, all in the same venue. The excitement was palpable. Our committee wants to provide a big-tournament atmosphere to the BCs.”
Mike Toakley, head coach of defending AAAA girls champion Belmont, also is enthused about the venture.
“The idea was sold to us as a showcase for high school volleyball, not just girls’ volleyball or boys’, but the sport as a whole,” Toakley said. “This is going to be more of a spectacle.”
Making the spectacle a reality has demanded more organizing work across the board. The most demanding challenges, Carter said, are re-doing schedules and finding enough officials to accommodate the girls’ presence. The event’s match count will be 176, an increase of 54.
The girls actually have been included before – they joined the AA and AAA boys in 2003 at Kelowna – but this marks the first time volleyball’s top tiers of boys and girls share the bright provincial spotlight in the Vancouver area.
Toakley said part of the incentive from the girls’ side was the possibility of more media coverage. “A lot of people think the media are more likely to show up,” he said, “if the boys and girls are at one place.”
The girls’ AAAA provincials normally are held at a different locale, a different zone, each year, and 2017 was the Fraser Valley’s turn. Though the girls are accustomed to being the only show in town, wherever the town might be, other factors certainly sweeten this year’s inclusion at the LEC.
“There was some concern that the focus will be taken off the girls a little bit,” Earl Marriott head girls coach Mark Cassell said, “but the bigness of it will compensate for anything we might lose. The girls like that it’s a big event.”
All matches at the Championships will be played at the LEC, another bonus for the girls who usually have to switch between two or three venues at the provincials.
Another obvious difference: Wherever the girls look, they’ll find boys. “We might have to deal with distractions a little more,” Cassell hinted.
Fortunately, Toakley, Clarke, Cassell and others have considerable coaching experience at the BCs, probably enough to handle any of the new variables this year’s event may present.
In 1997, Toakley’s first year teaching at Belmont, he led the Bulldog boys to a provincial title, and in 2000 he did it with the Victoria school’s senior girls, again in his first year with the team. Last season the girls claimed another BC title with a squad consisting mostly of Grade 10s and 11s that qualified as a wild card.
That sets up Belmont as the favourite to repeat.
“This group is pretty focussed, even though they know they’re the favourites,” Toakley said. “Of course, you always have to worry about complacency.”
Clarke’s girls have made the BCs in nine of the past 13 years, winning the title in 2011 and finishing second the next two seasons.
Cassell, coaching EMS for the ninth year, has guided the Mariners to two silver medals and two bronze in the past five seasons and would love to grab gold this fall, especially so close to home. He thinks playing the BCs a half-hour drive from the school could attract more EMS fans, possibly providing an edge.
Most of all, Clarke knows that this year’s experience will be new in multiple ways. He also knows that the girls coaches will have plenty to dissect after the event at their AGM.
If anything, he is energized by the prospects of playing at the spacious LEC.
“We’re playing in a different venue, there’s a different vibe and a whole new level of organization,” Clarke said. “There’s definitely something special about it. We want people to realize that they’re privileged to play there.”
