The Barrhead Composite High School (BCHS) senior boys’ volleyball team are now two-time provincial champions.
The Barrhead Gryphons defeated Peace Wapiti Academy in two sets to win the Alberta Schools’ Athletic Association (ASAA) 3A Boys Volleyball Provincials in Rocky Mountain House from Nov. 22-24.
In 2017, the Gryphons also won the provincial banner by defeating Morinville Community High School at Strathmore.
The senior boys went into provincials fresh off a loss to Morinville at the North Central Zone Championships in Barrhead on Nov. 16-17.
Despite losing the zones, Barrhead qualified for the provincials because of their attendance the previous year at 3A Provincials.
Coach Rod Callihoo explained that there is a “wild card” spot at provincials determined by the amount of points accumulated by each zone.
Because Barrhead and Morinville were in the finals of last year’s provincials, the North Central Zone already had a number of points and were able to accumulate enough throughout the year to earn the wild card.
The Gryphons started off on Nov. 22 with a match against Peace Wapiti Academy (PWA). Callihoo said they were a little inconsistent in this first game, and they ended up losing in three sets (16-25, 25-16, 15-11).
“We had beaten those guys most of the time this year, but we got off to a not-very good start,” Callihoo said. “We kind of hit a good server and couldn’t recover, so we lost that third set.”
Feeling a little unsure of themselves, the Gryphons rallied in the afternoon and played a stellar match against Lethbridge Collegiate Institute (LCI). They defeated LCI in two straight sets (25-15, 25-22).
“We had a very good match against those guys,” Callihoo said, adding that they had previously faced LCI a couple of weeks ago at a tournament in Camrose.
“That made us feel a lot better about ourselves and about our tournament at that point of time.”
On Nov. 23, BCHS had an early morning match against Louis St. Laurent (LSL) from Edmonton. While they were a little less consistent against LSL, the Gryphons nonetheless came away with a victory after two sets (25-11, 25-22).
Callihoo said this was a good step towards being a little more consistent. “(We were) not to the level that we’ve played most of the year, but it was getting closer towards that,” he added.
In the evening, Barrhead squared off with St. Paul, a team that the Gryphons have a lot in common with.
“There’s a lot of … connections with the coaches and players,” he said. “It was another of those matches that we had to play really well to win.”
Although the Gryphons won in two sets, the scores — 26-24 and 25-20 — indicate how incredibly close the two teams were.
Callihoo said St. Paul put Barrhead on the defensive and they had to kill the bill multiple times just to score a point.
On Saturday morning, the Gryphons’ last round robin match was against the host team, West Central from Rocky Mountain House.
Although Barrhead won the first set handily (25-15), the Gryphons got a little complacent in the second set and West Central roared back. Barrhead just barely squeaked by with a 28-26 victory.
“Their left side got some big kills and kept them in the match,” said Callihoo. “We won in two, but it wasn’t as convincing as we wanted it to be.”
Later that day, PWA defeated LCI in the final round robin to finish first in the pool. That means Barrhead was second, so they were pitted against the third place team from the other pool.
Their opponents in the quarter-final was Cochrane, who Barrhead hadn’t faced since 2017.
“This year they pushed us a lot harder,” said Callihoo. “They threw lots of things at us and we beat them in two, but it was a close match.”
In the semi-finals, Barrhead was pitted against the Morinville Wolves. Callihoo said they’d had a “back and forth” with Morinville this year; although the Wolves won zones, the Gryphons had actually won their first several matches against Morinville early in the season.
Despite the apprehension, the Gryphons played what was probably their best match in at least a couple of weeks, Callihoo said.
“It was more like the matches that we played when we went to the city and we played Saint Francis Xavier and all those bigger schools,” he said, noting they won 25-21 and 25-15.
“(Our boys became) a very complete team when we really needed one against a really good team.”
In the championship finals, the boys were pitted against PWA, who had handed Barrhead its only loss of the weekend.
Although they were a little weaker than they had been against Morinville, Callihoo said Barrhead controlled the match well and won both sets 25-21.
“It wasn’t 100 per cent comfortable all the way through, but it was a good showing for sure,” he said.
Morinville itself went on to win the bronze medal match. Callihoo noted the fact that Barrhead and Morinville each made the playoff rounds for provincials two years in a row was indicative of the calibre of volleyball in this zone.
“We’ve really done a good job with our programs and there’s a lot of good players. It’s tough even to get out of this zone,” he said.
