Kodiaks claim Super Series title
Prince George has a long history of producing quality volleyball players.
The 12 players who form the Prince George Kodiaks Red under-15 girls team which won a 34-team provincial Super Series tournament two weekends ago in Langley have a prime example behind the bench coaching them.
Kodiaks assistant coach Jordan Drezet, a Grande Prairie Regional College alumnus and Prince George secondary school grad, just came back from playing pro volleyball in Germany.
Considering the talent they have assembled this year on the U-15 Kodiaks, the coaching staff headed by Cam Young has a few good reasons to believe some of their players could have what it takes to follow a similar path to college and even pro volleyball futures.
Their tournament result last weekend helped reinforce that belief.
In six matches at the double-A tournament the Kodiaks lost just two sets. They defeated Velocity, a team from the Lower Mainland, in straight sets in the tournament final, winning 25-16, 25-19, after sweeping the Seaside Surf in the semifinal round.
The tournament was the first of three Super Series events, which determine provincial rankings and seedings for national and Western Canadian club volleyball championships that teams from the Prince George Volleyball Club will be targeting this spring.
The Kodiaks’ Super Series win was the first for any Prince George girls team since the under-14 girls won in 2012 in Kelowna.
The Kodiaks roster includes: Ashleigh Evans, Taylor Salton, Sophie Martin, Emily Bast, Kendra Nicholson, Macyn Unger, Sophie O’Rourke, Claire Brown, Rachel Young, Karynn Hampe, Taryn Atkinson and Brooklyn Van Camp. Mackenzie Van Spengen and J.P. Martin also coach the team, which evolved from a group of 10- and 11-year-olds Young and J.P. Martin began grooming nearly three years ago.
Unger a 13-year-old Grade 8 student at Duchess Park, is considered one of the top volleyball players in the province and she showed how dominant she can be playing against some of the better teams during the tournament.
“She played power hitter most of the weekend,” said Young. “When you hear (baseball players) Mike Trout and Bryce Harper are five-tool players, Macyn is a sixtool volleyball player. She serves, she hits, she blocks, she digs, she passes and she sets – she’s good at everything.
“What else can I say about her that just about every other parent and coach down there didn’t say to me all weekend long. She was amazing.”
Young said the other Kodiaks did their jobs as well, coming up with spectacular digs, timely blocks and strong serving. Whenever possible they tried to get the ball to setter Evans, whose job was to feed it to the five-foot-eight Unger for the final spike or tip at the net.
“It finally came together,” said Young. “Three years ago our first real game was against Thunder Blue, a top team in the province at the time, and we lost to them 15-12 in the third set. J.P. and I said, “We’re close, we can play with these guys,’ and we’ve been telling the girls that for three years and they finally proved themselves against the best of the best.”
Nine of the 12 players made the trip to Langley. The other three Kodiaks had other commitments with their ringette or basketball teams.
Young said some of his players have encountered some resistance from their coaches in other sports who don’t want them to play volleyball during the winter months, when the high school volleyball season has already ended.
“When other sports are telling girls on my team, ‘Why are you wasting your time playing volleyball?’ I’ve got a real issue with that,” said Young.
“Look at how many people have played at other universities and how many have gone on to play pro out of Prince George, or how many people have played on the national team out of Prince George. I will put volleyball against any other sport, almost including hockey.”