In volleyball, playoff time, is Camosun’s time
From coaching Camosun College to calling the spikes, sets and digs in the CBC broadcast booth at the Olympics, there isn’t much that former national team player Charles Parkinson hasn’t viewed in volleyball.
And right now, the view from where he sits looks pretty darn good.
The same for Camosun College women’s coach Chris Dahl.
Not only do the two Camosun teams avoid the ferry lineups for the Pacwest conference playoffs, beginning Thursday at Vancouver Island University, but the Chargers are charging hard toward the national spotlight beyond Pacwest.
The women’s Chargers will host the 2017 Canadian Colleges Athletic Association championship March 9-11, and the men’s Chargers the 2018 CCAA nationals the following year. Not bad for a former group of nomadic wanderers who called a series of high school gyms home. That all changed with the coming of the Pacific Institute for Sport Excellence Gymnasium on the Camosun Interurban campus, a complex shared with Olympians and national teamers in various sports, and the permanent home of Chargers volleyball.
It opened new vistas for the Chargers.
“The gym has given us national status and helped build our program and gave us the opportunity to host . . . it’s a real tip of the hat to Camosun and all the players who came before,” said Dahl, in his seventh season with the Chargers.
Although it doesn’t matter how well sixth-seed Camosun does this week at the Pacwest championships at VIU — the Chargers are guaranteed a spot in the nationals as host — they have been careful not to look too far ahead.
“Having an automatic berth into nationals has, for us, highlighted our focus in bold print,” said Dahl, the CCAA national women’s volleyball coach of the year in 2014-15 for guiding the Chargers to third place in Canada.
“It has allowed us to be curious and explore our season in a unique kind of way and try a lot of things.”
The Chargers open Thursday in the Pacwest tournament against third-seed Capilano College.
The host VIU Mariners are the top seed at 19-5.
In Pacwest men’s, meanwhile, the Chargers are gunning for the conference three-peat. Overall, Camosun has won the men’s conference championship four times in Parkinson’s eight previous seasons of guiding the Chargers, including also capturing the 2014-15 CCAA national crown. Any coach batting .500 in conference titles is doing something right.
With that comes the challenge to keep the express moving this week at the Pacwest tournament in Nanaimo.
“When you win championships, you have a bull’s eye on your back,” said Parkinson.
Several of the Chargers players who won the last two Pacwest championships have moved on, as is the nature of college sports. That includes former Camosun star and Pacwest and CCAA national MVP Cam Fennema, now in U Sports with the UBC Thunderbirds. But Parkinson knows how to restock the floor. When you have a championship pedigree, that’s what you also look for in recruiting. Camosun features two standout freshmen, setter Kyle Bourdon and outside-hitter Cole Beevor-Potts, teammates last season on the B.C. high school champion Oak Bay Barbers. Another impact Chargers freshman is Matt Bowers from Milton, Ont. The veteran stability is provided by fifth-year hitter Savana Walkingbear from Thunderchild, Sask.
“We’ve had a tradition of success . . . and winning attracts players,” added Parkinson, a member of the B.C. Volleyball Hall of Fame.
The Chargers go into the Pacwest playoffs as the third seed.
“We’ll be in the hunt,” said Parkinson.
“To win any championship, you need to be steady, healthy and a little bit lucky.”
Host VIU has been having an outstanding season and won the regular season at 21-3, followed in the top three by the Fraser Valley Cascades at 17-7 and Camosun at 14-10. The Chargers open Thursday against sixth-seed Capilano College (10-14).