Serving up a cheer
Mid-season bragging rights on the line
Jesse Reusser, left, Joel Gingerich, Ryan Lee and Daniel Martin from Rockway Mennonite Collegiate cheer after their team scored a point on Resurrection Catholic Secondary School in senior boys volleyball on Wednesday at Resurrection.
KITCHENER — Lukas Winter admits the Rockway Flames have a challenging task ahead.
Challenging, he said, but doable.
The Flames will host the Woodland Cavaliers on Monday for mid-season bragging rights in the District 8 senior boys volleyball league. Both teams will enter the showdown with 6-0 records after posting victories on Wednesday — the Flames scored a 3-1(29-31, 25-11, 25-21, 25-11) decision over the Resurrection Phoenix, and the Cavaliers pitched a 3-0 (25-11, 25-3, 25-14) shutout against the Monsignor Doyle Mustangs.
“That’s the big one for us and we’re really looking forward to it, that’s our biggest rival,” said Winter, the Flames’ left-side hitter, after his team’s win over ‘Rez.’
“I know some of the guys on (Woodland) and they’re just strong overall and very well-coached, so it’s going to take all we’ve got, but I think we can do it.”
Woodland has dominated the single-A rivalry for schools with fewer than 500 students in recent years, having won eight consecutive Central Western Ontario titles dating back to 2006. Rockway hasn’t won a CWOSSA single-A crown since 2001, the final year of an eight-year run that started in 1994.
The Flames received a first-set wake-up call from the Phoenix on Wednesday, before taking the final three sets in convincing fashion.
Grade 12 starters Spencer Kschesinski, Julian Lichty, Connor Huxman and Winter were part of last year’s team that lost to the eventual champion St. Mary’s Eagles in the District 8 playoffs, while Grade 11starters Jesse Reusser and Zach Kehl were part of the junior team that lost to Woodland in the D8 final.
Rockway’s small student population is an asset in terms of team unity, said Winter.
“The small school thing really helps us, because we’re all friends. We’re with each other all the time and I think that makes for a stronger team,” he said.
“To come into a large school like (Resurrection) and do well, that really feels good for us.”
The Phoenix dropped to 3-3 in the District 8 standings, but are a contender in the race to advance to the CWOSSA quad-A champi- onship for schools with at least 1,250 students. St. Benedict (3-2) and St. Mary’s (1-4) are the other quad-A schools with CWOSSA aspirations.
Phoenix power Jack Quirke agrees it will be a tough task to defeat the smaller schools for the D8 title, but remains hopeful his squad can make it to CWOSSA.
“(Rockway and Woodland) just have really good volleyball programs, year after year. Their coaches are great and they just seem to turn out volleyball players,” said Quirke.
“We’d still like to get past Bennies and get to CWOSSA though. They’ve really turned it around this year, but we believe we can get past them.”
Winter meanwhile, is hoping Rockway students show up in large numbers and make plenty of noise for Monday’s showdown.
St. David (3-3), Père-René-de-Galinée (1-5) and Monsignor Doyle (0-6) are also in the league.