Submitted by Dan Gimon

Published April 10 2018

Everyone was very excited about going to Windsor to compete at the A OFSAA (Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations) volleyball championship last month but a little nervous at the same time.

Day one was the first match against first overall seed St. Mary’s from St. Mary’s (near Stratford) on March 5. The team lost 12-25 8-25. The girls were staying even with them in the first set up until about the 10 point mark. That’s when the nerves kicked in they got tight stopped communicating and weren’t themselves. The trend continued and they lost the second set.

The team’s second match against John McGregor from Chatham should have been a win as I believe this was the weakest team in our pool. Our girls showed some grit in the first set losing a close one 21-25 but then the nerves came back and they lost the second set 9-25.

We had a good meeting after day one and did some reflecting. We watched a replay of the second match and talked about what we could do better. We changed the focus to working hard and feeling good about themselves after a match win or lose.

On day two the Hawks played their third match against Ursula Franklin Academy (Toronto). It was their best match on March 6. We played hard and made UFA work for everything. Lost 17-25 19-25.

The fourth match was against a very tall St. Thomas Aquinas team from Kenora. The girls played well but were just outsized at the net. Lost 14-2513-25.

The second day was much better than the first because they did take our meeting to heart and did leave it all on the court and felt like they played the best that they could. I was very proud of the way they played and pleased to see them come back after a not-so-great day one.

In the previous articles I spoke about the various other coaches in the HHSS volleyball program but failed to mention the most important coach of all Steve Smith! I guess we tend to overlook the obvious sometimes. My apologies Steve.

Steve has been a fixture in the program long before I even came to Haliburton as a resident. He has coached and developed a countless number of girls throughout his time here. Last year he coached both the juniors and the seniors here at HHSS which meant practicing before and after school with his full-time job in between! Thanks Steve for your dedication guidance assistance expertise cheerful demeanour and just overall presence! I know (and hope) you’ll be here for years to come.