The campaign began last year during Term 4 where the returning 4 senior players met the many new youngsters brought up from the junior team in their first tournament together.
The Monday night inter-school league gave us an opportunity to mesh as a team and get to know each other's strengths and weaknesses before the important tournaments coming in January the following year. Although our team bond was unbreakable, we weren’t able to take away any placings from the regional tournaments held here in Christchurch.
Joining the boys volleyball programme for the second year were coaches Sam O’Neill and Ben Laing. Without these two fine men our team wouldn’t have been what it was. Their encouragement to always improve lead to individual success where a large number of junior members went on to represent Canterbury in the annual inter-provincial tournament. Coaches Sam and Ben’s dedication, which saw them give up many hours of their own time, was much appreciated by the players, parents, and the staff. We look forward to seeing the teams success in the future with these coaches at the bobsled lead.
The hype leading up to Nationals was short-lived but was memorable on so many different levels. It meant the team could learn important values of how to work together. However we had a specific low when Tod, the new Year 13 to the team, received an injury during Canterbury Champs which lead to the team losing a player. With one man down and a big journey ahead we persevered, preparing for Nationals despite having only three Year 13s. The coaches were adamant to lead us to success, yet we fell short losing the playoff for the top spot in Div 3.