When every single team in a league advances to the championship tournament, you know you’ve got a good thing going.
For the first time, all eight teams in the Lower Mainland Independent Secondary School Athletic Association are in the running to attend the BC School Sport senior girls volleyball championships next month.
Five of six Vancouver schools have qualified for BCs at the AA and AAA levels and one more plays in a wildcard playoff this weekend in the Okanagan. (Sports teams throughout the province are classified A through 4A based on senior girls or boys respective school population. There is no 4A in senior boys volleyball but is for senior girls.)
“It shows you the strength of our league, again,” said Chris Ruse, a teacher at York House and a former head coach of the AA Tigers who finished second at this year’s Lower Mainland qualifying tournament.
At the AAA level, Little Flower Academy and Crofton House will advance to provincials. At AA, the qualifying teams are St. Patrick’s, York House and Notre Dame, while West Point Grey Academy must finish in the top two at a backdoor tournament this weekend. The seasons are still alive for the remaining two Burnaby teams in the LMISSAA: Carver Christian will compete at the single-A provincial championship, and St. Thomas More will try to qualify for AAs along with WPGA.
(The LMISSAA plays in a league distinct from the city school districts of Richmond, Burnaby and Vancouver. Vancouver secondary schools play in the VSSAA. After respective league champions have been decided at city playoffs, each league's top teams compete against one another at the regional level, in this case the Lower Mainland championships, which is a qualifying tournament for the BC Championship. Each league is allocated a number of berths to the regional tournament. Similarily, once at the regional tournament, teams compete for a finite number of seats at the the provincial championship. The berths are based on the number of teams in each league and region.)
The St. Patrick's Celtics finished in first place at the AA regional championship after leading the LMISSAA with a 6-1 record, and St. Pat’s head coach Adele Renzullo said the already competitive private school league benefitted from that tournament opening to more teams than in previous seasons.
“Our league this year was amazing,” said Renzullo. “So strong.”
The reason all eight LMISSAA teams stand to advance is because the Lower Mainland AA and AAA tournaments expanded from eight to 12 teams.
(However, six teams at the AA level backed out of the Lower Mainland tournament, so it remained an eight-team tourney. The VSSAA has two AA schools with senior girls volleyball teams, King George and Britannia, but both teams opted out because coaches felt they would not be competitive after finishing near the bottom of the VSSAA and failing to even qualify for the city championship tournament. Instead, the spent school fees to play in alternate tournaments during the fall. Teams from Richmond and Burnaby decided to not play either. The tournament was reduced to eight teams, so all teams that wanted to compete did, said the regional convenor Ross Ballard, also a teacher at Little Flower Academy.)
The initial jump from eight to 12 teams meant LMISSAA contenders weren’t facing the end of their season before playoffs really got started. They were not battling each other for berths and, instead, were all able to show what they could do at the regional level this season.
“We are no longer knocking each other out of contention before Lower Mainlands and are representing our league at provincials because of it,” said Ruse. “Eight teams in the league and all eight at the provincial championships --- we must be doing something right.”
At the AAA tournament, Little Flower Academy and Crofton House finished first and second after an electric final hosted by the Angels.
Ross Ballard, the head coach of the LFA Angles for the past eight seasons, says the league’s depth comes from a competitive spirit as well as coaching experience and stability.
“It is a testament to the consistency of coaching as well as the quality of coaching. Many of the teams in our league have long-time coaches who are both teachers and coaches at their respective schools and that type of consistency at the very top makes all the difference in my opinion,” he said.
The AA BC Championship is in Abbotsford and the AAA BC Championship is in Kelowna. Both run from Nov. 30 to Dec. 3.
Twitter: @MHStewart
