Apparently, going through that whole taxing process didn't sit all that well with the team.
So when it came time to do it again this past weekend, they decided to just go out and make it all look easy.
The Vikings swept through the tournament, losing a single set in the round robin before blasting through the playoff round without dropping a game. The end result saw the squad honoured with a school-wide assembly on Monday morning after winning the provincial title for the second-straight year.
“From the outside it might have looked like a stress-free weekend, but living it, the boys knew what level they had to be at to be successful and they worked hard to reach that level,” said Vikings head coach Levi Broda. “I feel like we were the most complete team, we were able to utilize all of our offensive weapons and had great defence. The peak level we got to around playoff time was something that even myself, I don't know if even I was confident we could get to that level, but the boys performed extremely well.”
The key, naturally, was how things were running in all facets of the game. But Broda pointed to their balanced offence as having the biggest impact on the tournament.
“There were teams there that had really elite offensive weapons, but the bottom line was with our balanced attack, we were able to run an offence that produced a lot of free balls,” Broda explained. “When you get free balls, their weapons aren't being utilized. So that was important for us throughout the weekend.”
A major part of any volleyball offence is the setter. Grade 12 veteran Kyle Gotana battled injury at provincials last season, but there were no such difficulties this time around, and with the offence running through such an experienced player things were smooth from the get go.
“It's something that Mr. Broda had us working on every day, to be able to run those good plays and get the ball down,” Gotana said said of their refined performance. “It's just unreal, especially being able to do it in my Grade 12 year. It got a bit emotional at the end, but I was able to keep it together and to be able to do it with all my friends was amazing, we're just like family.”
Of course, Gotana had to get the ball to his hitters to have success. That's where terrifying smashing machines like Sam Moyse, Josh Auger and Nathan Meili came in, leading to a kill parade like no other.
“It was awesome,” Meili said of the win. “There were still some really good teams there, but it was our Grade 12 year, so we wanted to play as well as we can and hopefully it ends up well, and that's what happened. It's pretty cool to end off my high school career like that.”
And then there was the hallmark of the 2018 team, their defence. Broda made special mention of libero Carter Benallick, who played the purely defensive position all four years of his high school career and evolved into a top-flight dig specialist.
“There's a mindset that no ball is going to hit the floor, and it starts with [Benallick],” Broda said. “Other teams, he's the first player they identify, 'your libero is incredible', and for a kid to accept that roll for four years is super unheard of. But he just embraced the roll and our team was able to take advantage of how well he played.”
In Benallick's eyes, it was all just doing what he could to help the team win.
“To be honest, I wasn't tall enough to be anything else in Grade 9 and Grade 10, so I thought I'd just stick with it,” he said. “There's nothing like digging the ball for your team and making a big play to get the guys going.
“It was just unreal all weekend and especially in the playoffs, our team just clicked like never before. Guys who don't talk very much were fired up, we were going all weekend and had our best games. It was awesome.”
Every single person in this photo won a Saskatchewan High Schools Athletic Association gold medal in the past month: the Vanier Spirits girls soccer team, the Vanier Spirits girls volleyball team and the Vanier Vikings boys volleyball team.A winning run like no other
The Vikings victory capped what has been an unprecedented season of success for the local high school.
And by season, we're not talking sports. We're talking the literal season of autumn.
That's because Vanier's win was the third SHSAA provincial title for the school since the end of October.
It all started with the Vanier Spirits girls soccer team, kicking off a trend where the school would hold the aforementioned assemblies to honour their provincial champions. There was another morning mass gathering a month later, when the Vanier Spirits won the 4A girls volleyball title. And only a week later, this past Monday, it was the Vikings' turn.
To say the level of success has been stunning is as severe an understatement as there can be – and even the architects of the amazing runs are in disbelief with what they've seen.
“It was never something we would have thought we would have been experiencing, we're just so proud of our programs,” Broda said. “We're just rolling, everything is coming together. We want to enjoy the moment, have these assemblies and meet together as a school and celebrate.”
The scary part? This winning has actually been going on since the fall of 2018.
Allison Grajczyk-Jelinski started it all off with her provincial cross country title and was followed by the Vikings with their first title a month later. Then came the track and field provincial championships and Delaney Townsend's gold in javelin, Zidane Closs' title in high jump and the overall 3A team title for Vaner.
Add in the current run and you have no less than seven provincial championships for the Spirits and Vikings in the last 14 months.
The rather funny part of it all is for the school's younger students, winning provincials is all they've known and might come to expect.
“You see the Grade 9s just coming in here and I wonder if they realize this isn't the norm, this isn't happening anywhere else,” Broda said with a laugh. “So we're trying to allow the kids to celebrate these successes, and the results of this will be seen for years. Kids will realize we can be successful at this school, we are successful at this school and we'll try to keep it that way going forward.”
