An impressive season concluded in dominant fashion last Thursday.
The North Battleford Comprehensive High School Vikings captured the Battle West District Championship in Medstead following a straight set win over the Unity Warriors in the final.
“Overall, it was a much stronger brand of volleyball compared to what happened to us the previous weekend when we were in the tournament at John Paul II,” Vikings head coach Jeff Gibson said. “They took us to a really close three-set battle in the final and that turned out to be a good test for us to get us prepared for the districts.
“In the final against Unity they were quite aggressive with how they played, which is something we saw building from the first game of the tournament. Our defence was strong and our serving was very consistent, which made things a lot of fun.”
Thursday’s performance was typical of how the season has gone for the Vikings, which is made up entirely of Grade 9 players.
“That’s probably going to be the best junior volleyball team I’ll ever get to coach,” Gibson said. “It was pretty nice to be able to sit back and watch them play at times.
“It’s not very often that you have that many girls on a team that are very skilled at both serving and hitting. They are all pretty tall, too, and that makes them pretty tough to beat.”
In looking back on the season, which saw the Vikings win nine tournaments, Parsons believes that the final against the Crusaders in the district tournament in October helped his team finish the season on a strong note.
“We had a good talk at practice about playing with more urgency, which is something we lacked a little bit against John Paul II, especially on defence,” Gibson said.
“I’m not sure our discussion made that much of a difference, but the girls were definitely more dialed in on Thursday. They’ve all played a lot of volleyball through the club teams here, so they know what they have to do to win.”
The Crusaders, who lost to the Vikings in the semifinals, earned a bronze medal following a win over the Macklin Sabres.
When it comes to next season, the entire junior squad will be moving on as they look to make the senior Vikings team.
Gibson will also be part of that team, as he will be an assistant for head coach Jana Friedenstab.
“There will be some tough decisions when it comes to making that senior roster next season,” Gibson said.
“There’s a number of girls that are going to be returning from this year’s squad, so the tryouts will be very competitive.”
Bryan Cottini, who coached the Grade 8 Vikings girls’ team this year, is expected to take charge of the junior Vikings next fall.
