Senior girls volleyball teams across the North Shore may finally be breathing a sigh of relief: the age of the Handsworth Oxlands has finally ended.
In a family of four daughters with a talented head coach for a father, the Oxlands have spent more than a decade smashing Handsworth to the top of the standings.
Youngest daughter Kayla Oxland was the last to wear the Royal colours, helping this year’s Handsworth team earn provincial AAAA silver for the second straight season. The setter was named a first-team all-star following Handsworth’s loss in the final to the Belmont Bulldogs, a powerhouse team that won gold by topping the Royals in straight sets for the second year in a row.
Of course volleyball is the ultimate team game, and coach Tom Oxland was quick to praise all of his players for their showing at this year’s tournament that saw them start as the No. 3 seed and make a run all the way to the final Saturday at the Langley Events Centre.
“This team was so resilient,” said coach Oxland. “We’re not a very big team, we didn’t scare anybody. We’re pretty short, but we could pass well, we could play good defence and we were pretty tough. We got down to teams and we didn’t give up.”
The Royals needed to be resilient as they battled through two five-set matches on the way to the finals. The first came in the quarterfinals against Cranbrook’s Mount Baker Secondary. Handsworth won the first two sets and then dropped the third and fourth before finally clinching the win in the fifth. The script was the same in the semifinal, as Handsworth won the first two against second-ranked Surrey powerhouse Earl Marriott before dropping the next two. The fourth set was especially ugly for the Royals as the Mariners blasted their way to a 25-9 win.
“We just got crushed in the fourth set,” said Oxland. “I said to the kids, we beat Mount Baker in five. Let’s go out, hope we get up to a good start.”
The Royals did get out to a good start and rode it to the win to earn a berth in the final.
“The kids showed a lot of heart,” said Oxland. The run for gold ended, however, when Handsworth met Belmont in the gold medal game. The Bulldogs returned their full starting lineup from last year’s championship team.
“They were playing so well, nobody really challenged them in the tournament,” said Oxland. “They lost one set the whole tournament. They beat us pretty good, three straight. Just like last year.”
Belmont’s Savannah Purdy was named MVP for the second straight year, while Handsworth’s Courtney Steele was named the tournament’s top libero.
Oxland also credited Danica Dickinson, Grade 12 co-captain along with Kayla, for leading the team in the tournament.
“She was always just a great leader out there all year. At the end of the Earl Marriot match she got a couple of really important kills. All year she was playing at a very, very high level.”
For the Oxland family Kayla’s first-team all-star selection was the last in a long line of accolades earned during careers that started with famed backyard games at the family’s North Vancouver home. Rebecca Oxland was the first to shine, earning provincial all-star status three years in a row from 2006 to 2008. Emily Oxland was next up, winning tournament MVP honours in 2009 and 2010 – her Grade 10 and 11 years – while helping the Royals claim three straight provincial titles.
Finally it was Kayla’s turn, as she was named a first-team all-star three straight years as the Royals won gold in 2015 and silver in 2016 and 2017.
Many strong players have passed through the Handsworth program through those years, but the biggest wins usually came with someone named Oxland playing the setter position. Rebecca and Emily went on to play university volleyball while Kayla is slated to join the powerhouse Thunderbirds team at UBC next season.
It’s quite the run for the Oxlands, but coach Tom was quick to note that the Handsworth volleyball tradition runs much deeper than just one family.
“The program will go on,” he said with a laugh. “Certainly Rebecca, Emily and Kayla have made their mark, that’s for sure, but we’ve got a lot of talented Grade 11 and Grade 10s. … There’s lots of talent coming along. I think the program will actually be quite healthy for the next few years.”
Tom has been at the helm for a lot of those big wins, but said it’s too early to know if he’ll be back on the bench next season seasons.
“It’s been great fun,” he said. “It’s an honour to coach at a school like this, and the kids have been committed, really great.”
This year’s team was a favourite for Oxland not because they overpowered people but because they did all the little things needed to get the most out of their talents.
“It was a really resilient group,” he said. “We’ve had teams in the past, like when Rebecca played, that were big and powerful teams with a bunch of provincial team players. This team was a lot smaller and had to win on good serving, good passing – kind of the core skills in volleyball. … It was really great to coach a team that has values of core passing and defence skills.”
