The Capilano University men’s volleyball team is a very young squad, boasting only three players who aren’t raw rookies, and for the most part they’ve played like it.
Coming into the winter term the Blues sit in sixth place in the seven-team PacWest league with a 4-8 record. There is, however, one shining gold star on their resume that has the team convinced that on the right day, they can beat anyone. In mid-November the Blues travelled to Nanaimo where they took on the powerhouse Vancouver Island Mariners in a pair of matches.
In the first match Capilano fell behind 0-2 but won three straight to claim a thrilling five-set victory. The next night the match followed a very similar script with the Blues battling back from an 0-2 deficit to force a fifth set, but this time they couldn’t quite complete the comeback as the Mariners claimed the final frame 15-12.
It was still, however, an epic accomplishment, as the Mariners would go through the rest of the term without losing another match, and with their current 11-1 record in PacWest play VIU is ranked No. 2 in the country. For second-year Capilano head coach Emmanuel Denguessi, the series was a revelation.
“That’s kind of the sunrise that comes after many months of darkness,” he said with a laugh. “You see that and you hold onto that.”
The series may have been sunrise for the team, but the Blues haven’t been able to shine that brightly on a consistent basis.
“In terms of numbers, it’s not what we want,” Denguessi said about the team’s record, adding that they can’t spend all season dreaming about the time they beat VIU. “It shows us something: that we can compete with all of the teams. On a good day, we can beat anyone. But I think we need to be able to repeat this kind of performance, which is very hard when you have a lot of freshman. But our goal right now for the players is to have that game as a reference, but not just as ‘we have done that,’ but ‘we should do that every single day.’”
With their freshmen-heavy lineup, the Blues are by definition a rebuilding program, but Denguessi has added a new wrinkle to the process. Before this season, he went about creating a team that was an academic powerhouse as well as an athletic one, with the goal of having a team GPA of 3.0. He recruited players who fit that philosophy, and the team GPA now sits at around 2.8, he said. It’s an important part of the student-athlete balance, said Denguessi, who knows from experience. The former Cameroonian national team member started his own college career at Capilano University and managed to make academic all-Canadian status despite struggling to learn English when he first arrived.
“It’s feasible,” he said about excelling on the court and in the classroom, “and I want to encourage my athletes to do the same. … They have been selected purposely because they were academic-oriented guys in high school. The message wasn’t hard to sell, and they have embraced that.”
The strategy is one unique way to combat the major challenge of coaching men’s volleyball at Capilano: the lack of a high school league for boys on the North Shore. With very few elite boys coming out of the North Shore, coaches must look elsewhere for players. Denguessi, however, said he chooses to sees the situation as an opportunity, not a frustration.
“If it was frustration, I would have left the job,” he said with a laugh. “I want to look at that on the positive side. We have to look at what do we have to offer to attract people. If a player can leave Saskatchewan to come to Vancouver, there is something that those particular universities do. I think by being a strong academic and athletic program – in addition to that, the North Shore is a beautiful place to live – but we need to find a way to sell that program.”
The Blues have managed to attract talented players who have smashed their way up the PacWest leaderboards. Veteran middle John De La Cruz and setter Simon Friesen are the team’s anchors, said Denguessi, with rookies Justin Yee, Jonathan Lee and Mattis Wels-Lopez stepping into lead roles as well.
Yee, a graduate of Burnaby’s Moscrop secondary, has taken an interesting route to becoming the team leader in kills and total offence. Yee, who is listed at 5-11, was recruited as the backup setter but one day during practice asked the coaches if he could try out right side hitter. The switch has worked out well.
“He’s been able to surpass our expectations,” said Denguessi. “We said we were going to give him a chance to show off what he could do, and we found out that he has been one of our most consistent power hitters, with a very good serve.”
Meanwhile Lee, a graduate of Vancouver’s David Thompson secondary, has shone as the team’s libero. He’s currently second in the league in digs.
“We knew that he was a solid player, that he was a first-year who was going to give us great play,” said Denguessi. “That wasn’t a surprise for us.”
The third rookie is a rare specimen, a North Shore-based player. Argyle grad Mattis Wels-Lopez picked up the sport playing club volleyball and now as a rookie he leads the Blues in blocks.
“He loved the game, and his parents listened to that and allowed him to cross the bridge to play,” Denguessi said about how Wels-Lopez picked up the game despite not having a high school league to play in.
The Blues, despite their up-and-down play, are still poised to make the playoffs. Six of the seven PacWest squads will earn tickets to the provincial championships, and seventh-place Columbia Bible College is currently sitting at 0-12. With a playoff appearance likely on the horizon, Denguessi said the team will spend the rest of the season gearing up for a championship run.
“All the games will be momentum builders,” he said. “We looked at the first half as learning for the guys who hadn’t played post-secondary volleyball and were discovering the league. Now it’s execution. … The guys know our goal is to be on the podium. We’re going to prepare for that, and our game hasn’t put us far from that goal.”
No matter what happens between now and playoffs, the Blues will always have the confidence they gained in their battles against VIU.
“Repeat that performance – that means winning three times (at provincials) – and that means being provincial champion,” said Denguessi. “That’s the message that we tell them: To not look at themselves as being young because they have shown with their youth and adding consistency into their game they can beat anyone. Even the best team in Canada.”
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The Blues host CBC Saturday, Jan. 7 with the women starting at 5 p.m. and the men to follow at approximately 7 p.m. Capilano will then be back at the Sportsplex Jan. 14 for matches against the University of the Fraser Valley, with the women hitting the court at 6 p.m. and the men to follow at approximately 8 p.m.
