If you witnessed a North Shore regular season or playoff match involving one of Handsworth secondary’s four top volleyball teams this season, you can be sure about one key fact: the Royals won the match.
In a smashing show of success, Handsworth girls won the North Shore bantam (Grade 8), juvenile (Grade 9), junior (Grade 10) and senior high school leagues and playoffs without losing a single match, the four teams combining to go 38-0 during that stretch.
“I don’t know how it happened. All of a sudden everyone was just winning – it was just crazy,” said the man at the top of the chain, senior head coach Tom Oxland. “It’s just been incredible. I think what’s been most impressive is that for pretty much all the teams throughout the league and most of the playoffs, they’re playing all their players.”
This season’s perfect score may be an anomaly, but for many years Handsworth has housed a powerhouse volleyball program. The No. 1 secret to that success is likely a culture within the school that elevates volleyball near the top of the cultural hierarchy, making the court a cool place to be, said Oxland.
“I coached Grade 8 a few years ago and we had probably 70 kids trying out for two teams, 24 spots,” he said. “Since we have been successful for a long time, we have a culture where a lot of the athletic girls want to play volleyball. … I think that culture does go a long way.”
With athletic players lining up to hit the court, it’s then up to the school’s coaches to implement a winning formula which, Oxland said, ironically doesn’t emphasize winning.
“The philosophy is player development – to try to develop every players to be as good as they can possibly be,” he said. “That’s what’s funny – winning is not the philosophy. … At the younger levels it’s all about player development – really aim for equal playing time, do as well as you can in terms of coaching them, but then give them the opportunity to play, and don’t worry about winning. But then we always say if you do a good enough job with the player development, the winning takes care of itself.”
The winning continued at the zone level with Handsworth teams claiming the Lower Mainland title at the senior level and Vancouver and District crowns in junior and juvenile. The one blemish on the record was the bantam team, which lost to Elphinstone 2-1 in a thriller of a V&D final.
“They lost 15-13, the poor kids,” said Oxland with a chuckle.
As for the seniors, they knocked off Carson Graham in the semifinals and Lord Byng in the final to claim the Lower Mainland title over the weekend. The Royals are hoping to keep that winning culture alive for a couple more weeks as Handsworth will team up with West Vancouver secondary to host the senior girls AAAA provincial championships Dec. 1-3. Handsworth will enter the tournament as one of the top-5 teams, but there will be other, higher-ranked contenders such as Surrey’s Earl Marriot and a pair of Victoria schools, Mount Douglas and Belmont.
“Our kids are playing well and they know it, but you’ve got to respect every team that you play,” said Oxland. “There are so many good teams at the AAAA level, you just want to go and compete every match. … From the quarterfinals onwards it’s going to be really tough matches. But if you’re there, you can win them.”
The draw isn’t set yet but the Royals know that they’ll get to play some of their opening round games in their home gym during school hours, which should make for some noisy points.
“When you’re hosting, the Thursday of provincials is just so exciting,” said Oxland. “The stands are going to be full of their classmates. … I just know it’s going to be loud and very boisterous, very supportive for the kids. That’s just really exciting.”
For updated schedules and results of the AAAA provincial championship tournament visit aaaabcsgvb2016.com.