MOOSEJAWTODAY.COM -- The Central Cyclones turned out to be the host with the most during the Saskatchewan High Schools Athletic Association 4A boys provincial championship this past weekend in Moose Jaw.
The Cyclones dropped a single match throughout the weekend and went on to claim the school’s first gold medal in 11 years, defeating the Humboldt Mohawks 25-18, 25-20 in the championship game Saturday evening at Sask Polytech.
“Going into it I was hoping we’d place podium, but getting gold is way higher than anyone expected. I think the guys played good, we kept our energy… it’s hard to describe,” said Cyclones Grade 12 captain Riley Nancarrow. “Senior year, hosting, it’s amazing. Especially since we hadn’t won it in 11 years, it’s a great feeling.”
Central had a perfect Friday, defeating Humboldt 25-18, 25-22, downing Lumsden 25-11, 25-21 and getting past Yorkton Sacred Heart 25-13, 25-18. Things didn’t go as well for the reigning city champions in their final round robin game Saturday morning, as they dropped a 21-25, 25-18, 15-12 decision to North Battleford John Paul II, who finished first in the pool with a perfect record.
As it turns out, that would be Central’s last loss on the weekend.
“It feels really good, I’m really happy,” said Cyclones senior Max Simmons, whose work on the front row gave Humboldt fits all through the gold medal final. “We worked hard all season for this and it finally paid off… it was a lot of hard work, a lot of focus and team effort overall.”
Central defeated Melfort 25-16, 25-21 in their quarter-final match-up and ran into a familiar foe in the Vanier Vikings in the semifinal. That would turn into a barnburner, with the Vikings winning the first set 25-17 before Central rallied for 25-12 and 15-7 wins in the next two sets.
“I think we came out with a little bit of expectation, based on our previous matches with Vanier, and they’re a good team and they really caught us off guard,” said Central head coach Shaelyn Ramage. “It was a battle we had to work through, we were able to push through in the second set and come out with the win.”
That sent the Cyclones into the gold medal game, and while Humboldt was able to keep things close much of the second set, Central proved to have too many weapons on both offence and defence, and the gold medal would be theirs in two sets.
“It’s awesome. I can’t even put words to it, we’ve been working all year for this and it’s just been a blast of a season,” said Grade 12 libero Nathan Pisio, who was targeted regularly on Humboldt’s serve and did an excellent job setting up his teammates in the win. “We knew that it had been 11 years since we’d last won a volleyball championship at Central, so we’re all really happy. This is an amazing team, and it’s great to have won it.”
Ramage was of much the same opinion, especially with how her team rebounded from their loss Saturday morning and kept the pedal down the rest of the way.
“There were a lot of upsets this weekend, a lot of teams came to play, and I’m just really proud of the boys,” she said. “They were fearless, they didn’t play it safe and I’m really happy with their performance… We say ‘no excuses and no regrets’, and we were able to say today we had no regrets after this match. We really went after it and played our best.”
With their most successful season in over a decade now behind them, the question now is if a dynasty could be in order. That’ll be the goal going forward, especially with the number of quality players coming up through the ranks.
“We’ve worked to build a developmental program that feeds from the bottom up,” Ramage said. “We have a mix of younger and older guys and had some Grade 10s come up with us… honestly, everyone contributes to the game, everyone contributed this weekend, everyone got on the court and it was a team win.”
The Vikings would go on to to pick up a medal of their own, defeating North Battleford John Paul II 25-21, 14-25, 15-7 in the bronze medal game. Be sure to check back soon for more on their victory.
