The Estevan Comprehensive School Elecs junior boys volleyball team failed to make it out of the round-robin portion of the district championship tournament held on Thursday in Manor, but the players continued improvement has their coach looking ahead to better days.
“I’m excited for the future,” said Elecs coach Kevin Perkins. “We didn’t have a great season, but it’s kind of a rebuilding year. We’ll be ready to go for next year and the senior program will be strong for next year. Volleyball is looking good.”
The Elecs finished fourth out of five teams at the district championships, losing their final game 25-18, 25-12 to the host Manor Mustangs. In total the team played four matches of two sets a piece, in which they went 2-6 in sets played.
Perkins said the Elecs had only played in one tournament as well as a few exhibition games over the season and that contributed to their showing at districts. He said the team even seemed to play better as the district tournament went along both with positioning and in play calling, so a few more matches beforehand would have proved fruitful.
The hope is they’ll be able to secure more tournament action next season for the junior Elecs, said Perkins, noting they will have nine eligible players available to return. He said the high number of returnees should make for strong squads next year both in the junior and senior ranks.
“We have some great players coming from the junior program and I would suspect that they are going to be, even as Grade 10s, on the senior team next year,” he said. “We have some height and we have some excitement and all the kids are amazing young men. There are never any behaviour issues. They are all good kids. I’m excited. I think we’ll be in good shape.”
