Sacred Heart High School (SHHS) Grade 9 girls hosted a six team volleyball tournament at the Halo Dome over the weekend. Team coach and tournament coordinator Brian Chisholm says the six team round robin tournament was very successful. "The thing I like about a six team round robin is you're busy, you're playing a lot. There's not a bunch of big gaps between games. The most you're going to have off is an hour," Chisholm states. Every team played five games in the round robin and then every team advanced to the playoff round.
The Grade 9 Lady Saints, playing in their first tournament of the year, struggled in their opening games. "Positionally we weren't sure where we needed to be and getting down on ourselves," Chisholm offers.
Coaching a new team every year in Grade 9 with players from at least four different schools presents a coaching challenge, he suggests. "It's all about getting them to come together and positioning and things of that nature," Chisholm explains.
As the tournament rolled along things improved, Chisholm reports. "We started coming together as a team and showing a lot of improvement throughout the course of the tournament," he claims.
The Grade 9 girls have three more tournaments including one in Weyburn where Chisholm hopes to get a little payback for the loss to Weyburn in the final at Sacred Heart.
The Weyburn Cobras emerged as tournament champions over runners up Sacred Heart Grade 9 Lady Saints. Following tournaments in Yorkton and Melville, the Grade 9 Lady Saints hope to repeat as district champions at the end of October. "We are looking forward to giving it our best shot and repeating as district champions again this year," Chisholm closes.
Grade 9 Lady Raiders coach Dee Dee Walker says the team played well at the Sacred Heart tournament recording five wins and five losses on the way to quarterfinal play.
