Grade 12 - Reflection - Athletics - Volleyball Coaching

       I have played volleyball for as long as I can remember at Collingwood. It is my favourite sport and I have been very involved throughout my years here. Unfortunately, I couldn't participate on the Sr. team this year because of school work and university applications. I wanted to play for the Stars Volleyball Club like I had done for the past three years in the Spring, but because of Grade 12 activities and other commitments, we didn't have enough girls for a team!

     After having shown interest in staying a part of the Stars and volleyball community in general, I was asked to Jr. Coach the U16 team with three of the other girls on my team from last year. Since January we have been present at every practice; running drills, helping out where needed, and being extra players if some of the team was missing. Every second weekend we would go to tournaments and be in charge of running warm-ups as well as taking stats on the bench and facilitating the time-outs and pep talks! I have thoroughly enjoyed being a part of this group and being in this new and different role. It has allowed me to stay involved in the sport that I love and inspire the younger girls to keep playing and to try their best. It has also strengthened my relationships with some of my old coaches and my former teammates, which I have really enjoyed.

   This year, our team qualified for Nationals in Regina, Saskatchewan! This was definitely the highlight of the year for both my self and the girls on the U16 team. We played very well and, although it might not have showed in the overall rankings, we gave 100% and played the best we has all season. This was an awesome experience for me because I had been on the player end of this trip and it was interesting to be on the coach end and see what goes on behind the scenes there.

     I hope this year I have inspired the girls to continue playing and have made their season all the more fun. I learned a lot this year about problem solving, organization, and time management from this opportunity and I am very glad to have had it. I hope next year at university I can play again myself and become more involved in the sport once again weather that be playing intermural or varsity volleyball for McGill!

Grade 12 - Highlight - Athletics - Sports Day

The first annual House Sports Day was a highlight for me in Grade 12.  I participated in the long jump and 4x100 m relay with Mackenize house, we came second! I hope this tradition continues next year even when we are gone and graduated.

Grade 11 - Athletics Reflection - Stars Volleyball Club

This year I was a part of the North Shore Stars Volleyball Club for the third year in a row.  I really enjoy playing for this club because the values are ones that I believe in. The focus is more on development and giving everyone an equal chance, rather than solely competition and only playing the top 6 girls.  This year the group of girls really meshed together well and we did very well at the U18 Provincials, which was a great accomplishment. We had worked hard all season preparing for this province-wide tournament so it was rewarding to be able to do so well there. Also, when we played the top rated team in Canada, we got 15 points on them, which is very impressive considering their status.

Included in being part of this club in 2013 all of us had to put in 12 hours of volunteering for the under 12 girls who participate in Youth League, a development camp on Wednesday nights throughout the year.  They work on learning new skills, the rules of the game, and begin to work together on learning rotations and basic plays.  Our role at this class was to encourage the beginners,help facilitate games and drills for the girls, and facilitate tournaments within the course time constraints.  This part of the club was very rewarding for me because I got to not only spend more time with my teammates, but help young volleyball players learn the sport in hopes of them going on to playing with the Stars Club when they come of age.

Stars Volleyball has been a large part of my high school career so I am sad that this is the last year for me to play with them.  Although this is the end, I have a lot of great memories from the past 3 seasons and have made many friends that will last me a lifetime.

Grade 11 - Athletics Highlight - WCISVC

Over the October long weekend I participated in the Western Canadian Independent School's Volleyball Championship hosted at Crofton House School. This was a great learning experience for myself and the team.  Click here to visit the WCISVC website.

Grade 10 - Athletic Reflection - Track and Field!

 For the past few years I have been a part of Collingwood's track and field team. At the start, I only competed in high jump, but this year I have really started to branch out and try some new events!  This season I tried 400m hurdles, 100m hurdles, 100m sprint, and long jump in addition to keeping with high jump.  I was very proud of myself for trying the new events, especially when in my first 400m hurdles exhibition race, I came first!

Last season and this season I had been having some mental issues with high jump. I knew I could make the height, but for some reason my body wouldn't listen and I was too scared to even attempt many heights. At the North Shores qualifying meet, I really didn't want to compete in high jump because I thought I would embarrass myself or not jump to my abilities.  In the end, I forced myself to jump and i qualified for the North Shores.  Unfortunately, I wasn't able to attend the meet because of some scheduling problems, but in the end what mattered was that I pushed through and faced my fears.

Grade 10 - Athletics Highlight - ISA Volleyball Champions

This year I had the privilege of being a part of the Jr. Volleyball team.  I really enjoyed being one of the older players on the team and being a role model for the younger ones, some of whom did not have very much experience with the sport to begin with.  We had a rough start to the year, simply because we had never played together as a team before. As the season progressed we had more and more success leading up to the Independent School Association Championships at Brentwood School in Victoria.  At the ISA’s we ended up placing first in a close match against West Point Grey Academy.