Rams finish strong at Yukon volleyball championships

Between the medals, MVP awards and all star honours, there was anything but a lack of hardware given out this past weekend at the Pepsi Yukon Volleyball Championships.

Between the medals, MVP awards and all star honours, there was anything but a lack of hardware given out this past weekend at the Pepsi Yukon Volleyball Championships.

When all was said and done, it was Porter Creek Secondary School that finished with the most gold medals, winning an impressive five out of six categories.

This year’s championship featured all three Whitehorse high schools as well as teams from Dawson, Mayo, Faro, Haines Junction and Teslin.

“It was a great tournament and all of the teachers and coaches that were involved, without them it’s not what it is,“ said Tara Wardle, president of Volleyball Yukon and one of the organizers of Yukon championships. “It’s a huge number of people that make it work.“

The championships always feature teams that are made up of Grade 8 players, Grade 9/10 as well as Grade 11/12.

As a result of the high number of teams, the tournament began on Thursday and concluded Saturday with the gold medal games. The round robin competition and bronze medal contest were played at the three local high schools.

This included the Grade 8’s playing at Vanier Catholic Secondary School, while Grade 9/10 played at Porter Creek and F.H. Collins Secondary was the host to the Grade 11/12 teams.

To eliminate any issues of home court advantage, the gold medal games were held at the Canada Games Centre’s flexihall.

The only missing Yukon community that usually attends the championships was Watson Lake, which normally sends around four teams.

Two teams from Porter Creek played each other in the Grade 8 girls final, while in the Grade 8 boys the Porter Creek Rams defeated the Vanier Crusaders.

The bronze medal winners in the Grade 8 girls event was the F.H. Collins Warriors and the Rams placed third on the boys side. 

Grade 8 students Krissy Anderson and Riley Andrew were named as MVP’s.

The Rams were once again the best team in the boys and girls Grade 9/10 divisions, while Vanier was the runner up in both.

The 9/10 F.H. Collins girls team won the bronze medal and Dawson took the bronze on the boys side.

This was one of the highlights at the tournament and the only community medal given out.

MVPs for the Grade 9/10s were Courtney Greenway and Robin Smith. 

The Porter Creek Grade 11/12 girls won the gold medal final over the F.H. Collins, while Vanier finished in third place.

On the Grade 11/12 boys group it was Vanier who defeated Porter Creek and F.H. Collins placed third.

MVP’s for the Grade 11/12s were Jessica Borgford and Cody Reaume.

Senior girls all-stars included Chantai Minet, from F.H. Collins; Melanie Tait, Vanier; Krista Mooney, Porter Creek; Tamika Knutson, Dawson; Emily Fedoriak, Porter Creek; and Porter Creek’s Chantelle Bergeron.

The senior boys all-stars were Riley Smith, Porter Creek; Afshin Armitabar, F.H. Collins; Coty Fraser; Vanier, Tony Nguyen, F.H. Collins; Logan Gray; Vanier and Porter Creek’s Derek Wilson.       

Some of the changes this year included having a bronze medal category, which gave some of the teams an extra game as well as a post tournament banquet that was held at Porter Creek.

Wardle said she was impressed with the level of play at the championships.

“All the final games, the level of play was phenomenal,“ she said. “They were so good. Everything was fairly close, there was no major blowouts, so the level of volleyball was really good (on Saturday).“