LANGLEY — When it comes to spiking, the only variety you’re going to see as it pertains to the B.C. high school volleyball championships, will be the actual ones taking place on the court.
Despite concerns caused by mass flooding throughout the province the past two weeks, B.C. School Sports announced Tuesday evening that all seven of its senior varsity boys and girls volleyball championship tournaments would take place as per their previously announced re-scheduled dates next week, and all as full B.C. tournaments, unlike football and boys soccer, each of which were and are in the process of being staged as regional championships.
When asked why football and soccer provincials were not afforded the same consideration to retain their status as full-B.C. championship events, BCSS executive Jordan Abney told Varsity Letters that at the time decisions needed to be made, the rapidly-developing nature of the emergencies in progress prevented them from gaining a full picture of what they were facing.
“At that stage, you just didn’t have that same level of clarity around the potential for the opening of roads, as well as the many different different requirements and restrictions. So that is why, with all of these (volleyball championships) being school-based, we had a little more flexibility and a more clear picture to understand what the impacts of the situation around us were.”
The only B.C. high school senior volleyball championship whose precise location is not fully finalized is the boys Triple-A event, originally scheduled to run at Kelowna Secondary. The event will run in the Lower Mainland to enable the greatest number of qualified teams to take part.
The dates for the upcoming B.C. championships:
GIRLS (all Dec. 9-11)
QUAD-A
Dover Bay (Nanaimo)
TRIPLE-A
Crofton House (Vancouver)
DOUBLE-A
MEI (Abbotsford)
SINGLE-A
Mt. Sentinel (South Slocan) with games at Castlegar and Selkirk.
BOYS (AAA and AA Dec. 8-11, A Dec. 9-11)
TRIPLE-A
Location TBD
DOUBLE-A
Pacific Christian (Victoria)
SINGLE-A
Nanaimo Christian
Here’s the section of the B.C. School Sports release relating directly to the fall season of play, in its entirety:
“The provincial volleyball championships that were delayed a week, will proceed on the rescheduled dates of Dec 8/9-11.
These events will take place at their scheduled location except for the ‘AAA’ Boys’ Championship, which will be relocated to the lower mainland to reduce travel for many qualified teams. Based on our discussions, we know most of the qualified teams will be able to attend, however, where a team is unable to attend, we will not fill those spots with non-qualified teams, but simply reduce the size of the tournament.
BCSS staff will adapt the tournament draws as required.
We want to recognize the incredible work of our hosts who have put in unimaginable hours to plan and continue to adapt not only to the changes required by the pandemic, but then through this very dynamic situation related to the extreme weather and related flooding. BCSS and our host schools will be in contact with the qualified teams very quickly.
Football is the only other remaining sport in Fall, with the conclusion to our Subway Bowl Championships being played this weekend.
The Interior Regional final on Friday night (Dec 3) in Vernon, and the Coastal final on Saturday (Dec 4) in Vancouver.
There is continued support for these events given that this is the very end of the season, and relatively few teams remain playing.
Further, there is recognition of the significance of the championships as the pinnacle of the school sport season after a full season of play, especially for those graduating student-athletes who already missed their Grade 11 year due to the pandemic, and with an alteration or cancellation would miss out on a championship experience throughout their entire senior years.
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I find it interesting the Mr. Abney has allowed volleyball to have a full fledged B.C. championship while other sports such as football have had theirs downgraded to “Regional”. When you look at his Bio you find that he is a “Volleyball guy” from Alberta. As I said, “Interesting!”