Okanagan Tour 2010 Recap

September 27th, 2010: Langley, BC

This past weekend the 2010-2011 Spartan Men's Volleyball team travelled to the beautiful Okanagan area in BC to play a three game exhibition tour. This is the 9th edition of the Okanagan Tour which pits the Spartans against the Bears as the feature matches of the tour with the third tilt with the UBC-O Heat.

The Okanagan Tour is the traditional "kick off" of the season. Nothing says a new season is about to begin like the van ride to Penticton on a thursday afternoon en route to take on a perennially strong Alberta Bears squad. The history between the Bears and Spartans is stuff of legend and one of Canada West's great rivalries in recent years. The Bears have been in 8 of the last 9 CIS National Finals while the Spartans have been in 3 of the last 6. In the last 9 years these two programs have combined for 14 national medals. Needless to say these early exhibition matches are often a showcase of teams that hope to contend for the championship every March.

This year was to be no different as both teams return the bulk of their core for the 10-11 season. The first match was played in Penticton, BC at Princess Margaret High School. This was the 6th year the kick off match of the tour was played at Princess Margaret and as always they did a great job of hosting. A good crowd was on hand and the environment was great for an early preseason match. Right away it was clear that the Spartans were the more match ready squad as they went out to an early lead of 18-12. In typical OK Tour fashion nothing was going to come easy as the tough Bears team rallied and tightened up the score pushing the Spartans and just narrowly missing out losing 25-23. The first set was highlighted by a couple middle bombs dropped by Daniel Jansen Van Doorn (3rd Middle) and Josh Doornenbal (5th Middle/Outside) late in the set to seal the deal.

Game two was almost a carbon copy of game one with the Spartans going out to an 18-13 lead with the Bears closing the gap late ending in the same score of 25-23. Game two was characterized by some tough serving from Nick Del Bianco (1st Left Side) and Rudy Verhoeff (4th Outside) combining for 4 aces in the set. The Spartans were working on a new formation that featured three middles on the court at the same time. This is something the Langley squad has been working on since early spring in preparation for this coming season. The benefit puts Verhoeff and Doornenbal in position to get more scoring opportunities while allowing one of the young "giants" to patrol the middle of the court and impose their size. DVD (Daniel JVD) got the start in the "Big" spot in the formation and was just that in the second set.

The third set was a reminder that this was still preseason as Coach Josephson made a lineup error. Lucas Van Berkel was inserted into the "Big" position in the formation but instead of Doornenbal, DVD was slotted into one of the "Athelte" positions. Not a huge deal as Daniel is more than capable of playing the spot though he nor the team had never trained in that formation. The initial confusion of the coaching error cost the Spartans a few early points as they tried to figure out the rotations. After going down 4-8 they caught their game rhythm and pushed ahead finishing match with a 25-19 set win and a 3-0 match win to open the domestic preseason schedule.

After the match the two teams had a chance to catch up as there are a lot of preexisting relationships on the two squads. Many of these two teams have athletes that grew up playing club, provincial and national teams together. It is always fun to compete against former teammates in healthy rivalry. This match marks one of the few times the Spartans have beat the Bears in the Okanagan Tour and after the '09 tour's 0-9 set ratio it was good for TWU to get off the schnide on the first night.

After a short sleep the Spartans departed Penticton for Kelowna and another tradition on the Okanagan Tour...Paintball. Every OK Tour the TWU team does some "team building" by shooting eachother with exploding orbs of paint. Nothing brings a team together like inflicting some pain...with love on eachother. This tradition goes back to 2004 when the inagural paintball battle took place on the fields of the Safari Paint Ball complex. As is the case every year many laughs, yelps, cheers and welts were had. While probably not the most effective prematch exercise the enjoyment factor is worth whatever price, financial or physical.

Later that Friday night the Spartans and Bears resumed the rivalry in a match hosted by the UBC-Okanagan Heat. This match was a mirror image of the previous night with the Bears looking strong right from the first serve while the Spartans struggled with execution. The Spartans did not look like they were prepared for the battle the Bears brought. The lesson of the day was that in Canada West every team is good and it is extremely difficult to beat a good team back to back. Once a team loses they get what we call the "skip" meaning they have the added motivation of pride coming from a loss. In order to combat the skip a team must be prepared to play even harder and battle even tougher if they intend to repeat the same outcome. The Bears utilized the skip while the Spartans did not prepare for the battle properly...another coaching blunder most likely. With that said the veteran Spartans, Verhoeff and Doornenbal, played great as the ability to perform on back to back nights is something they have learned to do over previous seasons. The younger Spartans struggled with execution much more and without a full team clicking it is highly unlikely to defeat a team like the Bears of Albera.

A common mantra for the Spartans is that losing doesnt teach anything, it just revels the lessons that need to be addressed to be attempted to learn at a later date. Winning is how learning is done, the ability to succeed shows that a lesson has been learned. This match put some good lessons on the table for the 10-11 Spartans to be learned at a later date, and these Spartans are good students.

The Saturday of Okanagan Tour is about shaping the identity and culture of the team. The team went to the shores of the beautiful Okanagan Lake to delve into what it means to be a Spartan. Coach Ryan Adams took the lead on this phase as he directed the team in a few "ice breaker" games to get the guys to understand the connectedness of a team and how each action affects the other members. The team was broken up into four "mentor" groups that will remain for the rest of the season. The groups chose names and made fight songs that honored their names. The humor and creativity of these lads never ceases to amaze as the Hammer, Humans, Babushkas and Derek Thiessen led Lights Out showcased their songs and...dances???

All joking aside the team got into some great discussion surrounding identity and culture. What a Spartan is, was and what they want this edition of Spartan Men's Volleyball to be. The legacy of this program is deep and the future is bright with this group. The exercises shared on the shore are crutial to the forming of the team. This day was special and was capped off with a Bible study on the Holy Spirit and what it means to be filled with the Spirit.

The spiritual focus that began in Russia has clearly remained a central theme for this team. A number of innitiatives have been laid out by the leaders of the team that will continue to push, challenge, encourage and develop these young men to be better men, teammates and children of God as the season progresses.

The first of these innitiatives began that evening as the team gathered in the team room at the UBC-O gymnasium. The act of communion between believers in rememberance of Christ's sacrifice is one that has been shared by believers since mere days before the beginning of Christianity. This is something that this team has decided was important to share in as they continue to develop the unity that community is based upon. Marc Howatson shared the history behind the tradition and then the team served eachother as Jesus did during the Last Supper. It was a great time of community and unity and set the team in a great frame of mind providing perspective and balance as they prepared for the final match of the Okanagan Tour.

The Saturday match was against the UBC-O Heat who will begin their innagural season in the Canada West the fall of 2011. They are coming off a CCAA National Bronze medal the year before and their team has improved with the addition of former T-Bird Greg (uh-oh) Niemasvadriet (sorry Greg, I tried) and the development of newly named Junior National Team Middle Blocker Chris Howe. These two talents along with 4th year setter Preston Tucker (Team BC Canada Games) and studly outside hitter Nate Speijer make the Heat a tough opponent for the Spartans. This match was to be the first domestic test for the "next" Spartan cycle. The Spartan babies and toddlers got the start: Del Bianco (1st), Thiessen (1st Medical Red Shirt), Schmidt (1st), Van Berkel (2nd), Kufske (2nd) and DVD (3rd). Add in Ben Ball (4th) and the young Spartan lineup got their first match together on home soil. The Heat were just that from the baseline giving the Spartans a lot of trouble in reception. As the young Spartans battled they began to fine their rhythm and Lights Out himself (Derek Thiessen) ended the first set on a brilliant lane fill C Ball kill to end the set 25-21.

Set two saw the Spartans continue to get more comfortable with eachother and their opponents and their play improved. Unfortunately the injury bug followed the Spartans back to Canada but bit the Heat this time. Just after pumping a ball, Chris Howe rolled an ankle and was out of the match. This was a blow to both teams as Chris is one of the main degrees of the Heat. He also is one of those players who is a lot of fun to compete against as his zest and love of...well, everything is infectious. One of the few players who cheers for every good play be it friend or foe. It was too bad he had to leave the match, but as the Spartans know all to well, injuries are part of the game (we miss you Marc...soon). The Spartans finished off the second set 25-21 with some middle dominance by the giants DVD & Berks.

Set three saw freshman setter Micah Jansen Van Doorn get the start. The last in the JVD clan that now has four siblings to have donned the Blue & White. Micah did a great job taking over for veteran (wierd to type) Ben Ball in guiding the Spartan offense. The lads didnt skip a beat and after a few reception issues early found great rhythm and defeated the Heat 25-19 and redeemed a 0-3 beating from last year's tour.

The match concluded with another innitiative this year's team wants to start as all of the Spartan Faithful in attendance joined the team on the court post game for a prayer time of thanks to God for the opportunity to worship through sport. A time of fellowship with some of the Heat players and coaches followed and then it was time to jump into the vans and head back to Langley.

The Okanagan Tour is a time to kick off the season, begin to form as a team, begin to lay the ground work for this year's culture and take the first steps on the journey of a season. It was a great first weekend of the season. The lessons learned and tabled from Russia were still with the team. New ones were learned and revealed. God was glorified and of course...

Go Spartans!!!