Spartan MVB Weekend Preview: Regina Cougars

November 10th, 2010 – Langley, BC

In sport we use terms like: battle, war, victory, struggle and others. We use these terms to describe the effort and outcome of games. On a weekend such as this these terms take on a different meaning. The Remembrance Day weekend is about these same terms but not in a game, rather in reflecting and honoring the battles, wars, victories and struggles of the men and women who fought and died to earn the freedoms we now enjoy. This blog post will out line the upcoming matches between TWU and Regina where young men, 18-22 years old, will compete on a volleyball court as they pursue their careers in their respective universities as students. These same young men sixty some years ago were the backbone of the armed forces. Instead of competing in volleyball for a conference win, they were on the fields, in the bunkers and trenches defending our nations from tyranny. So it is with full respect and remembrance that we head into this weekend. Thankful that we can look forward to the matches and the joy sport brings to these young men. So to all who have had family serve and especially to those who have served themselves…THANK YOU!

To continue the remembrance theme it is good to look back on this TWU vs Regina match up through the years. It all began in the spring of 2000…oh those days when the leaves were so yellow and the rain dropped so swiftly. The Regina Cougars arrived to TWU to play the CIS rookie Spartans who in their first year in the CIS, sorry the CIAU at the time, were looking to find their way in their new league. Armed with a core of 2nd and 3rd year players who were brought to TWU to lead the transition from the college league along with some seasoned CCAA veterans the Spartans looked to defend the friendly confines of the David E. Enarson Gymnasium against their foes from the frozen tundra of southern Saskatchewan. It was to be a historic match as Spartan standout Luke Bainard would set the school record for kills in a match with 32 leading the young Spartans in triumph over the Red Baron and his Cougar teammates.

A few years later another chapter in the Cougar-Spartan story unfolded in Regina in the spring of 2003. When a hobbled Spartan squad made the journey into Cougar territory only to be upset in a heartbreaking 5 setter. While the loss was devastating the full effect was not felt until the end of February when that loss created a tie in the standings between the Spartans and the Calgary Dinos with the latter winning on sets for and against thus taking the 4th seed into the playoffs. That 4th seed was gold at the time due to the “lucky loser” playoff structure. Six teams made the playoffs with 1 vs 6, 2 vs 5 and 3 vs 4. The three winners advanced to the Canada West Final 4 along with the highest seeded losing team so if the first three teams all covered their playoff series then the 4th seed became the “lucky loser.” Due to the tiebreak the Dinos won that honor and the Spartans had to go to Winnipeg to play the 18-2 Manitoba Bisons. Two quick wins for the home team and the Spartans had to watch the Dinos take what they thought was their spot at the National Tournament en route to a respectable 4th place finish and the Spartans unfortunate playoff opponent Manitoba went on to win the National Title. Looking back on that season the Spartans loss to Regina sealed their fate thus moving their first appearance on the National stage to the following year where they were the “lucky loser” and rode that horseshoe to a bronze medal in the program’s first National Tournament appearance.

Fast-forward to today and the Spartans have not lost to the Cougars since that day in 2003. Another hobbled Spartan squad heads to Regina in hopes of avoiding that 2003 fate. The 2010-11 Spartan walking wounded has been well documented in this blog as well as in other Spartan publications. Add to the trio of Marc Howatson, Devyn Plett and Brad Kufske the newly injured Derek Thiessen and wounded Rudy Verhoeff, who is able to play but through some pain, and you have a very thin bench available for this coming weekend. Thinning the Spartan ranks even more, but for much more positive reasons, is the absence of Head Coach Ben Josephson from the bench this weekend. Following the birth of his first child, a son named Cooper, Josephson has elected to stay behind to improve his fathering abilities and aid his wife Jennifer. Taking the helm this weekend is Assistant Coach Ryan Adams and with whom lay the human-interest story of the weekend.

Adams was a freshman at TWU in the fall of 1998, the final year of CCAA competition for TWU before joining the CIAU in 1999. Ryan left TWU before that historic match mentioned earlier to go back to Ontario, his home province, to finish schooling at McMaster University. Upon completion as a Marauder, Adams took an assistant coaching position with…you guessed it, the University of Regina Cougars Men’s Volleyball Team. It was the first stop on a string of coaching experiences that has led Ryan back to Spartan Men’s Volleyball. After Regina Ryan took the Head Coaching position with the Briercrest Clippers Women’s Volleyball team. Then it was back to TWU as an assistant coach of the Spartan women and after three years there he made the move through the office wall and now is in his second year as the Men’s team assistant. To add to the human interest Ryan’s wife Deb is from Regina and many of her family members, including her parents, still reside there. It will be a homecoming of sorts for Ryan as he and his wife make the trip back to Regina where it all began.

There are also a few other unique story lines this weekend that surround some other relationships between Cougars and Spartans. The Regina Head Coach Greg Barthell led the Canadian Junior National Team to a NORCECA silver medal this past summer that qualified the team to compete in next summer’s World Junior Championships. Two current Spartans, Lucas Van Berkel (2nd Middle) and Branden Schmidt (1st, Outside) were fortunate enough to play for Coach Barthell this past summer. Prior to his posting at the U of R, Barthell was the Head Coach at The King’s University College in Edmonton and had recruited a few of the current Spartans, namely Josh Doornenbal who was seriously considering TKUC before finally deciding on TWU.

With all of the story lines weaving together this weekend there still are a couple volleyball matches to play. The on court match up is one that favours the Spartan squad who still have a lot of fire power regardless of their injury situation. The Cougars are a young and building squad with very little CIS experience on the roster. The #4 ranked Spartans are a heavy favourite to sweep the weekend but as last weekend showed anything is possible in the Canada West volleyball conference. TWU was heavily favored to sweep the Thompson Rivers Wolfpack but it took 10 sets to earn a split on the unranked Kamloops team. Elsewhere in the conference #1 ranked Alberta Bears, the Spartans next opponent, needed to come back from down 0-2 against the unranked UBC T-Birds who the Spartans had beaten soundly the week before 3-0, and 3-1. It is becoming clear in a short period of time that the 2010-11 Canada West season will be a tight and competitive one. Who knows what, where and when the pitfalls and upsets may come for any team. This could be a bit of a trap weekend for the Spartans. With their bench boss home in Langley with his son, their first three left side players unavailable to the team and their assistant coach making his CIS coaching debut in his wife’s home town the Spartans have their hands full with a very sound volleyball team in the Cougars. It will take an inspired performance and bench contributions to raise TWU to victory in Regina. Here is to seeing that performance on this Remembrance Day weekend, lest we forget the fate that befell the 2003 Spartan team.

Go Spartans!!!