FNSS Huskies Senior Girls Volleyball team competes at “AA” Zones!

Shaelene Wenger, Katelyn Piszar, Lindsay Clark, Angela Roberts, Taylor Tsakoza, Kailey Paquette, Denyelle Wells, and Jessica Zegnal.

Submitted by Monty Harrold, Huskies coach
The Fort Nelson Secondary senior girls volleyball team placed fourth after competing against the best in Northern B.C in the “AA” zones in Prince George on November 16th-17th.
They battled to overcome injuries, nerves, and a lack of game time experience.
After a few months of hard work and dedication the local high school team embarked for Prince George to compete in the North Central Zones. Once everyone boarded the bus ‘all sleepy eyed’; we hit the road at 7:00 am Thursday morning.
The first leg of the journey was completed under the mask of darkness. Road conditions were typical winter conditions (compact snow and slippery patches), and we stopped at Buckinghorse Lodge for some drinks and a potty break.
Back on the road to Chetwynd for lunch and roughly 200km from home, the road improved to mainly bare conditions. We stopped to overlook the Peace River valley and then hit up the local Chinese food joint and managed to negotiating a 15% discount. We filled our bellies and were back on the road.
After a stop at the Mackenzie junction we arrived in Prince George a little after 18:00.
Once settled into our accommodations for the next couple of days; (Mr. and Ms. Bouchard’s and Matt’s Mom and Dad’s), it was off to la la land.
Friday consisted of a healthy breakfast of freshly baked goods and fruit, an early morning workout at the UNBC indoor track, and some much anticipated shopping by the girls. Then back to Mr. and Ms. B’s for a little rest before our first game of the round robin and of the year against D.P. Todd out of Prince George.
In the first set, the girls were like “deer caught in the headlights”, and their nerves had taken over. Once the shock of playing had somewhat simmered down, they fought hard in the second set, but came up falling short.
After a one game rest it was back on the court to play Williams Lake. The girls came out ready to play, getting their defense kicked into gear. And running some offensive plays, the Huskies took the lead and never looked back. Not bad for the first day; 1 and 1. Sushi for supper then back to the Bouchards for some R & R.
The second day of competition started with a game against a squad from Vanderhoof. In the first set the girls got off to a shaky start due to lack of a proper warm-up that was no fault of theirs. Down one set, the Huskies rallied to lose a second set only by a few points.
A light snack was had by all before facing the number one seed in the tourney, the host team from College Heights. Set one, the Huskies proved that they could play with the far more experienced opposition (most of them in grade twelve). But in the end, they were too much for the Huskies. End of round robin play.
The Huskies hit the floor hard against Williams Lake after receiving a morale boost from the previous match against the tournament favourites. They played well as a team and took down the girls again but at a heavy cost. They lost their starting setter. That victory bought them another shot at the host Cougars. Once again the Huskies matched them point for point but the Cougars were just too strong and pulled away in the end.
The last game for the Huskies awarded them redemption against the team from Vanderhoof for the bronze. The affair was tightly contested with the action going back and forth. This game was their fourth in a row, and in the end it proved to be too much. Vanderhoof walked away with the bronze.
A lot of volleyball was played!
Now it was time to unwind, to have dinner and a watch a basketball game. We had our fill on the head coach’s dime – mmm!
We headed up the hill to UNBC to cheer on the T Wolves and Matt’s cousin (who played for the opposition). Go T Wolves! At half time we all had a great big ‘right from the belly’ laugh! The laughter spread throughout the crowd.
Our bus driver was pulled from the crowd to enter a Movember moustache competition, along with several others supporting the cause; 16 in total. They were split in half.
Half lined up towards our stands and the rest lined up on the other side. As the hand appeared over the bus driver, the Fort Nelson posse went wild. The bus driver was in the top four now!
Each was asked why or who they were growing their ‘stache for. One was ‘doing it for the ladies’; the bus driver’s response was ‘Movember 1972’, the other two were doing it for the cause.
Now it was time to dance, and see who walked away with the prize – a bagful of swag from the T Wolves! ‘Doing it for the ladies’ was called to the floor. He stepped out made a few moves and stepped back in line.
Now it was ‘Movember 1972’, our bus driver’s turn on the floor. With the backing of our teams applause, he stepped out and danced like there was no tomorrow. Then danced some more, and kept on dancing. The applause got louder!
It was apparent who the crowd’s favourite was. The last two conceded as ‘Movember 72’ danced on. Way to go!
After a good time was had by all, it was back to the Bouchard’s for the night, as everyone had a really long day!
The next morning everyone was packed and loaded on the bus at 8-ish and with a quick stop at Timmy’s we all headed north.
There was a lot of snow between PG and Chetwynd but the roads were good the rest of the way.
The last pit stop was a promise fulfilled – Fort St. John Wal-Mart. We all arrived home safely.