St. Mary’s take league championships by Storm

It is two years in a row St. Mary’s Storm have won the County of Lethbridge league championship in both the junior varsity and varsity programs in volleyball for both genders.

The varsity boys Storm won its league championship banner thanks to a 25-12, 25-22 victory.

“They battled us pretty hard. They were a pretty tough team, other than that we did kick some butt and take some names,” said co-coach Derry Kolody with a chuckle.

“It was a good weekend for us to wrap up the season. We got a lot of kids a lot of playing time with some lopsided scores and some close ones.”

The varsity Storm girls finished its season with a 35-9 record which featured both a half dozen Grade 8s and 9s each.

“Our Grade 9s were relied on from the outset for strength and experience, but we had Grade 8s on the floor all the time and could compete against any team all year. All-round ball control and setting were strengths. Our overall attack developed into a pretty good one because we had this,” said Pat Pyne, head coach of the varsity Storm girls volleyball team. “Setting, Kennadi Bodnar has terrific overall skill, and Taylor Marchuk and Cheri Payonayong developed into reliable setters. Rae-Anne Vayro and Jordan Baynham were beasts for us. They have very strong offensive and defensive skills, and both are good passers. Jordan Wyna turned into a top server, and this is one of the best serving groups we’ve had. We had spinners and floaters, some jump servers, and overall accuracy was great.”

The zones which St. Mary’s hosted was bitter sweet for both teams. The Storm were contenders going in with the boys Storm eventually finishing fifth.  The Storm girls finished first in their pool, beating the number-one seed.  

A rematch of this pairing in the semis went the wrong way, with the Storm girls bowing out bowing out 23-25, 23-25. The girls finished fourth.

The pipeline does looks look secure in interest in volleyball at the school in the foreseeable future as the high school programs look to replenish themselves as well.

“It’s a really good sign. Things look positive. There is a lot of interest in it and we are getting help from the community in terms of coaching for the programs,” said Pyne.

Pyne estimated there were 14 boys total between the junior varsity and varsity Storm boys programs with there being 24 girls among the JV and varsity programs to go with eight Grade 6s playing as well.

“I think helping out with the boys program numbers is when you get outside help form guys like Derry (Kolody) and John (Muller), they are such positive people and they draw kids into the program. we are graduating enough to support a growing Celtic program,” said Pyne. “Tricia Fajnor with the girls have been terrific. And as they pitch in, there has been good parent support for tournaments and travel. The atmosphere in the gym has been very positive. The fact that so many young kids are getting involved in it, it bodes well for the future of it at our school.”