Stratford District Secondary junior boys win Huron-Perth title

The Stratford District Secondary School (SDSS) junior Boys volleyball team won the Huron-Perth Playoff Championship in four sets over St. Marys DCVI on Nov. 7. Pictured in the front row, from left to right, are Jack de Graaf, Davis Longston, Brody Sinclair, Caden Ollson and Nate Meadows. In the back row, from left, are coach Kerry Thompson, Jordan Diep, Yug Patel, Rylan Lewis, Cohen Bernard, Cole Weyers, Evan Abercrombie, Evan Ehnes, Chahil Patel and coach Marcie Stears.

After going unbeaten during the regular season, the Stratford District Secondary School (SDSS) Junior Boys volleyball team earned the Huron-Perth league title on Nov. 7, defeating St. Marys DCVI in the championship game three sets to one.

Coach Kerry Thompson told the Times the team’s cohesive nature allowed them to go 8-0 before winning both playoff games, only losing one set all year.

“The team was committed and worked hard to improve across a number of skills,” said Thompson. “We’re really happy with how well we played all season and the boys’ development. There is good camaraderie on the team and they play with very good sportsmanship.”

Going undefeated in the regular season earned the SDSS junior boys a bye to the semi-finals, where they won three straight sets over St. Michael Catholic Secondary (St. Mike’s) by scores of 25-17, 25-22 and 25-17. Coach Marcie Stears noted the familiarity between the two Stratford schools allowed them to gameplan for their semi-final clash.

“This was our fourth time meeting St. Mike’s this year, so we had a good idea what the match might look like in terms of what they would throw at us,” Stears explained. “We knew we had to go out strong from the start and not let them take control of the game, and I think we did a good job at accomplishing that.”

With the win, the Golden Bears qualified for the championship final against DCVI. After a 25-12 win in the first set, St. Marys handed SDSS their first lost set of the season, narrowly dropping the second 26-24. However, Stears’ squad quickly bounced back and took the next two sets 25-13 and 25-17, withstanding what the coach called a consistently solid St. Marys challenge.

“We hadn’t played St. Marys since the start of the season when they were missing some starters,” said Thompson. “DCVI is a well-controlled, disciplined team. While they don’t do anything flashy, they don’t make many large errors. We did a good job mixing up the sets and keeping up the energy and momentum on the court.”