INNISFAIL – For almost a month there has been a lot of buzz around Megan Buyks’ office at St. Marguerite Bourgeoys Catholic School.
Students and staff are talking mighty proud about their Bears.
Their senior boys volleyball team is the best ever.
This past season the St. Marguerite senior boys team not only defended the school’s Chinook’s Edge Northern Athletics Association (CENAA) regular season and playoff championship from 2023 they were perfect this season in both.
The senior boys volleyball champs may very well be the best senior boys volleyball team the school, which began in Innisfail in 2003, has ever produced.
“Even as recently as today (Dec. 4) I had some of the younger Grade 7 kids that were playing JV (junior varsity) and talked to me about, ‘hey, next year do you need a setter? or, ‘do you need a hit, or ‘can I play this position?’ That was today, not even 20 minutes ago,” said Buyks, the school’s athletic director and coach of the senior boys volleyball team.
“There's a lot of our younger players that are really encouraged by our boys and seeing them play and caring about their successes and are excited to be continuing on with volleyball next year.”
Volleyball is serious business at St. Marguerite.
There are boys and girls senior teams, and JV teams for both.
The JV teams play in developmental leagues, and many players were ready this season to step up and probe the learning systems of senior league play.
“We had some Grade 9 leaders on our team that had played before, and they really stepped up and helped all of our new players,” said Buyks. “Everybody was on the court every game. Everyone had the opportunity to play.
“They were a great group of boys that really helped each other out to get better, and everybody improved so much throughout the season.”
The 2024 St. Marguerite senior boys volleyball team has 12 players from grades 7 to 9.
The team’s regular season was 10 games in the six-team CENAA, featuring teams in smaller Central Alberta towns like Innisfail, Sylvan Lake and Spruce View.
The playoffs were played Oct. 29 and 30 at Sylvan Lake’s École Mother Teresa Catholic School.
There were four total games in the playoffs. The Bears won them all, including the final against home team École Mother Teresa.
St. Marguerite won handily in two straight sets.
It was the perfect season and playoffs. Fourteen wins and zero losses.
“The thing that was so great about it is everybody participated to do that, every boy on our team. We had some kids playing their first year volleyball on our senior team,” said Buyks. “Everybody worked together to go and achieve that goal.
“It wasn't like it was just the best six players on the court all the time. That wasn't how we ran our season. We ran it so that we were a cohesive unit. There were boys who were stepping up into positions they'd never played before but were being supported by their teammates.
“And they just really bonded together as a fantastic group of athletes and were really good ambassadors for the sport. They were always very gracious, and even though they would be ahead of the other teams they would never be rude about it or anything like that.
“They were always just very, very happy and outgoing, just great ambassadors for the for our school.”
The season was not quite over.
The Bears still had regionals in Ponoka to play in the six-team Central West Alberta Junior High Schools Athletic Association (CWAJHAA) tournament on Nov. 16.
The competition was much stiffer. They did not go undefeated. The Bears, however, did play well. They won their final game after losing both round robin games in three sets by close margins.
“It was a disappointing finish for them because they missed out by one point in each one of their games. They didn't actually come up against a team they couldn't beat this year. They had so much heart and hustle this year. It was just fantastic to see how they worked hard together to be find success.”
There is always next year for the Bears to avenge the CWAJHAA result.
They are still the two-time defending CENAA champs, perfect in the second.
And Buyks is ready to lead.
“That’s the play, yes,” she declared.
