All four École Olds High School (ÉOHS) volleyball teams have a good chance of doing really well this year — in league play and in zones, athletic director Jeff Clattenberg says.
In fact, he says there's a good chance the boys' team could be in the hunt for the zone championship.
"Overall, I think we're going to have some really good success. Certainly within our leagues — our local leagues — I would anticipate all four of our teams placing really, really strong this year," Clattenberg said during an interview with the Albertan.
"When I project into the zone competition, I think our boys at that JV zone level probably have aspirations of placing quite highly in zones and are looking to take a run at maybe the zone banner this year if all goes well," he added.
"I mean, there's lots of competition in our area, but those boys certainly I think have as good a chance as any in the zone level.
"From the girls' aspect, it's anybody's guess. Girls' volleyball in our zone is really strong, typically. So in any given year, we can be right in it or we can be on the outside looking in."
This year, coaches ended up with enough girls to operate three teams. So there's a Grade 9 girls' team, a junior varsity team and a senior varsity girls' team.
As is often the case, there's only one boys' team, which is going to operate this year essentially as a junior varsity team.
Clattenberg says the Grade 9 girls' team has some experience in that it's composed largely of girls who've played together since about grades 7 and 8.
Before taking on his current job at EOHS, Clattenberg used to teach at École Deer Meadow School, so he knows many of those girls.
"I know most of them personally and they all, for the most part, did play over the last year or two, so they're coming in with a little bit of experience," he said.
The ÉOHS JV team is almost exclusively composed of the girls who would have played last year.
He said the senior girls' team is "kind of a mix," featuring a lot of Grade 11 players, a few Grade 12s and one Grade 10 player.
"So certainly they come with a little bit of experience of playing at that level."
The lone boys' team consists mostly of guys who've played together since about Grade 7.
"Really, almost all of them have been playing together for the last almost four years now," Clattenberg said, adding that as a result, they know each other's tendencies.
Clattenberg said with the exception of the boys' team, by and large, height is not going to be much of an advantage for ÉOHS volleyball teams this year, but they can make up for that by good defensive play and honing skills like good serving and passing.
"If you can focus on those two areas, those are things that you can control when maybe height is something that you can't always control, right?"
