The Picture Butte High School Kings took to the volleyball courts last week in the 2A zones and captured the second spot into next week’s provincials.
The zones, hosted this year at Immanuel Christian High School, saw the Kings face off against the host Eagles last Wednesday.
“They were good games,” said Kings’ coach Ward Reiter.
The Eagles took the match in two sets by scores of 25-22 and 25-19.
The loss put the Kings up against County Central on Thursday. The match went to three sets with the Kings taking the win in the third set by a score of 15-13.
Reiter said the games shouldn’t have been that close.
The Kings then took on F.P. Walshe.
The Kings lost the first set, won the second and then the third by a 15-6 score.
The win immediately put the Kings into the zone final, against the Eagles once again.
Defeating F.P. Walshe guaranteed the Kings a berth into the 2A provincials next week but a win over the Eagles would see them make the trip to Edmonton as zone champions. In the end the back to back games took something out of the team and they lost to the Eagles.
“They were tired by the end,” said Reiter.
The Kings played eight sets of hard fought volleyball in about three hours.
“This is the 11th year in a row we’ve gone to volleyball provincials,” said Reiter.
He is in his second year coaching the Kings and he is sharing coaching duties with Kings’ alumni Curtis Elaschuk, Brady Gillies and Braeden Sushelnitski.
As the players moved up from team to team, so did Reiter.
He anticipates the provincials will be challenge for the young Kings’ team which features three Grade 12 players, four Grade 11 and three Grade 10.
Last year the team had a large number of senior players.
“It makes a hugh difference, that extra year,” he said of transition from Grade 11 to Grade 12 as a player.
Over the course of the season, Reiter said he has heard a number of comments about how the team has improved. This week the team will be practicing hard and preparing for provincials Nov. 28 to 30 in Edmonton.
This year all four zones, 1A to 4A, will be competing in provincials all in the same venue in Edmonton. It will mean 25 volleyball courts hosting four zones of play for both girls and boys action.
Ward said the Kings are all good athletes but more importantly they are good kids.