OVA News

With summer coming to an end, the North Bay Youth Volleyball Club is busy preparing for the 2009-2010 Ontario Volleyball Association season. This year the club will be offering female teams at the U13, U14, U15 and U16 levels, competing against the very best teams in the province throughout the year culminating with the Provincial Championships in April at RIMPark in Waterloo.

Despite only being in existence for a couple of years, the club has been fairly successful competing against the best teams in the province. Last year saw a Tier 2 silver medal for the U15’s and the U14’s finished 4th, just out of the medals in Tier 1 at last year’s Provincial Championships.

This year there are a number of new developments for the local club. Former Nipissing Lakers Carrie Baldwin and Laura Hudson will be coming on board as coaches, as will former College Boreal veteran Karine Morton. All three bring extensive post secondary playing backgrounds to the mix, and will also be joined by current Lakers assistant Ben Hong. As well a new sports psychology feature has been added to the club program.

“We feel very positive about the programs we have to offer the girls this coming year,” said executive member Grant Ross.

“We like the fact we have a number of female coaches to work with the girls, all of whom have played at the college or university level, and Mike Lee and Dave Buckle are both great coaches as well. Working primarily out of Nipissing we have a great facility, and we will be offering strength training to the girls again this year, which was a positive addition to our program last season. We are also very excited about the addition of Melissa Tennant to our club. Melissa is working towards a Masters degree in sports psychology, and is looking forward to working with the girls on their mental approach to sports. These things, like mental focus and physical strength, are often lacking in athletes at these levels, and can make such a difference in how a young athlete develops. We feel very fortunate to be able to offer these types of programs to local kids.”

“I think this year will really start to show the benefits of the club system in the local high school league. Our U14 team from last year will be well spread out through the NDA league, and that should translate into some good volleyball at the high school level. Although a new club has been created for Widdifield athletes only, our club is still committed to achieving their goal of developing the sport of volleyball in North Bay and surrounding area. We have made a commitment to local athletes that they will have plenty of chances to develop and play high level volleyball. If they don’t come forward to tryout, we may need to revise the programs we have to offer.”

Tryouts will run at Nipissing over two Sundays, September 13th and 20th. The U13 group will go from 9-11, U14 from 11:30 to 1:30, and the U15’s and 16’s from 2:00 to 4:00pm. If anyone has questions they can contact the club at nbyvc@hotmail.com.
Chris Dawson, BayToday.ca