Best and brightest Strathmore U14 volleyball club third in province

The Strathmore Volleyball Club U14 team is a group of elite athletes who play in a community league at tournaments held across the province. Right now the U14 team is ranked third in Alberta.

The team also won a Tier 2 Gold at their first tournament.

Matt Byma, head coach of the U14 team speaks about the players.

He explained that the club was started a number of years ago by Strathmore Volleyball Club president Cole Hintz.

Byma says, “Club Volleyball is separate from school volleyball. It’s the best of the best players from out from all over Alberta that will play often club volleyball, and so it's sort of a little bit more elite than school volleyball in the fact that you have all the top players from around Alberta and area and joining different clubs often in larger cities.”

He explained the club was also started “to give the kids more opportunity to see better competition throughout the year and to give kids another outlet for kids that are interested in volleyball, just giving them the opportunity to play more and see really good competition.”

The U14 team features players from junior highs across Strathmore. There is also a U17 and U18 team that has players from local high schools.

There are players from Trinity Christian Academy, George Freeman School, Crowther Memorial and a few students from Three Hills.

Those who participate in club volleyball attend large Alberta Volleyball Association tournaments.

“Each of these tournaments encompasses all of the teams from all over Alberta,” he said.

There can be up to 32 teams at one tournament

At the last tournament in Red Deer, the U14 team from Strathmore ranked third in the province.

The team will have another tournament soon on April 2 and 3rd in Edmonton and after that the provincials in Calgary at the end of April.

Their coach said, “It's really neat to see a small town succeed in this at this level.”

“I think the players that we have are exceptional athletes, and while some of them haven't been playing volleyball for as long as a lot of the big clubs in Calgary and Edmonton and Red Deer, they held their own against those and beat a lot of them,” said Byma.

“I just think it's neat to see the growth in the kids and the great athletes this particular year. They're just a really exceptional group and I look forward to the next few tournaments,” he said.