Another spectacularly fun year has come and gone as this year’s Apex Pulse team welcomed back 6 returning players and said hello to 6 brand new players and an assistant coach!

Before taking off for Calgary, the coaches had implemented a theme of 80′s retro for the trip! For warmup on one of the three days, the girls (and coaches) would dress up in their 80′s best. Girls were placed into 1 of 3 groups: The Bangles, The Go-Go’s, and Bananarama. Not only did they have to dress the part, but each group was also in charge of preparing one team lunch and one team dinner from scratch. The group that was best dressed, exhibited the most enthusiasm and prepared the best grub would win a prize!

Last year’s squad brought home a gold medal from Calgary in their tier and this year’s team went into the tournament not really knowing what to expect. After a tough day 1, the girls finished 3rd in their pool, placing them into Division 4. Maybe it was all the walking during their trip to the Calgary-famous Calgary Zoo that did them in on Day 1 but in any case, the girls knew they had to come out flying on Day 2 to place into the top tier in Div 4; and come out flying they did. In the first match on Day 2, Pulse faced Big Bear from Rivers, Manitoba, taking the match in straight sets 26-24, 25-20. Somehow we knew we’d see Big Bear down the road again…The second match saw the girls beat a very game Southwest Juniors team from Kilarney, Manitoba 2-1. That set up a showdown with Crush from Yellowknife with first place on the line. The girls did not disappoint disposing of Crush 2-0. The top of the division was now in sight heading into playoffs on Day 3…

Playoff day is always difficult at Nationals – win and you play on. Lose and you’re done like yesterday’s tacos. But to liven things up, remember the warmup 80′s dressup day? Well, it was saved for playoff Monday. Maybe it was the thought of spending 12 hours at the hotel doing nothing or maybe it was the desire of the girls to bring home the team’s second consecutive gold medal. In any case, the girls got by the Cold Lake Devils 2-0 and would finally face a BC team at Nationals: Coquitlam Ducks Kelli. After a tough loss 28-26 in the first set, Pulse rebounded to take set 2 handily 25-14. The third and deciding set saw the girls pull away at the end of the match 15-12 and it was off to the semi-finals! Oh, and might I add that even though the girls wore their 80′s best only during warmup of the first match, Tony wore his THE ENTIRE DAY. Could it be the lucky charm the girls needed?

In the semi-finals, Pulse faced Fog Force from Edmonton. In a game that went 3 sets, the score seemed to flatter Fog as Pulse dominated most of the game, scoring at will and frustrating their opponents mercilessly. It was during this match that Tony gave his most memorable speech of the season; the girls could have played their guts out to this point and could still leave with nothing but memories IF they didn’t continue to give it everything they had. The girls earned the victory in the third set 15-9. With that, the girls were assured of a medal but only one colour mattered.

In the finals, the girls faced, you guessed it, Big Bear one more time after Big Bear won an improbable match after losing the first set of their semi-final 25-5 against a team that Pulse had defeated on Day 1, the Ponoka Warriors from Alberta. The scouting report on the Bear indicated that they were a scrappy team that would go through a wall to save a ball and they certainly showed it throughout the championship final. However, it wasn’t enough to overcome barrage of offensive weapons displayed by Pulse as well as their much-improved defence. Pulse defeated Big Bear 2-0 to win their second consecutive GOLD MEDAL at Nationals but this year, gold also came with a Division Championship banner – the first and only such time an Apex team has ever done this!

Oh, if you were wondering who won the 80s contest…while Becca, Lindsey and Alexa aka The Bangles made a delicious chicken teriyaki and Liz, Ashley, Nikki and Kelly aka Bananarama made some fairly solid tacos sans tomatos, it was the combination of the Garlic prawns and out of this world costumes of Adrienne, Nicole, Eleanor and Natalie aka The Go-Go’s that stole the show! Their prizes? A gift card for each of them to Forever XXI, Aritzia, Sport Chek and Lululemon!! Great job by all of you…even those involved in Tomato-gate!

Just a few short days later, the girls were back on the court for their final tournament of the season: The Emerald City Classic in Seattle, Washington. Though many didn’t know, two different sports were played on this trip; volleyball, of course, but you may have heard of the other pasttime of teenaged girls: shopping. The girls were privileged to play against not one, but two teams from quite far away. The girls had the pleasure of playing against Impact from Hawaii (we still thank you for the wonderful Hawaiian gifts!) and Minas from Brazil. While the girls didn’t have too much success on the court, many deals were found at the malls and for that, the girls went 1-1 in the world of teenaged girls sports

Tony and Jessica would like to thank all the parents and chaperones for your time, energy, company, commitment and for making our jobs so much easier! We could not have done it without you!

To all of our girls: You make coaching an absolute pleasure. It was awesome seeing the improvement from each and every one of you and to see you girls grow as a team. I hope many of you choose to play beach this summer and that your high school senior season is a successful one! No one knows what next year will bring but I hope to see all of you again at tryouts for club season! Oh, and keep working on the vert….the net goes up to 2.24m!

Tony

Top 10 finishers include:

U18 Ninjas: 9th
U18 Giants: 10th
U17 XX: 10th
U16 Paranoia: 6th
U16 Boom: 7th
U15 Airborne: 6th
U15 Arsenal: 10th

Congratulations to the U15 Arsenal and U15 Shock for their successful seasons, which ended this past weekend! The remaining teams will now compete in the Canadian Opens, with some teams going to Seattle for two tournaments at the end of May.

Going into the tournament, the team was ranked 8th but quickly, teams were beginning to see the talent that Apex has been producing. Not only was Paranoia was getting praise from other teams, many coaches have talked about how talented and well rounded all 3 Apex teams were – Boom, Paranoia, and Impact.

During the first day of the tournament, Paranoia won all 3 of its round robin games (Eagles – who finished 2nd last year at Provincials, Vernon – Team Donovan, & Victoria B Chargers). After a 3-0 effort, the team finished first in their pool and prepared itself to be what was a successful Sunday morning and afternoon.

On Day 2 of the tournament, the boys looked determined to get to the finals. Their first opponent was against one of our Apex brothers, the U16 Impact. The Impact battled hard and with timely rotation checks by Coach Pappas, tried to stop team Paranoia. In the end, the Paranoia boys won 2-0 and were on their way to the semi-finals against their other brother team, Apex Boom. On a side note, Apex Boom probably had one of the games of the tournament during their quarter-final match. Their opponent during the quarter-final match was the very talented FVVC Blue. Apex Boom came out very strong during the first set and built a strong lead. However, FVVC climbed their way back and started to build momentum, but still lost the first set to Boom. During the second set, FVVC carried that momentum and built a large lead which resulted to a 24-18 score. But Boom would not give up; they clawed their way back to win 26-24 and booked their ticket to the semi-finals against Paranoia. Apex Boom definitely deserves a hand for their efforts of “never giving up.”

During the semi-final match, Paranoia came out very slow, and Boom carried their momentum, winning the first set. However, the Paranoia boys, lead by their captain Kevin Liu, would not let this opportunity to get to the finals slide. Paranoia battled back and won the match (2-1) against their friendly rivals of Boom. This booked Paranoia’s ticket to the finals against Victoria Chargers.

In the finals, the boys started slow once again. Victoria took advantage of the slow start and won the set 25-17. However, Paranoia finally woke up from their slow start and began to play the game of volleyball. Timely serving and defense by Tomas Rapaport and Derek Kwan lead the way. These two would come off the bench and go on serving runs which helped the boys to the tournament victory. Also, Michael Tran and Kevin Liu played a great match. They lead the team in kills and brought their “A” game to the match. The end result was a 2-1 victory by the Paranoia boys over the Victoria Chargers. Coach Tsang believes that this team has a lot of chemistry together and hopefully this is just a beginning to a successful season.

Coach Tsang

On Day 2, Pulse battled Synergy, defeating the club from Surrey 2-0. Next up was a date with the Vernon Vengance in the semi-finals. The other semifinal on the court next to Pulse was another team from the Okanagan, the Vernon Lizards vs. the same Campbell River Crush that had defeated Pulse on day 1 of pool play. Pulse knew that a win would set up a great matchup either way. The girls came out flying against the Vengance, led by the setting of team captain Adrienne Moopenn, the consistently clever hitting of Becca Arce and the best game of the tournament for both Ashley Sarazin and Lindsey Marks. Pulse went on to win 2-0 to guarantee themselves a top 2 finish. Ten minutes later, they would find out that they would have to contend with the ‘A’ team from Vernon, the Lizards. Although the girls battled hard, the strong serving of the Lizards proved to be too much as the Lizards won the Tier 2 crown 2-0.

With an overall finish of 18 out of 32 teams, the girls improved on their pre-tournament ranking by 5 spots and certainly ended the tournament on a high. The entire team knows it is only the first of many tournaments this year and know that they can push for a spot in Tier 1 come Provincials in April. However, they also know they’ll need to continue to work hard to improve their skills to become a more consistent and offensively dangerous team. Their next tournament is the Lower Mainland Super Series on March 27-28.

Tournament Results can be viewed at: http://volleyballbc.ca/index.asp?Page=939

Coach Tony

The 2010 season started with our Apex Icebreaker Skate, an opportunity for athletes, coaches, friends and families to spend time getting to know each other prior to the start of the season. The event took place at the new Killarney Ice Rink on December 29.

Good times were had by all, with a few sore bums from falls, but with even more smiles as our members circled the Olympic-sized rink in tune with a varied selection of holiday music and top 40 beats.

Thanks to all who attended and brought food items for the food drive. We were able to contribute over 80 cans of food to the food bank! Best of luck to all teams and to a successful 2010!

The Lower Mainland champion Trojans, lead by the tournament’s Most Outstanding Libero Johnson Dinh, 2nd Team All-Star leftside Dustin Szeto, setter Philip Ngo, and Honourable Mention middle Tommy Tang, finished the tournament with a 6-1 record. They defeated #5 ranked and Okanagan champion Mt. Boucherie, #7 ranked Kelowna, and #8 ranked and Vancouver Island champion Dover Bay in Power Pool play. They then defeated cross-town rivals #11 ranked Gladstone 3-0 in the Round of 16, and #4 ranked Earl Marriott 3-1 in the Quarters, before losing 3-0 to the #1 ranked and eventual provincial champions Fleetwood Park. The team rebounded with a 3-0 thrashing of #10 GP Vanier in the 3rd place game to claim the bronze.

Burnaby North, the Lower Mainland’s fourth ranked team, coached by Apex’s Aaron Lock, finished with a record of 3-4, and finished in 11th place for the third year in a row. The team was voted Most Sportsmanlike by tournament officials, a very high honour.

Gladstone and Killarney both finished tied for 15th. Gladstone, making a return to the tournament for the first time since 2004, was coached by Apex girls’ coach Thi Nguyen and finished with a record of 1-6. Killarney, making a 3rd straight appearance, was coached by Apex VP and girls’ coach Chanh Vuong, and finished with a 3-4 record.

Apex members who participated in the 4-day tournament included:

David Thompson (3rd): Jacky Au, Johnny Chou, Johnson Dinh, Kevin Do, Dustin Szeto, Tommy Tang.
Burnaby North (T11th): Coach Aaron Lock, Colton Ciolfitto, Daniel Lee, Brandon Ngai, Lorenzo Robiso, Larry Sit.
Gladstone (T15th): Coach Thi Nguyen, William Chiu, Sam Nguyen, Keegan Simms, Keane Yu.
Killarney (T15th): Coach Chanh Vuong, Dennis Cheng, Kenneth Chow, Benny Lin, Raymond Ng, Stephen Ng, Kevin Nguyen, Tim Nguyen, Nathan Wong, Ricky Yan.

Congratulations to all 4 teams on their successful seasons and best of luck during club season.

U18 Girls (Thi)
U18 Girls (Chanh)
U17 Girls
U16 Girls (Robyn/Tommy)
U15 Girls (Kyley)
U15 Boys (Ken)
U15 Boys (Derek)

A big thank you goes out to all those who came out. It is always great to see so much enthusiasm and drive from all of you. I hope you learned some new skills, made some new friends, and had a good time. With that being said, I hope you continue to improve your skills by playing more volleyball and I hope to see all of you next year.

The following girls have been named to the Apex U15 Girls Squad:

Aliana Carlos – Killarney
Alyssa Amante – Eric Hamber
Chelsea Campbell – Templeton
Clea Arrieta – Little Flower Academy
Hali MacDonald – Saint Thomas More
Hana Nielsen – Magee
Jaiun Lee – Killarney
Joanne Tong – Burnaby North
Joycelyn Guan – Vancouver Technical
Pearl Low – Vancouver Technical
Robbie Mendez – Tupper
Sarah Wong – Templeton

- Coach Tony W

Thank you to all the girls that tried out for one of the coveted spots on this team. Your skills matched your enthusiasm and it was a pleasure to have worked with all of you over the course of 5 tryouts. If you do not see your name below, I encourage you to continue playing volleyball to develop your skills and passion for the sport! As forming a team requires the consideration of many factors, things change from year to year. With that said, it is my hope that I see you all again at next year’s tryouts!

Without further ado, it is with great excitement that we announce the following players to Tony’s Apex U16 Girls squad for the 2009-2010 club season:

Adrienne Moopenn
Alexa Moretto
Ashley Sarazin
Becca Arce
Diane Nguyen
Eleanor Duifhuis
Elizabeth Yu
Kelly Furey
Lindsey Marks
Natalie Law
Nicole Carreon-Rivera
Nicole Smith
Vivian Wong

Thanks!
Tony

If you do not see your name on the list, the final tryout will be held on Wednesday, Dec 2 from 6:30-8pm @ Killarney Main Gym (note the change). There are still quite a few spots up for grabs so come prepared to leave it all on the court! If you can not attend this tryout, please let me know in advance by sending an email to tonyl (at) apexvolleyball.com. I look forward to seeing you all there!

Adrienne Moopenn – Templeton
Alexa Moretto – Notre Dame
Ashley Sarazin – Notre Dame
Becca Arce – Killarney
Diane Nguyen – Notre Dame
Nicole Carreon-Rivera – Killarney
Nicole Smith – Carson Graham
Vivian Wong – Killarney

–Tony–