18U Boys Black
 

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!8U Boys Turn Heads in 2009 Provincials at Rim Park
 

The 18U Boys Waterloo Tigers team absolutely sent the rest of Ontario teams a message leading up to Nationals in Ottawa (starts May 1st).

The Tigers teams no doubtedly struggled most of this season, with limited success. But the team kept up their goal of achieving & maintaining a position in Tier 1 for the Provincial tournament, with lots of hard work at practices and commitment from their 3 coaches to push for the best efforts the boys could provide.

They entered the weekend seeded 10th out of 19 teams, starting in a difficult pool that included the #1 seed (Crush from Scarborough). When the team arrived to play the first round on Saturday, they were met with news that Crush had an injury to a major player, as did a number of the other top teams. The Tigers were strong & healthy, and saw this as a opportunity to push their limits. 

First match on Saturday saw them beat Pakman 212, a team that historically has beaten the Tigers. With the second match against #1 Crush finishing in the Tigers favour, the boys started talking about Karma.

Second day play was equally intense with matches against Interclub (Toronto) and MAC (Hamilton), ending with their pool of 3 teams finishing in a 3 way tie. By virtue of points for/against, the Tigers were placed third. 

This meant an extra game on playoff day Monday, but a more favourable draw. The first match on Monday was against the Crush team. It was close, but the Tigers prevailed in the third set, sending Crush home & the Waterloo boys on to meet Pakman club "A" team in the quarter final. This is another team that the Tigers have not been successful against, but riding the wave of success meant a large win in 2 straight sets. The win solidified a 4th place final position - well above the 10th place seed where the Tigers started their weekend.

At this point, Rim Park was full of teams talking about the dark horse Waterloo Tigers and their run for a medal.

4th place is where they finished, after 2 very valiantly played matches in the semi-final (Forest City) and the bronze medal match (Durham Attack). But a huge climb from 10th, and the end of an extremely satisfying weekend.

The team is extremely grateful to their 3 coaches: Dave Steiner, Brett Campbell & Cameron Dunning - all three who were on the University of Waterloo varsity squad this past season. Making the extra commitment to helping the 18U Tigers boys squad was immense in the team's success late in the season. And these young men are now setting new goals for success at Nationals in Ottawa.

18U Boys Black Bring Home Gold From Nationals
 

The 18U Boys sealed their tremendous end of season run by bringing home GOLD for Tier 2 in Ottawa this past weekend.

The team set daily goals at the start of each morning, and achieved every one of them.

Friday saw the start of pool play, with the aim to be included in the Tier 1 & 2 division for Saturday. The boys first match against a team from Lethbridge AB was early, 7:30 a.m. start. It took the boys a while to warm up, but in the end the match went in the Tigers favour after 3 sets. The second match against Northumberland Breakers was over quickly, Tigers winning 2 straight sets. The third match on Friday saw the team agains the #2 seed in the tournament, Manitoba Bisons. The Bisons won, but with 2/1 record on the day the Tigers were sealed for Tier 1 & 2 play for Saturday - daily goal achieved.

The team knew that Saturday's play would be tougher, and knew that moving on into Tier 1 for playoff play would be a hard battle. So the ultimate goal was to simply take one match, preferably from MAC - a team that squeaked wins from Tigers twice earlier in the season. The boys were anxious for some retribution. As the day progressed, the Tigers lost to Fraser Valley & Interclub. So the final match Saturday against MAC became critical for getting a more favourable draw on Sunday.

And again the Tigers were successful in meeting this specific daily goal. The team beat MAC in straight sets.

Sunday arrived with Tigers starting in the quarter final match against a team from Kelowna. After a rocky start & losing the first set 25-17, the boys settled down and took the next 2 sets 25-22, 15-9. On to the semi's & at least a fourth place finish.

The semi-final pitted the Tigers against Aurora Storm, another team that the team wanted to beat to show that the Tigers were a better team than the season would have shown. Although a physically bigger team than our Tigers, the Storm faced some incredible blocking and consistent serving, falling to the Tigers in straight sets 25-18, 25-20. The finals were waiting with the colour of hardware on the line!

In the gold medal match, the boys met the most amazing team of the tournament, Pegasus from Kingston. This team came into the tournament seeded 40th of 40 teams, and here they were in the Tier 2 gold medal match. So we knew that they had also brought their best game to Ottawa. The first set was fairly easily won by the Tigers 25-17, but Pegasus put up a tough stand in the second. The points were evenly traded, with the Tigers always ahead by only 1 or 2 points. But a tough push at 22-22 brought victory to our team at a final score of 25-22. Mission accomplished.

The boys (and parents) celebrated with high fives, ear-to-ear grins, and hugs. It had been a very long, hard fought season but the end result with a Gold at Nationals in Tier 2, making them the 11th best team in the nation, made up for some tough losses.

Many of these boys are now setting their sites on playing varsity ball, or another year at high school. But this is a wonderful way to have this group of boys finish playing together in the black & red uniforms of the Tigers.

Congratulations Team!

Comments or questions: admin@waterlootigersvbc.org