Volleyball: Playing with the big boys
Here's one of my stories from this weekend: check out the tournament site for more! In the men’s 18U division, one of the 40 teams is not like the other 39. The 16U Ottawa Mavericks, a team composed of players two years younger than most of their competition, were a last-minute addition to the tournament after another team withdrew unexpectedly. “Due to the withdrawal of one of the Ontario teams that was driving, we had a vacancy,” Tournament Competitions Chair Brenda Willis said, adding that an unfilled spot would have meant a time-consuming process of redoing the tournament draw, difficult due to the late date of the withdrawal. “We were quite fortunate to have the 16U Mavericks step up and fill the vacancy, even though they’re two years younger. It’s a tremendous opportunity for them to improve, because they’re playing up. Hopefully, when they go out to their nationals in a week, it will all seem easy because the hitting will be lower and softer.” Perhaps predictably, the Maver...