The Camosun Chargers teams all had different starts to their seasons, but they have one goal in common: to finish the season strong and make noise in the playoffs.
The Chargers volleyball teams have had very similar seasons as of the time of writing this story in late January. They both started their season with a 2-4 record and have turned it around since then. The women’s team now holds a 7-5 record and the men’s team now has a 6-6 record. Both teams won the Pacific Western Athletic Association (PACWEST) championships last year and are looking to make history again this year.
The women’s volleyball team has added a lot of new players to their roster this year, which is a contributing factor to why they had a slow start to the season.
“Almost half of our roster was new to the team this year,” says women’s volleyball head coach Brent Hall. “But a lot of members from last year’s starting lineup did return, so we have a mix of experience and quite a lot of new players. Overall, our average age is pretty low.”
Most importantly, the women’s volleyball team lost their libero and captain and currently have rookies in that position. Hall says that the team’s transition led to a slow start but they were able to turn it around.
“I think it was a factor of having a young roster… We knew that going in and we also knew that we would be a very talented team and a top team in the league, so we were focused in the first semester on developing the skills and coming together as a team,” says Hall. “We knew there would be some bumps in the road, so I don’t think anybody was panicking after we had a slow start, we just knew that we had to stick to the plan and keep pushing, and the way we have been playing in the last while, it has been really strong.”
The team has been able to turn the season around, winning five of their last six games, and are now tied for the second seed, only six points behind first place.
“Knowing that we were returning a lot of our important athletes from last year’s team, our expectations coming in have been to place one position higher [in nationals],” says Hall. “With a younger team this year I think that has led to a bit more inconsistency in our performance, but the way that we play when we play at our best is very good and gives us the belief that we can win provincials again and hopefully go on to do the same at nationals.”
The women’s volleyball team came close to greatness as they lost the final at nationals last year; the team hopes to win gold this time around.
“At the start of the season we maybe played at a championship level for a few points a match,” says Hall. “The way that we have been practicing recently it’s looking like we’re playing at a championship level for most of the time. Where we need to go next is just to continue to grow in terms of our consistency to play the way that we are capable of, under pressure and from 0-0 until the end of the match.”
Similarly, the men’s volleyball team had a bumpy start to the season, winning only two of their first six games. Libero and captain Kristofer La Guardia says the team was never demoralized by their slow start.
“First semester we were doing a lot of learning, learning how to play with each other,” says La Guardia. “Because we are so young, we were able to take the losses at the beginning of the season and really learn from them and not only better ourselves but also better the understanding of playing with each other.”
The men’s volleyball team also lost some of their best players from last year, including their MVP Eduardo Bidá. However, the team has played better as of late, winning four of their last six games. Still, La Guardia believes the team is flying under the radar of other contenders.
“I think we have lost some very big players on our team, however, I think we have had a great deal of optimism in our gym. Yes, we are young, but we always come into the gym with the idea of ‘Why not us?’” says La Guardia. “To the rest of the CCAA [Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association], I think a lot of people have swept us under the rug because we are so young. That is why we came up with the idea of ‘Why not us?’… Now with provincials coming up, I think we can prove all those people wrong.”
The men’s volleyball team are the current two-time national champions and despite the feeling on the team that other teams are disregarding them due to their young ages, La Guardia believes that the ceiling for this team is much higher.
“I think the sky is the limit, as long as we have that competitive drive day in and day out,” says La Guardia. “This team has really connected both on and off the court. We have chemistry, and we have the skills, I think it’s now the time to show it.”
Nevertheless, being the reigning and defending two-time champions conveys pressure to perform at the highest of levels.
“There is a great deal of pressure on this team, and personally being part of that lineup that won those national championships,” says La Guardia. “Now that I’ve been put in that captain role, I feel like I have that pressure of leading this team in the right direction and to the goal that we want, which is to win a third [championship]. I think the pressure that this team has gotten has kind of been put on by ourselves. We all just have a high expectation to perform.”
The CCAA national championships will be hosted at Camosun this year, meaning the Chargers automatically clinch a berth to the tournament.
“I feel a bit of pressure—in the past two championships the home team has always been in the finals,” says La Guardia. “So, there is always that pressure—because we are the host we should make it to the final—but I also think because we are home we will have a good group of people come out and support us.”
On the contrary, the men’s basketball team has been by far the best Chargers team from start to finish this season. They’re sitting in second place in their conference with a 14-2 record, just two points behind first place. Head coach Geoff Pippus gives all the credit for their success to his players.
“The guys [are the key to our success]; I think it has little to do with me,” says Pippus. “They care about each other, they care about doing the right things, they care about working hard every day and getting better in practice. We have a really solid core of leaders who have been here for a couple of years and set the tone every day. I think it’s a really special group of young people and they drive our culture here, they drive our work habits here, and those things right now are translating into winning games, which is great.”
The men’s team has been the best defensive team in the league, allowing only 65 points per game while they average 75 points scored per game.
“I think for the last two years we have been in the conversation for the best defence in the league. It is something that we value, it gives us a chance to be in every game,” says Pippus. “Shots sometimes go in and sometimes they don’t, but if you do a good job of the things you can control like defending, rebounding, the sort of not-so-glamourous things, you give yourself a chance to win the game. By the metrics, we are the best team right now defensively, the guys have bought into what we are doing.”
However, Pippus acknowledges that not everything is perfect and admits the team has had offensive struggles.
“I don’t think it’s a problem, it’s certainly something we are working on,” he says. “I think it’s a matter of us fine-tuning, making sure we are getting guys in the right spots, we want to play faster, we want to score more… I think we are capable of scoring at a high rate, but the fact that they are so consistent defensively has allowed us to squeak out [some] games.”
Despite their tremendous start to their season, Pippus believes that they are not yet the best version of themselves.
“You have not seen our best yet, we have a lot of things to improve on,” he says. “I have been on the guys for the first couple of weeks of the semester about needing to improve, so I don’t know what the ceiling is. We’re going to have to find out together, but my hope would be a team that can compete at the provincial and the national level.”
Pippus says the goal is to win the provincial championships.
“Until that point it’s all about just building up so that we can be as ready as we can be for that one weekend,” he says. “VIU will be a great measuring stick, Capilano will be a great measuring stick, and Langara at Langara is going to be a really tough game, so we just want to put ourselves in the best position so that we are playing our best basketball in provincials.”
On the other hand, the women’s basketball team has had a really rough start to their season. They now have a record of 7-9 and are looking to have a good second half of the season. However, in this case, the record does not reflect the talent that the team has.
Point guard Rhiannon Ware is a top-three player in the league. She is top six in points, top four in assists, top three in steals, and a more impressive top 15 in rebounds. She’s often the best player on the court but has had trouble staying healthy for the first part of the season.
“I do not feel I’m playing as well as I could to my full capacity just because I’ve been dealing with so many small injuries all year so far,” says Ware. “I haven’t been fully healthy all season yet. I’m working to give [myself] a good balance to where I’m healthy enough and able to recover in between weeks and games.”
Nonetheless, availability is the best ability. That’s why Ware’s focus is to be healthy for her team so they can reach their full potential.
“We are playing well at the moment, we’re obviously not exactly where we want to be, but we have so much growth to happen still and we haven’t given the teams a look at what we can fully be yet,” says Ware. “We are playing well, though—we have a team full of vets and we have a great coaching staff. So we are all working together and helping each other out to get to that spot where we believe we should be.”
Despite their current record, they have indeed played well. They have had some close games with the top teams—one of those was against Capilano, who are currently in second place. Even though Ware didn’t play against them she recognizes that the games against Capilano were the best they have played this season.
“[Our highlight] was our last semester home games when we played Capilano. They were very close games and, unfortunately, they did not come out in our favour,” she says. “That pair of games is probably the closest that we have played to our full potential, and, again, it did not go our way but the overall score did not reflect on our team chemistry and the hard work that was put into it. This semester we are in a better position to see those games through in our favour.”
The women’s basketball team is now finally turning their season around. They are on a three-game winning streak and they have the opportunity to win the next four as they play the bottom two teams next.
“If we play at our best, we’re going to give a lot of teams trouble. We already gave the top teams in the league a lot of trouble without playing up to our full potential,” says Ware. “I believe that when we get there, we are going to get noticed… We just haven’t gotten recognition yet. So, when everyone gets on the same page, we are really going to make something happen and we are going to turn this around… Our time is coming; we can feel it.”