The Glashan Public School boys’ volleyball team, the Spikers, took home gold at the Ontario Boys’ Elementary Championship for the 13th time since 1980.
The Centretown squad won all nine of their matches in the two-day tournament, held Nov. 14 in Mississauga. Glashan won 18 straight sets, including the last two in a close finish against David Leeder Middle School from Mississauga, with 25-19 and 25-22 victories.
Spikers head coach Murat Erlik, a Glashan phys-ed teacher, said defeating David Leeder in the school’s home city was their main goal going in to the tournament.
“When you train so hard like we do, to come to this . . . meeting David Leeder in the final for me, it is a dream come true,” he says, explaining Glashan knew the Mississauga team would be its main competition after winning the provincial cup in 2014.
But the opportunity to even participate in the tournament was almost quashed by the recent suspension of extracurricular activities in local elementary schools part of a labour dispute that caused “extreme anxiety” for the team, according to Erlik.
The five-day period between Oct. 28 and Nov. 1 saw no volleyball practice times or open volleyball, a hit to the everyday workout schedule normally taken on by the Spikers.
Even more worrisome for the team was the possibility of the tournament not taking place at all, says Erlik.
“If the Provincial Cup was cancelled, the boys and I would have been very upset,” he says. “We had been training for the tournament for one year. We were focused on performing well at the largest volleyball tournament in Ontario.”
He also says they had concerns regarding the Catholic schools, which had not been privy to the same cuts.
The deadline for the cup convenors to determine whether the event would happen was the evening of Nov. 2, just hours after a tentative agreement was finally reached between Ontario’s elementary teachers and the province’s school boards.
“That Monday evening, I was in touch with my team, and had practice at 7:30 a.m. on the Tuesday,” Erlik says.
Caelen McCabe, captain of the Grade 8 team, says the Spikers’ ability to focus on winning and pull together as a team is what allowed them to pull out a victory in the end, despite a rocky start in the round-robin games.
In the semi-finals, Glashan defeated Samuel Genest of Ottawa 25-12, 25-15.
“The finals were the biggest highlight,” he says. “It kind of just clicked. It was motivation to win, wanting to win so badly that spirit overrode the pressure.”
Jim Tayler, principle of Glashan, says a congratulatory banner to mark their win will be displayed in the main gymnasium.
“This is a school were people who come by will see our students out in the yard playing volleyball pretty much year round,” he says. “So the sport is very much embedded into the life of the school.”
The Spikers volleyball team was started by former head coach and phys-ed teacher Rick Desclouds 37 years ago.
Once he retired in 2010, Erlik took over after being both a player and assistant coach with the team.
“He comes to all of our tournaments, our practices, so he’s very much front and centre,” Erlik says. “We always bounce ideas off of each other.”
Tayler says Desclouds runs an after school volleyball program for any students to participate along with former Glashan students coming in to help out. Through programs like this, he says, the Glashan community stays strong.
“It’s very gratifying as a principal to see that sense of community with our current and past students who still feel attached to the school,” he says.
For McCabe, Desclouds offers a certain kind of support for the team.
“When (Erlik) gets too mad to talk to us, he lets Mr. Desclouds talk,” he adds with a smile, getting a laugh from Erlik.
“Good cop, bad cop I guess,” the coach says.
With this win being the 10th title earned during Erlik’s time as both player and coach, he says he knows firsthand the kind of pressure his players faced.
“It’s hard to describe the experience,” he says, “with countless parents, and hundreds of people watching. They would come up to me and say, ‘Oh my God, I can’t believe 13-year-olds can play volleyball like that.’ ”
With the team training multiple times a day, McCabe credits both his coach and his teammates for their big win.
“We all played really well when it mattered the most,” he says.
“To be able to come on top is amazing,” adds Erlik. “And we hope to continue winning.”