Winning has become something of a habit for the volleyball stars of Fort Smith's Paul William Kaeser High School.
The school sent three teams to the Spike It volleyball tournament in Yellowknife, Oct. 27-29, and for the third time this year, the Fort Smith under-15 boys team came home with gold medals.
"It was amazing," said coach Kelvyn Modeste. "It's a great feeling to see the kids you coached get to a certain level, and then you go to a tournament and they continue to surpass that level and just get better.
"They were really excited SA国际影视传媒� so much so that they were starting to lose their voices from cheering so much at the end."
The South Slave entry beat out nine others in the tournament, besting Yellowknife's Sir John Franklin High School in straight sets to win gold. They also won gold at the Smash It tournament in Hay River and the Lawrie Hobart Memorial Volleyball Tournament on home soil in Fort Smith earlier this year.
"It's a really great group of kids right now," Modeste said. "They play multiple sports. In general, they just have really good athletic skills, and they have good height. In a sport like volleyball, height is [important], and they're a pretty tall team."
The Yellowknife event was the last of the season for the team, and many of its athletes will now shift their attention to other sports like soccer and hockey. However, Modeste is hoping that he can convince them to keep practising on the court once a week with the goal of returning to Hay River's Smash It tournament next year.
He suspects another gold medal win is possible, and that some of the athletes on the team could go even further in the sport.
"I would say I'm close to nine seasons-worth of coaching," he said. "I've had one [player] who's done really well and got to college ball and was with that team for about four or five years and ended up being the captain on his last year or two.
"I'd be excited to see if another player of mine makes it that far, and I do believe this group has the potential."
Paul William Kaeser High School's under-19 boys and girls and under-15 girls also performed valiantly at the Yellowknife tournament but were all eliminated during their divisions' semifinals.
