Salmon Arm Jackson Jays volleyball teams took flight over the weekend in the Last Spike Volleyball Tournament.
Three teams from the Jackson campus took part in the Oct. 21/22 tourney in Revelstoke.
The Jackson Jays Girls Tier 1 team, coached by Jenny Currie, took first place out of eight teams. The Jackson Jays Girls B Team, coached by Tiffany Lombaert, placed fourth in the Girls division, and the Jackson Jays Boys team, coached by Suzie Beckner, placed third out of five teams in the Boys division.
Teagan Currie won the Hardest Spike competition in the Girls tournament division, while Quinn Doray won in the Boys division.
Coach Currie said she’s seen volleyball spike in popularity over the past couple of years at the high school level.
“I’ve coached the junior girls team for the last two years and what’s really neat is I’ve had over 40 girls each year try out for this team. Which is pretty cool because Salmon Arm has traditionally been a basketball community. So for us, to have these numbers grow for volleyball is really neat.”
Currie said it’s also helped over the past two years that someone else has stepped up to help coach the B team for girls volleyball (this year it’s Lombaert) “to continue to develop these athletes.”
Contributing to this growth, said Currie, is the development program at Shuswap Middle School.
“They’ve put equal importance at the middle school in developing the volleyball program, and I’ve had the privilege of being part of that with them and you can see those girls continue it into Jackson, Grades 9 and 10, because of that development they’ve just received.”
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lachlan@saobserver.net
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