Girls’ volleyball season heats up for east-end players

That’s because three Rebelles – Vicky Savard and Myriam and Kelsie English – play for the 18-and-under Mavericks team he directs, while another trio competes for the east end-based club’s 17U squad.

Training the majority of the opposing team members to be the best they can for most of the week is sort of like shooting himself in the foot when it comes time for his Cougars to take on the Rebelles, MacLean notes.

“But it also gives me a little bit of an advantage,” the Mavericks club president adds. “If I was playing a bunch of girls from another club that I don’t know, I’d say, ‘She’s really good,’ but now I can say, ‘She will do this.’”

MacLean had a few pointers to pass on to his Cougars, but that wasn’t quite enough to beat the powerhouse Rebelles this past Tuesday, Dec. 15, as Louis-Riel prevailed 25-13, 25-20, 25-21 on its home court.

“I’m perfectly fine with this (result),” says MacLean, whose daughter, Alana, is the only current Maverick player amongst the Cougars. “Our girls are volleyball part-timers, and they’re volleyball full-timers, so I’m very proud of how we did.

“And it also doesn’t matter what happens in December.”

MacLean hopes the Rebelles will wind up being the biggest challengers his 4-1 squad faces this season. He’d like his Cougars to earn an undefeated record the rest of the way, and expects the toughest hurdle in that quest will be Béatrice-Desloges in their final regular season game.

“If we do everything right, we don’t see them until city finals, so that’s my plan,” says MacLean, whose team is chasing one of the two provincial championships berths available in the ‘AAA/AAAA’ league.

The 10-game high school season, combined with frequent out-of-town club tournaments on weekends, makes for a very busy schedule when the high school and club seasons are running at the same time.

“Especially the girls who go (to Louis-Riel), in the sports-études program, they do the same thing as our high-performance program all day, so they’re getting hammered twice,” MacLean notes. “When you combine club with school, it’s every day.”

The players have to guard against overtraining, which can be particularly problematic since Louis-Riel students have to work out during the day in order to get good school marks, while MacLean can’t really give them a break in the evening because he would have a hard time explaining to other team members why the Louis-Riel girls don’t have to work as hard as the rest of them.

MacLean makes sure to ease up cracking the whip nonetheless during the high school season, leaving the club team’s peak pushes for the fall – before the scholastic season begins – and the spring once high school play is finished up and the club provincial and national championships take over.

“I know they need it every once in awhile to give their body a break,” MacLean adds. “I gave my girls a Sunday off, and they were just praising me.”