Bulldogs sweep Redcoats
James Lindsay went back to his roots Thursday and the results were impressive.
The 17-year-old, Grade 12 student moved from right side to setter as the Sir Winston Churchill Bulldogs swept the Governor Simcoe Redcoats 25-23, 25-15, 25-22 to capture the Niagara Region High School Athletic Association Zone 4 senior boys AA volleyball championship on their home court.
Lindsay, who was a setter in Grade 9, was filling in for brother Ray Lindsay, who was in Pittsburgh at a hockey tournament.
“At the start I just set a lot outside and made the easy set and then my guys trusted me and then helped me build through the game so I could make the sets and they would they would know where to go,” James Lindsay said. “We found it worked today.”
Sir Winston coach Garrett Goodbrand appreciates James Lindsay’s versatility.
“He’s like a Swiss Army knife for us,” Goodbrand said. “He does what’s asked of him and you can always count on him when he’s on the floor.
“It’s amazing.”
The Bulldogs completed the sweep in about an hour, but both James Lindsay and Goodbrand said it was anything but a cakewalk.
“They’re a strong team. We battled. When we got down ourselves, we just picked ourselves back up. It’s a great group of guys,” James Lindsay said.
“No, it didn’t feel like 3-0,” Goodbrand added. “That felt like a dogfight for sure. I thought the guys stayed together. I thought they served super tough. Simcoe is a really good team, they start a lot of veteran players. They’re smart, they’re super well coached.
“The hope was to win, I thought we had a chance, but I didn’t want to count my chickens before they hatched for sure.”
The Bulldogs finished the regular season with a pedestrian 5-3 mark.
“It’s been up and down,” James Lindsay said. “We’ve been short guys some games. We go in to games with six guys but we’re always there at practice battling. That’s what really counts. Every guy brings a value aspect to this team.”
The Bulldogs now advance to the Southern Ontario Secondary Schools Association (SOSSA) AA playdowns which they are hosting.
“I mean, we won SOSSA last year and it was just awesome,” James Lindsay said. “I want to come back and even though we’re hosting OFSAA (Ontario Federation of Athletic Associations) our goal here was to win SOSSA and get in the real way.”
Goodbrand feels it is best to take it one step at a time at this point.
“No expectations,” he said. “We’ll have to see who comes out of the Catholic side, comes out of the other zones. We’re excited, but no expectations at this point.”
The Redcoats went 4-4 during the regular season.
“Last time we played them in season, we didn’t have two of our starters and everyone was actually playing in a different position,” Simcoe coach Maddy Brown said. “We had a lot of illness this past month so this is only like probably our fourth time all season we’ve had the whole team here,” she said.
Other members of the winning Bulldogs are: Patrick O’Farrell, Max Hall, Cole Lewis, Ethan Enns, Brayden Steele, Jaden Hoff, Len Uttley, Aiden Laundry, Owen Scott.
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