Cyclone off to OFSAA
Give the E.L. Crossley Cyclone an A in chemistry.
The Cyclone topped the Sir Winston Churchill Bulldogs 21-25, 25-18, 25-20, 25-19 to capture the Southern Ontario Secondary Schools Association AA senior boys volleyball championship at Saint Paul Thursday and both the coaching staff and the players quickly pointed to chemistry as the key to victory.
The Cyclone now advance to the Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations (OFSAA) AA championship in Huntsville Nov. 24-26.
“A lot of the boys played in it last year so they have great chemistry and a lot of great experience as well. They’re highly intelligent, highly coachable athletes,” Crossley head coach Michelle Gibson said.
Captain Aakash Senthil agreed.
“I think it’s really team chemistry when it comes down to it and coaches that believe in us,” Senthil said, when asked the reason for the Cyclone’s continued success. “When we’re on the court we’re all playing together, we’re not playing for individual success.
“We’re ecstatic. We got there last year and we have guys coming back and we always had that goal in mind.”
The Cyclone didn’t let a sluggish start in the final stand in their way.
“The message was to stay the course,” Gibson said. “The same kind of thing happened during our season. We dropped the first set against them so we had to readjust and play our game properly the way they know how and they did that.”
The Cyclone made it to OFSAA last year in North Bay and came away with silver and Gibson was confident a return to the Ontario championships was a good possibility this season.
“I did feel it was an OFSAA-bound team,” she said. “I knew we would have some good competition trying to get through Sir Winston but we were confident.”
The Cyclone will convene Friday and set their goals this time around.
“We’re going to wait and do some goal setting tomorrow and take a look at see what the competition will be and we’ll adjust our goals accordingly,” Gibson said.
Senthil can’t wait to get to Huntsville.
“We’re just over the moon about it. We’re so excited to play more volleyball,” he said. “We haven’t set goals yet but it’s always the goal to win. We always want to go for gold.”
Crossley topped the St. Francis Phoenix 25-19, 25-15, 23-25, 25-13 in the semifinals while Sir Winston defeated the Lakeshore Catholic Gators 25-22, 25-18, 25-20 in their semifinal.
Members of the Cyclone are: Keagan Alexander, Samuel Belchior, Brandon Bernardi, Connor Bleich, Luca Burattini, Kayden Gyugyei, Samuel Jeffery, Jackson Kalybaba, Yusuf Kartal, Aiden Lahn, Devon Minor, Lucas Motola, Austin Wilson, Jason Sviergula and Lucca Zanuttini.
Dear reader. If you liked this story or one of the 4,600 other stories found on our website, please consider hitting the Support Us button on the right-hand side of our home page and making a PayPal contribution to our website. Your support would be much appreciated. If you are a business owner, please consider advertising on our site. Our rates are reasonable and we provide plenty of exposure for your business. Contact bpotrecz@outlook.com for more information.
