Flyers mine gold at OFSAA
Eden senior boys volleyball coach Bill Markham has completed his set of Ontario Federation of School Athletic Association medals.
After serving as an assistant for seven years under the legendary Albino Pereira, Markham guided the Flyers to an OFSAA bronze medal in his first year as head coach in 2016. Eden won silver in 2017 before capturing the gold medal this past weekend at the OFSAA AA championships in Sydenham.
“We’re getting better every year,” Markham said, with a laugh. “For me, it’s more about for the program to believe. You can’t replace Albino as coach — he’s one of a generation — and my biggest hope for the program was to be able to continue the same mindset, culture and legacy.”
Mission accomplished.
“For us winning, it’s proof that it is possible even in a post-Albino era,” Markham said.
He feels the OFSAA gold wasn’t about him, but he took great satisfaction in sharing the moment with his players.
“It’s a very special moment and very few people ever get to experience it.”
In describing the Eden volleyball culture, Markham points to a commitment of excellence.
“With that, there’s a high degree of accountability when you come into this program that the expectation is higher,” he said. “You practise more, you practise harder and the truth is there are kids who did not start with us who would probably be starters on almost any other high school team.”
That selflessness was especially true of this year’s version of the Flyers.
In addition to a culture of expectation and learning, there is also a culture of camraderie.
“There’s a unique dynamic where everybody has to embrace their role,” Markham said.
The team used plenty of different lineups during the regular season, but settled on a different one for OFSAA.
“Guys have to embrace their roles and some guys who were maybe a starter all year weren’t a starter and maybe someone came in as a serving specialist,” he said. “We were able to put all the pieces together and that was Albino’s strength.”
And while Albino did it by feel, Markham relied on analytics and statistics to decide who would play and when.
“They embraced their roles and we had a game plan,” he said. “We’re not worried about what happens on the other side of the net and we are just going to take care of what we do.”
The team’s mantra at OFSAA was: Trust yourself, trust your teammates and trust the process.
“Man did it ever pay off because, we only lost two sets the entire weekend,” Markham said.
In round-robin play, Eden defeated L’Escale 2-0 (25-19 and 26-24), St. Joseph’s 2-0 (25-10 and 25-18), Henry Street 2-1 (21-25, 25-8 and 15-10) and Kirkland Lake 2-0 (25-9 and 25-13). It then beat Birchmound Park 3-0 (25-15, 25-22 and 25-23) in the quarter-finals, Preston 3-0 (25-13, 25-16 and 25-23) in the semifinals and Franco Cite 3-1 (25-15, 25-13, 21-25 and 25-16) in the championship match.
“We executed our game plan and we didn’t get rattled,” Markham said,
The one blip during the week was the round-robin set versus Henry Street.
“It was purely mental,” he said. “It was the only time in the tournament where we decided we could forget about the technical aspect and focus on attention to detail and thought we would still win.
“You don’t win that way.”
Members of the team were Josiah Esau, Samuel Pearson, Ethan Maroudas, Nick Lampman, David Reimer, Matthew Gay, Leighton Friesen, Ashton Nieuwets, Ethan Mewhinney, Joshua Robins, Cole Duncanson, Daniel Ridings, Kersey Robinson and Peter Pilling. Markham is assisted by Pereira and Kyle Steele.
“I was watching the games on-line and the commentators were talking about the other teams the whole time,” Markham said. “It’s because our guys are so professional and understated, yet they do their job.”
Robins and Ridings were dominant on the left side at OFSAA, Lampman at libero was near perfect with his passing, Esau was masterful with his setting, and Duncanson and Nieuwets were unstoppable in the middle as was Robinson on the right side as the Flyers rolled to their 14th straight OFSAA medal.
“It just felt like a family and we were winning for each other,” Markham said. “It was an emotional experience for me because of that.”
Eden will lose six or seven players to graduation, but will returning its starting middles and Grade 11 setter Pilling, who played quite a bit leading up to OFSAA.
“You never know, but I think we will be solid again next year,” Markham said.
