As another school year picks up steam, Vice Principal and Athletic Director for Garden Valley Colligate, Walter Giesbrecht, believes it's going to be a special year for many of the sports programs going on at the school.
Staring the year strong
Several of the programs are underway, and Giesbrecht couldn't be happier with how things have started. "We get into it really quickly," he says with a chuckle. "First day of school we've got soccer practices, volleyball practices going on, and a week after that, our cross country begins. Those three sports are moving right now."
Soccer
"Soccer teams had a tournament this past weekend," details Giesbrecht. "Had some exhibition games the week before, and the varsity boys managed to take home the championship, while the girls ended up in third place. So, a successful weekend there."
The programs overall have been strong for a while, says Giesbrecht, and this year is no different. "They've always been well attended. Our boys tryout this year had a lot of players, 38 players, and coaches has some really difficult decisions to make. There were lots of people who were quality players, and that's a tribute to the Winkler Minor Soccer, and the various clubs going on around the community. Some of the referees were commenting over the weekend about how the level of soccer in Winkler has gone up drastically over the past several years. A lot of people in Winkler have a hand in that, we're very thankful, and programs are growing. Girls soccer, we didn't have as many people try out, but certainly enough for a team, and a very competitive team."
Volleyball
Being such a popular sport around Manitoba, Giesbrecht says the Pembina Valley is no different, students love to play. "We're optimistic. We had a large number of grade nine and ten players trying out for the JV team. One of the bigger compliments you can give a program, is saying that the coaches have really tough decisions to make, and that has been true with our volleyball teams. We had twenty plus athletes trying out, so we're very excited for the year. On the varsity side, we have some really high level talent. On the boys end, some people that might be playing U-Sport moving forward. We're really excited about where we're at with that, and competing this year."
Cross Country
As a sport, cross country continues to grow, and it's moving in the right direction at GVC for multiple reasons, says Giesbrecht. "The program, led by Scott Bell, who's been working the program for many years now, and we're very thankful for his dedication and help there. Our cross country program, one of the things we offer is flexibility. Mr. Bell has said, we run practices up to four days a week, and people can come and run, but we understand that we share athletes. We're big on multi-sport athletes, so some of our cross country athletes may be playing soccer, they might be playing volleyball, so they can't necessarily make it all the time. So we've got some flexibility, we like them to come out once or twice a week if they can, so they can run. But, it's different than some practices where we're expecting you there every single time, we have flexibility built in, and we're hoping to just build our way up to being competitive in the zone."
Basketball
"We're really excited to have our coaching staff in place," Giesbrecht says with a smile. "We'll be offering JV boys and girls, as well as varsity boys and girls. I know especially with our varsity girls team, we have a lot of the same players that were on the team that won provincials two years ago, they're back again with us this year, so we're in a good position to make a push. One of our fixtures for our varsity boys team for the past for years is Ethan Wiebe, who's right now playing for the University of Manitoba, along with Dante Dyck. We've sent those guys up. When you lose a piece like Ethan, I don't want to say rebuild, but it's going to be a lot different. We're used to having a 6'9" backstop, so we'll be learning how to play without him. We have guys who are very passionate about the game, and we're excited to see where it takes us."
Pickleball
One of the faster growing sports in the province, Giesbrecht, who himself is a big fan of the sport, loves where it's going. "I've been a part of the pickleball community in Winkler for quite a while, going back to when Jon Klassen, the former teacher here at GVC brought it into Winkler, so I've been playing. It's got a reputation as a game that's more for seniors, but it's really taking off. We started intermural pickleball, I'd say maybe ten years ago, and just in the last year, we had a couple coaches become more formal with it, we had some competition in Winnipeg last year that we did really well with, so we're excited to keep the momentum going with that one."
Badminton
"It's incredibly popular here," Giesbrecht says proudly. "Talking about multi-sport athletes, we find that quite a few of our athletes that are playing other sports, find their way into badminton come spring. It's growing, and it's really quite popular."
Representing GVC with pride
No matter what sport, no matter what time of year, Giesbrecht says a common trend is that the student athletes love representing their school at various events, and take a lot of pride in what they do. "It is really exciting, and we say that academics come before athletics, but the life long impact of taking part in athletics in your school, it's hard to overstate. I was telling the kids at the assembly, I'm still friends that I played basketball with 30 years ago. It's not the only place to develop those friendships, but it's a great place to find those, and stay connected to your community. There's the pride of playing in the moment, which is huge, it adds a level of excitement and pressure, you get to work on your resiliance through sport, but there's also the life long impact through sports. We really encourage kids to get as involved as they can, play as many sports as they can, and one message is, the time goes by fast. You only have four years to play high school sports, and when you're in grade nine, you don't appreciate how fast it's going to go, but it goes with lightning speed. We encourage everyone to get involved."