Small leads Cougars on final playoff run

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 25/02/2023 (1183 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Joel Small wants to go out on top.

He left Brandon University Bobcats as a national championship all-star, wearing the program’s first-ever U Sports volleyball medal in 2009.

Now he has one more weekend of Manitoba Colleges Athletic Conference volleyball as head coach of the Assiniboine Community College Cougars. The Brandonite, who joined the program in 2014, confirmed he’s stepping away after this season.

“It’s been awesome,” Small said. “I never really thought much about coaching until I was approached by (then athletic director) Beth (Clark) … and said ‘Oh, I’ll give it a go for a few years.’

“I’ve been able to develop this program into a team that can compete and potentially go to nationals. It’s another program for me other than BU that I’ve grown to love and appreciate.”

Small said his goal when he took over was to help players jump to the U Sports level. That happened when Gladstone’s Paycen Warkentin moved to BU in 2019 after earning the MCAC’s most valuable player award. He’s now starting and statistically among the top blockers in Canada.

Ryden Hargreaves, who was named to the all-conference team this week, signed with BU for the 2023-24 Canada West season.

“For me, it’s more about the boys and the guys that are graduating beyond this year,” Small said. “It’d be nice to just get that taste of it and even for our program. If our program went to nationals, it helps for recruiting.”

ACC has yet to make the league final under Small’s watch but it’s seldom been more likely than this weekend.

The Cougars (5-13) play the No. 2 seed Providence Pilots (13-5) at St. Boniface today at 2 p.m.

The winner plays in Sunday’s final at 1 p.m., against the Canadian Mennonite University Blazers (16-2) or the host Les Rouges (2-16).

ACC suffered the biggest blow when 2022 co-MVP Carter Beattie left after the first semester. At the same time, Providence returned the other co-MVP, setter Austin Anderson.

“It was a bit of a shock for some of the guys, uncertainty of who’s going to fill what roles going forward,” Small said.

“… In the second half, wins and losses didn’t matter as much so we played a lot of guys … In the last couple of weeks, we’ve narrowed down our top six or seven guys and they’ve been rolling.”

Small said on Wednesday that setter Dante Wilson is his projected starter, with Noah Barcellona and Hargreaves at left side and six-foot-six lefty Vaughn Zimmer opposite. Captain Austin Steele is locked in at libero, with Josh Budach in the primary middle blocker spot. The second is up for grabs, Small said, though Aedan Dyck leads the Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association with 1.03 blocks per set.

The winner heads to nationals on March 8-11 at Humber College in Toronto.

ACC WOMEN DRAW TOP TEAM

On the women’s side, the Cougars (6-12) lost their final match of the season to the Blazers (7-11), dropping to fourth. They take on the defending champion and top-ranked Les Rouges (14-4) at 4 o’clock.

Assiniboine started 1-8 before rattling off wins against all three opponents.

“We’re all really excited. We have high expectations for ourselves. We surprised a lot of people and we’re ready for anything this weekend,” said setter Brooke Schoonbaert, coach Kevin Neufeld’s projected starter.

“Now that we know we can beat anyone it’s anyone’s game, so the rankings don’t really matter.”

Schoonbaert returned to Manitoba volleyball after three years away. She graduated from Vincent Massey in 2019 and joined the College of the Rockies in Cranbrook, B.C., before COVID-19. The five-foot-seven setter took last season off but jumped back in and helped turn around a team that won just one set in 2021-22.

Schoonbaert feels her group has found an identity.

“We’re pretty scrappy,” she said. “We go for a lot of balls and we just give our all for each ball, swing hard and have lots of shots as well. It’s not like we have huge power hitters.

“… The only thing (Les Rouges) have on us is experience. Most of their girls are fourth years, they’re older than we are but … I feel we’re decently matched up with them in every aspect.”

Schoonbaert has plenty of weapons on offence with middles Gina Musgrave and Jenaya Shotbolt, right side Taylor Cox and her go-to players Jayde Hansen-Young and Elle Snyder at left side.

Schoonbaert and Hansen-Young reestablished their high school connection, one Snyder watched as a Massey freshman back in 2018.

According to coach voting, the youngster has surpassed the veterans as ACC’s lone all-conference selection.

“She’s been terrific,” Neufeld said. “Her all-around game has been great. I thought she was going to be really good and she’s been better than that. She passes very well, her defence is great, she finds ways to score.

“She’s super smart, not a lot of wow factor but she really executes well, has been a great teammate and a real leader as a first-year kid.”

The other women’s semifinal features Providence (9-9) and CMU at 6 o’clock.

The final is Sunday at 3 p.m.

Women’s nationals are March 8-11 at Vancouver Island University in Nanaimo, B.C.

All matches are livestreamed at youtube.com/lesrougesusb.

» tfriesen@brandonsun.com

» Twitter: @thomasmfriesen