Basaraba grows game with BVC

Tarron Basaraba didn’t realize it, but he’s been developing valuable volleyball skills off the court for years.

The 15-year-old setter from just outside of Forrest got involved in 4-H when he was nine, and had to deliver sales pitches to prospective beef buyers.

He also started working as a lift operator at Minnedosa’s Ski Valley this winter, which requires him to quickly and effectively communicate with hundreds of skiers a day.

Now with the Brandon Volleyball Club 15-and-under boys, he feels as comfortable as ever on the court.

“At first, I found it decently hard, but after several years of doing it, it’s becoming a lot easier,” Basaraba said of the 4-H pitches.

“I’m talking to people constantly (at Ski Valley), and it made it a lot easier going into that first practice, seeing the new guys and saying, ‘I’m your setter for the year, how do you like your sets?”

Basaraba said directly communicating that way has made a big impact, along with simply observing his teammates during practices and games and finding out how to set them up for success and bring the best out of them.

They don’t all prefer the same speed or ball placement.

“It makes a really big difference,” Basaraba said. “I know Jake (Campos) … really likes that inside ball that’s tight to the net so he comes in aggressive and can cut it off, whereas Lincoln (Marshall) prefers it way out to the pin so he can make that line shot.”

Basaraba had a strong junior varsity season, helping the Elton Sabres to a silver medal at A/AA provincials.

Elton reached the final of Brandon University’s JV tournament, then won Carberry’s event later in September. It finished first at the MacGregor tournament, then fell in the final of its home tournament.

The Sabres qualified for provincials with a sweep of the Goose Lake Raiders, then swept their quarterfinal and semifinal before going down 2-0 in the gold-medal match.

All three of their final losses were to Russell’s Major Pratt Trojans.

Basaraba is motivated to grow as a setter and start for the varsity team next year, and BVC head coach Chad Moyer feels he’s on a good track.

“He’s our captain, he’s a leader on the court,” Moyer said.

“He gets the boys pumped up when we huddle, saying ‘I want to set you right now,’ and gets the guys’ confidence right away.”

BVC went a perfect 3-0 in pool play at its home tournament last weekend, not dropping a set to reach the championship bracket, but lost a 15-13 third set to 204 Gold in the quarterfinals, eventually settling for seventh place.

While it was a disappointing Sunday for BVC, which suffered an ugly 2-0 loss to Selkirk in the consolation semifinals before sweeping Aztecs in the last match, Moyer feels the group is figuring out how to play well together and growing each weekend.

“It’s been great, the growth, different roles, guys coming in to serve, they know ‘I’m coming in just to play defence,’” Moyer said.

“Overall, the team knows when they did something wrong and doesn’t need to look at us (coaches) anymore.”

» tfriesen@brandonsun.com