After almost two years of being shut down due to COVID-19, the Camosun Chargers are back in action. The women’s volleyball team is getting geared up and ready to throw themselves into a brand-new year and season.
“It feels like the longest pre-season in history, to be honest,” says Chargers women’s volleyball coach Brent Hall. “It feels a little bit surreal to heading into games in just a few weeks. But I think it’s coming together well from a team-culture standpoint, because as team, we’re pretty united.”
Correina McNeice is one of the Chargers’ most seasoned players; this is her fourth year on the team. McNeice is optimistic about the upcoming season.
“Coming back from COVID-19 was hard,” says McNeice. “We only have two new team players, and because of social distancing we didn’t really have time to bond. But we had a really strong team culture already with the players that we had, and it’s been fun getting to know the new people and build on that team culture.”
Hall says that the Chargers have put extra emphasis on training and understanding each other’s priorities in what has been a very unsure and disheartening time.
“It hasn’t been without its faults; there’s been a few bumps in the road, a few injuries to get through,” says Hall. “But, overall, we’ve got a pretty optimistic outlook about it; we’re going to be pretty strong.”
McNeice says that it was difficult to know where to focus during the period when COVID-19 was most prevalent.
“It was really hard throughout COVID,” says McNeice, “because we couldn’t actually play volleyball. So, throughout the season we got to work on things we hadn’t necessarily had got the time to work on before. So personally, for me, that’s my mental game and my confidence on the court. So, I think it helped us all focus on smaller goals rather than larger goals as a group. It was a blessing in disguise.”
Approaching games with island rivals Vancouver Island University Mariners have the Chargers putting in some extra effort, but McNeice says the league is really focusing on all-around improvement and spirit (the games happened on Friday, November 5 and Saturday, November 6,after this interview took place; the team lost on Friday but won on Saturday).
“Some wins would be nice, of course,” says McNeice, “but I also just want to play and have fun. I play ball because I love it.”
Hall says the goals for the Chargers are focused mostly on the long term.
“It’s a long season, so really our plan is to peak for the provincials in February and the nationals after that in March,” says Hall. “It’s always nice to start the season with a win, and it’s extra nice if we can get in with a win against our island rivals, but really the success of our season will be hinging around winning our first matches.”
Hall also says the Chargers have some exciting new athletes on the team.
“We’ve got a local athlete by the name of Amelia McCulloch,” says Hall. “She’s a really promising athlete and really exciting to watch. Another new player to watch is Jasanna Kunz, she’s very strong, very athletic; she’s played a lot of beach volleyball in her life. She’s got a great skill set, is first year, and is someone that fans can probably expect to see on the floor quite a bit.”
Hall is anxious for the chance to show the Chargers off after so many challenges in the past two years.
“I’m hoping we can get a lot of students out,” he says. “We’ve got a brand-new centre court, the gym looks great, with new bleachers. It would be great to fill the seats.”