In fact, until Sunday, it'd never happened:
Mark the date down: March 2,2008. A historical day for Thompson Rivers University. One of Canada's youngest universities came of age on this date. Its the day they captured their first ever CIS medal. The WolfPack Mens Volleyball team captured a bronze at the CIS Nationals at the University of Laval.Anyone else have goosebumps?
I'm kidding. But this is a pretty big deal for TRU, which hasn't been on the CIS scene very long at all and has managed to become competitive quickly in the ultra-competitive men's volleyball circuit in Canada West.
With the bronze, TRU now has more men's volleyball medals than schools like Guelph, McMaster, Memorial, Queen's and Western, all of whom have been around for ages.
Between TRU and Ryerson, I just may have graduated from two of the least-decorated CIS schools in the country, but the WolfPack have beaten the Rams on the board.
Probably by a few decades.
Good for the Wolfpack, that's quite something for a school that's been in the CIS less than 10 years.
ReplyDeleteTRU's rise is even more impressive in the context of their difficult conference. Canada West has won 36 of the 42 volleyball championships now, including the last 14 in a row. Canada West teams also finished with all the medals again this year, so they'll likely get at least four spots in the championships again next year in Edmonton, which means the Wolfpack will have a good chance to make it back next year.
ReplyDeleteOh, and Ryerson's program isn't all that bad either: their coach, Mirek Porosa, was the 2006 CIS coach of the year for the turnaround he brought to what hadn't been a very successful program. They've got a ways to go still, but they'll be in the hunt for the Ontario berth in future years: it might be a tough task to get a medal away from the West though.
ReplyDeleteAnother nice thing for TRU: they had no All-Canadians on either the first or the second teams, so it looks like it was a solid group effort rather than a star performance or two that got them to their medals. Gord Perrin made the all-rookie team, though, which also speaks well for the future.
P.S. Very cool to see a volleyball post here!
Wait.... another sport where the in-crowd schools hog the all-Canadians? Couldn't be.
ReplyDeleteIn-crowd schools? All-Canadian awards are decided based on results /before/ nationals. If you look at the awards, they were spread around a lot of schools—probably spread too much, actually.
ReplyDeleteThompson Rivers did, in fact, have a tournament all-star: Gord Perrin.