STU Cup High School Volleyball Tournament Returns for Third Year

After a two-year pause because of COVID-19, the STU Cup Volleyball Tournament is back for its third year. The tournament was held this past weekend, April 1-3, 2022, at the Grant-Harvey Centre in Fredericton. Some games on Saturday were played at Nassis Middle School. It was hosted by STU Volleyball and attended by over 100 high school volleyball teams from across New Brunswick. With this many teams, it is the largest high school volleyball tournament in the country.

The Grant-Harvey Centre, a two-ice surface arena, was transformed to accommodate the number of games to be played. The ice was covered, and a gym floor was laid on top. Each ice surface had four courts, for a total of eight courts altogether.

Both junior varsity (JV) and varsity boys’ and girls’ teams were present at the tournament. Due to the large number of teams, there were 2 divisions, a varsity gold division, and a varsity green division, for both boys and girls. For JV, there was a gold division and a green division for the girls, but there were only enough boys teams for a gold JV division. It was set up this way so as many teams as possible had the chance to play in a final.

With so many games happening at once, the stands were packed with parents, family, and friends of the players. There was never a moment of silence, whether fans were cheering, referees were blowing whistles, coaches were yelling, or players were cheering when they won the point. The energy in the building was through the roof from start to finish.

The STU Men’s Volleyball head coach Henri Mallet organized the tournament. He also recruited some of the STU Men’s Volleyball players to volunteer for the weekend.

 

“The men’s volleyball team is working all weekend. It’s a long weekend for them, but they love it. They do a great job,” said Mallet.

On top of allowing teams and players to gain experience by competing in a large tournament, Mallet also uses the tournament for recruiting.

“The majority of the teams in the province are here so it gives us a chance to see the talent from right JV teams in grades nine and ten. We can kind of start looking at who’s on our radar and then as they get older and move on to varsity, we can start making our plans and see who might fit well with our program,” said Mallet

After winning the banner for their division, Cameron Willis, Owen Tran, Sam Gallagher, and Thomas Blizzard from Leo Hayes High School here in Fredericton, felt that various factors led to their success.

Gallagher was quick to respond, saying he felt communication was the leading factor in their success. Blizzard echoed Gallagher, also adding teamwork into the mix.

“We’re all hardworking and we all work together, so teamwork,” said Willis.

“Before the game, we had a talk with our coaches and we found the biggest reason why we were having lulls and weren’t playing well was because we just stopped talking, we lacked communication. So, communication in my opinion was the biggest reason why we won today’s game,” said Tran.

All four of the boys plan on playing volleyball at university.

The JV tournament kicked off on Friday and wrapped up Saturday. Varsity teams hit the court on Saturday and closed out the tournament on Sunday afternoon.

The STU Cup will return in 2023 for its fourth year.