A blog I wrote about Volleyball Finals

Well, here it is… the months and months of practice, the hours of running, diving, jumping, icing, travelling, warming up and cooling down has now come to a close. Yes, unfortunately another season for the Ambrose Lions Men’s Volleyball team has come to an official end with this final November weekend.

What an absolutely incredible season on an amazing team this was that I was able to be a part of and to experience. It is a pretty special thing when the eight other guys that I spent so much time with were not only my teammates but are amongst my best of friends.

The whole point of my blog entries on this site are for you to be able to gain an understanding of what it is like to be at Ambrose, what I get to do on a daily basis and what life looks like for me here at school. So here is a glimpse of what being at Ambrose and playing on the Volleyball team has looked like for me during the Provincial finals weekend which were hosted at the school.

For any of you who have been following the Ambrose Facebook page over the last few weeks you would know that the ACAL Provincial Finals were held at Ambrose this year. It was fun to be involved in a game that was so well advertised and talked about around the school for the weeks preceding the game. It was a fun thing to have the faculty and staff come up to me throughout the week wishing me luck and telling me they would be at the game. Having many of my peers tell me how excited they were to watch the game, it was awesome seeing advertisements all over school walls, the website, I even heard our games being advertised on the radio… That is not something you hear every day. In fact as I was driving to the gym to get prepared for our games I heard the radio hosts on Shine FM telling people to head over to Ambrose to watch our team play, that was a very cool and a new experience, that’s for sure! The hype building up to the actual weekend games

The actual weekend of the finals was absolutely crazy. I have never seen the Lion’s Den (that is what our home gym is called) so packed, so electric and so alive with energy. Our team had the Friday night game; I suppose you could consider it the showcase.) But when it came to game time our team had no idea what to expect because we were back in the team room getting ready for the game. But when we walked out of the hallway and into the gym we were blown away with how many people were there! As we walked out we had a couple hundred Ambrose fans yelling and screaming for us, so loud that the music which was blaring was drowned out by our fans. The bleachers were filled with people who painted their faces, brought drums, noise makers and signs; it truly was a special thing. Not only did we have a lot of the student body there, but many of the faculty and staff members were there as well (and with painted faces!), it was pretty cool being able to play a sport I love in front of my friends, family and faculty!

That was the reality for both of our games the provincial finals weekend. Our bleachers were filled both nights, we had the greatest fans in the world as usual, we played great Volleyball and enjoyed the opportunity to play the sport we love in front of the people we love. We won our semi-final against Concordia Thunder in three straight sets, they are a great team with a ton of potential but they did not give us too much of a problem on Friday night. 

Following that win we played our biggest rivals and the future ACAC team Augustana Vikings.  We did not fair quite as well as the previous night. We won the first set, but we unfortunately lost the next three sets straight to our friends from the North. Even though we lost it was an incredible experience to be involved in an event such as this.
I know Ambrose is a special place to play Volleyball when the opposing teams come to me afterwards and say how much they love playing in our gym. I have had guys from several teams saying they wish so badly they could play in front of our fans every game… All the schools are jealous of the environment that is the reality in the Lion’s Den. The Den has become infamous around the league because of how loud our fans are, how crazy the environment is but more so just because of how much fun it is to play in front of bleachers that are always filled! 
Not only is this little entry a great picture of what athletics are like at Ambrose, but I believe it to be incredibly indicative of what the community life at Ambrose is like. As an athlete I’m privileged to play at a place such as the Lion’s den with all of my friends in the bleachers cheering on the team. But the reality is that this community is so much more than just athletics. This environment is in many ways what my school life is like.  I see everywhere people supporting each other, cheering others on in whatever area they are participating in, and pushing peers to be their very best. But this is not only said for only students… but the faculty are just as involved with the community as my fellow peers are… Ambrose truly is a special place in many ways.