The sports culture at Chemainus Secondary School is on the rebound.
New principal Jaime Doyle is an outdoor and climbing enthusiast, new athletic director Casey Parsons has a background in basketball to complement teacher Graeme Arkell’s interest and another newcomer to the school within the last year, Jill Astren, has taken on the senior girls volleyball team, putting her previous playing experience to work.
The senior Cougars played just their second game of the season Thursday at Chemainus Secondary School and made a huge leap from the opening game the previous week when they lost 25-10, 25-5 to Shawnigan Lake School.
Taking on St. John’s Academy of Shawnigan Lake, the Cougars were on the verge of winning both games before falling just short in a pair of tight 27-25, 25-21 results.
Of the 10 girls on the team, “we have three that have not played organized sport in a number of years,” said Astren.
Another is an international student from Germany. The team is a mix of Grade 10s to 12s.
“It’s a pretty young group as far as not having played together,” added Astren.
“They have already improved so much. They’re working on stronger overhead serves. There’s going to be some points you give up while you work through that development. They’re spirited, they’re committed.”
A sign of that came with the girls at the gym for an early-morning practice before class on the day of the St. John’s game.
Astren started at the school in 2021 amid the perils of COVID.
“Even last year, the girls that did play during the pandemic, it was hard to get any traction,” she conceded. “Last year we were juggling pandemic mandates.”
Astren grew up in Campbell River and played in a strong Carihi volleyball program before graduating in 2005 and becoming a teacher. She started working in the Sooke School District and also with the Cowichan Valley Alternate School before coming to Chemainus.
The match against St. John’s was a back-and-forth affair that unfortunately didn’t quite go Chemainus’ way.
Chemainus went up 3-0 early in the first game before giving up six straight points, but then battled back to tie 6-6 again. The streaky nature of the game continued right to the end.
The Cougars had a 25-24 lead and needed only one more point to win the first game, but couldn’t do it and St. John’s took the next three points.
Kennedy Constable had a great run of serves going midway through the game that had the Cougars ahead 15-10 at one point, their largest lead.
The second game was much the same. The teams were tied several times.
St. John’s pulled away in the late stages from a 21-20 lead for the victory.
Sydney Brownlow had a strong game defending and serving for Chemainus.
Next up is a game at Queen Margaret’s School in Duncan Thursday, Oct. 13.
Parsons, who played at Cowichan Secondary in his heyday, is coaching the bantam boys basketball team and Arkell the junior boys, “but games won’t start until December,” he noted. “There seems to be a lot of interest at the Grade 8-9 level so hopefully we can start to build a bit of basketball culture over the next few years.”
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don.bodger@chemainusvalleycourier.ca
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