Junior Olympic Volleyball Off To A Fast Start

Apr 21

Dwight Cadwell-NSO

Former Fond du Lac Thunder head volleyball coach Mike Patenaude has another season of Junior Olympic Volleyball off to a fantastic start. Patenaude, one of the founders of the Northland Volleyball Club, has been coaching and playing volleyball for over 30 years in the area. Again, he is using his knowledge and experience to guide several teams of several age levels in Junior Olympic Volleyball.

Tournaments started in mid March and run through the end of May. There are twelve junior Olympic teams sponsored by the Northland Volleyball Club and they represent several different age classifications. The teams were picked after tryouts and teams are a mixture of players from throughout the Twin Ports area and surrounding communities.

Ten teams representing Northland Volleyball Club competed at the East End Spring Fling tournament last weekend. The tournament was sponsored by the East End Juniors & Minnesota North Volleyball Club. The Tournament was held at St. Scholastica, Duluth East High School and Duluth Marshall.

Saturday the 12’s and 14’s teams competed. NVC’s best finishers were NVC 14 Red, coached by Heidi Anderson. They finished second in pool play and made the gold division playoffs. NVC 14 Black, coached by Mike Patenaude, also finished second in pool play and advanced to the Gold division in playoffs. NVC 14 Black met East End 14 Red in the semi-final match and won a very close match to advance to the championship game where they fell to a very talented team from Grand Rapids.

Sunday it was the 16’s and 18’s teams that competed in the spring fling tournament. NVC’s best finishes were from NVC 16 Gold, coached by Michelle Sammons from Marshall, Minnesota. NVC 16 Gold was undefeated and finished first in their pool. They advanced to the Gold Division of playoffs and eventually lost to an exceptionally talented Minnesota North 16’s team in the championship game.

The 18’s side NVC 18 Green finished 2nd in their pool and advanced to the Gold Division playoffs. In the first round NVC 18 Green defeated a Canadian team from Dryden, Canada in a very close match. Both games finished within 2 points. NVC 18 Green then advanced to the semi-finals where they faced the Minnesota North’s 18 team.

Minnesota North 18’s had not allowed any team to get within double digits. The first game score ended at 25-11 in favor of Minnesota North. NVC Green, however, ended that game with a few straight points that led to confidence heading into the second game of the match. In game 2, NVC Green jumped out to a 4 point lead until some hot serving from the North team evened up the score. The score stayed tight all the way thru the game with North eventually winning 25-23 and advanced to the finals where they were the 18 champions.

Northland Volleyball Club organizer Mike Patenaude told Northland sports Online, “Minnesota North is made up of the best division II bound players from Northern Minnesota.” Patenaude added “Kate Lange from Hibbing, Kayla Handevidt and Keely Deadrick from Esko just to name a few of those players.They are big, tall, powerful and fast and when you play a team like that, you can’t afford to be slow on defense.”

On the offensive side of the ball Katrina and Jessica Newman, who both played middles, outside hitters Katie Konietzko, Katie Schulz, Jenna Zymslony and Lydia Pelletier stepped up their attacks behind the setting of Katie Bloom. For a team of local talent to compete that close with a team of that caliber just enforces the fact that the combination of the off season juniors program NVC has provided in the last 4 years.

In the 12’s the coaches are Desi Deleon, Amanda Zbacnik, and Morgan Martinson. The 14 coaches are Heidi Anderson, David Hack, Mike Patenaude, and Loran Wappes. The 15 team is coached by April Koning and Lindsie Burslie. The two 16 teams are coached by Laura Wappes and Michelle Sammons. The 17’s are coached by Heather Snesrud, and the 18’s are coached by Jade Baxley and Mike Patenaude.

Dwight Cadwell can be reached at dwight@northlandsportsonline.com