Thunder Has Strong Season Look Forward To Nationals

By Robert Thomas

“I think we had a successful season,” head coach Adam Wonnick of Thunder Creek Volleyball Club’s (TCVC) 15U Thunder team.

“We had a very good year. I think our ladies worked really hard they had a good attitude.”

The team had just come off of a Division II Tier I provincial gold medal championship win - which due to the seeding - means the Thunder finished up the season 11th in Saskatchewan 15U women’s standings.

Their TCVC sister team the Lightning were seeded tenth in Division I play and managed to finish up eighth place provincially.

Check out their story here soon.

THUNDER CREEK VOLLEYBALL CLUB’S 15U THUNDER VOLLEYBALL TEAM (LEFT TO RIGHT) - BACK ROW - CHLOE GIRAUDIER, ADEMIDE ADEWUMI, COACH BRIAN FISHER, COACH ADAM WONNICK, COACH JIMMY DOYLE, ANNIKA WONNICK AND ELLIE PANKO.
MIDDLE ROW - TAYA MOLDE, HAILEY DOYLE, JORJA SEIDA-RUTHVEN AND KARA LAZURKO.
FRONT ROW - EMILY LIN AND CASEY STOROZUK - SUBMITTED PHOTO.

Wonnick said despite the Thunder doing well in three Saskatchewan cups - meets where points are earned for provincial playdowns rankings - credit did not go to him but rather to the entire organization.

“I had a lot of help this year from my co-coaches Brian Fisher and Jimmy Doyle,” he said, adding “they are more technical than I am. The three of us who are able to work really well together this year.”

The players and parents were described as fantastic and really helping out to make it a great season by Wonnick.

“We had a fantastic group of ladies that got along together throughout the season. We had a bit of a lull midseason, and we fell a little bit, but the girls peaked and helped move us back up in the standings,” he said.

Another key to the Thunder’s success this year was “the fantastic parent support.”

Parents did not just attend to watch games but I also pitched in to help out and make the season work.

At the 10 tournaments the club attended through the season they were required to provide two parents to work at each game. It was no problem finding parents to help out, he said.

Under Volleyball Saskatchewan rules each game a team is involved in both teams must supply two parents to work - one parent to be a line judge, and one parent to work at the scorers desk.

“You could not have asked for a better environment across-the-board,” Wonnick said.

Off To Nationals

At the present time, the team is preparing to participate in the Volleyball Canada nationals scheduled for Regina in mid-May.

“In terms of nationals it’s icing on the cake and a chance to showcase what they learnt this year,” Wonnick said.

He could not make any predictions about how the Thunder would fare at nationals because it was unknown what teams would be at the tournament.

“At this level of play how the tournament turns out is very much depending on what teams are there,” he said.

Despite not knowing who their competition will be and where they’ll be ranked in division standings for the tournament Wonnick said it would be a good experience for the team.

“It’s going to have some good strong competition there and the team will play our hearts out.”