Lindsay Thurber Raiders win girls' volleyball ASAA 4A Provincial Championships on home turf last weekend.

By Alessia Proietti

Team spirit carries beyond the court

Lindsay Thurber Raiders girl’s senior volleyball spike a gold medal at Provincial Championships

Dec 3, 2021 | 11:29 AM

The Lindsay Thurber Raiders spiked a gold medal at the Alberta Schools’ Athletic Association (ASAA) senior women’s volleyball Provincial Championships on home turf last weekend and have made it clear; their team spirit will be carried beyond the court.

From Nov. 25-27, the Raiders started provincials on a rough note, in second to last place.

Quickly catching up to speed, the girls were facing Calgary’s William Aberhart in the semi-finals, winning in two sets. At finals against the Calgary’s Bowness Trojans, the Raiders won the first set 25-19, and brought the game to a finish with a score of 25-20 in the second set.

For Coach Kirsten DeZutter, the best score of the game wasn’t the winning point, but simply being at the championships at all, after a one year hiatus caused by the pandemic.

“I’m really grateful,” she said. “When the opportunity is not there and you realize you know what you’re missing and you know what you would like your athletes to experience, to get the opportunity back was really phenomenal.”

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Coach DeZutter, a Grade 12 Learning Assistance Teacher, began working at Lindsay Thurber in 1999, coaching various sports before connecting to girls’ volleyball in 2001.

It was a clear match as her first year in coaching led her team to a gold medal victory at provincials. Her teams won six more after that, bringing a seventh gold medal for Thurber on DeZutter’s 20^th coaching anniversary.

The provincial championship win is also the third for Thurber in the past five years.

In her years as a coach, DeZutter said she was most grateful this season for the positivity and generosity of the organizing committee, parents and volunteers.

“I can’t say enough about the Red Deer community and all of the people in it,” she said. “I just know that our athletes knew that they were loved, and cared for and supported.”

And so did the athletes from Red Deer Public Schools’ Hunting Hills, winning silver with its senior boys’ volleyball team.

Hunting Hills High School senior boys volleyball team wins silver at the ASAA 4A Provincial Championships.

Although practicing together may be over for the year, Coach DeZutter says the dynamic relationship the team has made does not follow the same schedule.

This morning, she had a meeting with Terence McMullen, coach of the boy’s senior volleyball team, on finding ways for the athletes to stay supportive of each other throughout the school year, no matter their endeavors.

“You go from spending every day together, to winning the pinnacle championship on Saturday night, to on Monday you have no practice and you’re just like, ‘I really miss them’,” she said. “We’ve talked about lifelong memories, lifelong friendships and this is a really special group that is really closely connected.”