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Hidden Valley wins double gold at volleyball championships

High-calorie snacks and lots of practice helped the Hidden Valley Elementary School Huskies win big over the weekend. For the first time in the school’s history, the Huskies won gold in both the Grade 7 boys and girls divisions.
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High-calorie snacks and lots of practice helped the Hidden Valley Elementary School Huskies win big over the weekend.

For the first time in the school’s history, the Huskies won gold in both the Grade 7 boys and girls divisions at the Yukon Elementary Volleyball Championships hosted by the Yukon Schools’ Athletic Association on

Saturday at Porter Creek Secondary School.

Keeping the players well fueled was key, joked co-head coach Peter Harms.

“Raw meat and doughnuts,” said Harms. “We bring jerky and doughnuts and we’re going out for pizza … That’s how you feed huskies, raw meat and doughnuts.”

The Huskies boys team took gold for the first time since 2007 with a 26-24, 25-15 win over the Jack Hulland School Hawks in the final.

The Huskies girls spiked their way to gold in a 25-20, 25-18 win against the Christ the King Elementary Wolverines.

The Hidden Valley girls have now won the elementary championship four years in a row.

“We play at recess, at lunch and after school,” said Harms. “They just couldn’t get enough ball and they just played and played and played.”

Not only did both Hidden Valley teams go undefeated at the championships, neither team even dropped a set in any match.

The girls team had to borrow two players from Holy Family School just to have six players on the court. Hidden Valley only has 14 kids in a Grade 6/7 split class in the school of just 74 students.

“It was awesome, the play was awesome,” said Harms. “I only have two Grade 6s and two Grade 7s, so we borrowed two Grade 6s from another school – they wouldn’t give us any 7s – and they came to practices and worked very, very hard. It was awesome.

“They gave us two untrained Grade 6s and they showed up in our gym and they worked and worked.”

The Huskies girls were so short-benched they played some games with just five players during the regular season. They almost had to again at the championships following an ankle injury, but the player toughed it out.

“I had one girl hurt her ankle in about the fourth game, so she was kind of in pain for the fifth game,” said Huskies co-coach Heather Boardman.

“All year we had no subs,” added Harms. “None of them could be sick for any game.”

The Christ the King Wolverines topped the Whitehorse Elementary School Wolves 25-20, 21-25, 15-10 in the boys’ bronze medal game to take third.

Ecole Emilie Tremblay fought back from a set down to defeat the Whitehorse Elementary School Wolves 25-27, 25-19, 15-8 in the girls’ bronze medal game.

The Huskies’ athleticism isn’t limited to volleyball. The school’s girls basketball team has also won the Yukon Grade 7 Basketball Championships the last two years.

Contact Tom Patrick at tomp@yukon-news.com