‘Culture change’ nets Durham silver medal

By Joel Wittnebel/The Oshawa Express

After a nine-year medal drought, the Durham College women’s volleyball team flourished this season, fighting their way to a silver medal at the Ontario Colleges Athletic Association (OCAA) championships.

In the 31-year history of the program, the team has earned 11 podium finishes. This was a particularly special one under the guidance of first-year coach Tony Clarke. The silver marked Clarke’s first OCAA medal in nine years of coaching.

“I’m very happy with the silver medal,” Clarke tells The Oshawa Express. “Everybody says you don’t win the silver, you lose the gold, but I think our girls and I are very ecstatic with the silver.”

Throughout the year, the team battled for a 13-5 record, dominating play at home going 8-1 and slipping slightly on the road with a 5-4 record.

Heading into the OCAA championships at the end of February, Clarke’s says the team caught a lucky break, facing off against the Georgian College Grizzlies in the opening game. Durham had played Georgian twice during the regular season with Georgian taking the first game and Durham the second.

“We didn’t have any unknowns going into our very first game,” Clarke says. “What happens is, going into your first game, there are some first game jitters and all that stuff, but we had an opportunity to play the team first, so there was that much more confidence there.”

Durham would sweep the Grizzlies 3-0 in a stunning match. They would carry the momentum into their semi-final match against the Cambrian Golden Shield, swatting them out of the way with their second straight sweep.

However, the team knew the gold medal game wouldn’t be as easy, facing off against the top-ranked Humber Hawks.

“We knew we were in a tough battle,” Clarke says. “(Humber) is a very good team, very well experienced, very well coached and they have a great, great history.”

Despite Humber’s prestige, Durham came out and opened many opportunities to snag the gold.

Durham would take the lead in the first set, but a well-placed time-out by Humber would allow them to recover and come back to take the set.

The shock would carry into the second set, which Humber would power through to a 25-12 win.

Durham held on though and would fight to earn an early lead in the third set. However, it proved not enough with Humber taking the set and the gold medal with a 25-17 win.

Clarke was more than impressed with his team’s play in the final.

“Teams I’ve coached in the past tend to get intimidated by Humber, but this squad here, they stayed up and were able to maintain composure,” he says. “I just didn’t want to lay down to that team, which we didn’t do.”

With the silver medal aside, Clarke says seeing the team come together in the tournament was reward enough.

“I’d take the team chemistry over the medal any time. It was just nice to see them all come together,” he said.

Clarke, who previously coached for seven years with the women’s program at Loyalist College, before switching to the men’s program at Trent University last year, stressed a hard work ethic and accountability when he arrived at Durham College at the start of the year.

“I wanted a whole culture change and make sure we have accountability and make sure we have these girls working on and off the court,” he said.

These changes involved more intense fitness training as well as the establishment of team norms and rules, which all players signed and agreed to, something which Clark thinks paid off at the end of the season.

“They kind of got my madness after a while I guess,” he says with a laugh.

As for next season, Clarke says he’ll be back, and is already looking to recruit new players. The 13-player roster could the loss of up to nine girls who are set to graduate.

Clarke isn’t deterred however, stating he already has interest from several potential players, explaining this area is a hotspot for volleyball, something he hopes will carry the program to provincial or national success.

“I want this program to have a great culture, I want it to gave great success. I want to be recognized provincially and nationally,” he says.

“I really want to see women’s volleyball be a hotbed here and to be on the podium year in and year out if we can.”