05/01/2025
One Last Time
As teams huddled this last month while competing in the Elite of the East tournament, “One Last Time” was a common theme from coaches. One last time we will take the floor as one, put ourselves behind our teams and club to give it our very best and to walk away smiling (and maybe some happy tears).
Like previous years, this particular weekend usually marks the end of the season for our teams. However, this year was special. Not only are teams saying goodbye for the season, this year we say goodbye to our volleyball club so we thought it was appropriate to celebrate our club one last time.
Reds Volleyball Club was established in 1998 marking almost 27 years of club volleyball in Fredericton. A person learns a lot over 27 years but perhaps the most poignant is that we learned that there are things you can control and things you cannot control (like changing an official previous decision, influencing recruiting schools, affecting regulation, etc.). We did learn that we can control some outcomes. Ensuring a positive experience through sport, specifically volleyball was something we could do. We also learned that there are many ways to achieve that objective. We learned that different leaders and coaches bring different experiences and perspectives to the table. We learned that we did not need to present a formula on how to achieve a positive experience and encouraged coaches to be innovative but also offered the opportunity for folks to learn from past mistakes.
For our sport, we learned from our experience that with no teams there is no sport. Volunteers are absolutely critical to our sport and club. By properly encouraging volunteers to get involved as coaches, managers, the sport could achieve growth. We have had to remind this of our sport leaders that excessive regulation and policy is making it very difficult to attract volunteers as policy reflects something a professional may do and not someone who is willing to donate some time (and not a second profession). With no coaches, there is no team, membership shrinks.
For athletes, we learned to not take a heavy approach to attracting athletes to our sport. We were accommodating of multi-sport athletes which is was key factor in a small population town or province. By not taking a regimented approach to athletes, we gambled in that athletes might not take us as serious but we hoped that a positive experience would always be appealing to athletes and would eventually draw them in. Initially, the more popular sports got the bulk of athletes but in the early part of the millennium, athletes starting making volleyball as their choice. Today, we are often at the top of list of young male and female athletes.
I am proud personally of the club’s influence on some of our coaches who have gone to create their own clubs. Coaches like Nic Boucher (Piranhas) and Natasha Dube (Tommies/Spartans - She led her teams to our first female provincial title), John Slauenwhite (Memorial/Avalon VC). Reds was born from this same experience. Like many of my board and leaders, we are a product of Nackawic volleyball. This small town was dominate in high school volleyball thanks to the some HOF names like the late Ken Taylor, Al McGarvie, Pat Thorne, Randy Wilson. Many leaders in our club history grew in this town including Deryl Armstrong, Steve Ramier, Derron Merryweather, Ryan Jacobson. After high school, we borrowed the name of the outlawed gang “The Regulators” from the Young Guns movie and formed a senior team and played in NB and Atlantic senior competitions. It was from this experience that we learned that you don’t need anyone else to take the lead and to have the courage to cut your own path. Finally, it was my own experience in club volleyball in Ottawa with the Kangaroo Club. With some well known names like Colin Walker, Malcolm Rousseau), I returned back to NB in 1998 with confidence of coaching and working within a club system. Reds finally came to fruition with conversations with Sonny Phillips, Rex Boldon, John and Margot Spurway. Based on a popular model at the time of working with a university program, Reds Volleyball was formed.
Reds grew on the backs of our volleyball family which was mainly our Regulator teammates and our newly formed Senior Reds Mens team. Beyond some of the names mentioned previously we could not have done it without the Rex, Eric, Colleen, Mark and Tanya Boldon, John Hamilton, Geoff and Rachel Colter, Derron Merryweather, Wendy and Ross Mathers, Kim and Mark Colpitts, Mark and Kerstin Coy, Steve Ramier, Chris Guitard, Deryl Armstrong, John Estey, Geoff Mabey, Phil Keyser. There are so many that I am sure I have missed some. If I do, know you made a difference. And to my wife Vicki who probably didn’t realize she had to adopt an organization as a condition of marriage. She has been the rock behind this adventure who had to eat, drink and sometime spit volleyball as most of the time volleyball spilled into our work life and home life.
I also need to recognize those who came when called to save our club and sport during the pandemic. Special thanks to Steve Ramier, Geoff Colter, Chris Guitard, Derron Merryweather, Mark Coy, Ron Dube for helping us setup the Capital Exhibit Centre to allow our kids to continue to train despite the challenges.
This club has been like a loyal dog. It has always been there for us smiling and waiting to greet us. But all dogs get old and deserve a time to rest on the porch. Enjoy your rest Reds, you have earned it.
One last time. Enjoy the memories.
Steve
