GBC’s men’s volleyball team recognized for team spirit
Every game comes with its own level of energy and excitement but the George Brown College’s (GBC) men’s volleyball team has been on a mission to take that one step further.
Chanting, shouting, jumping up from the benches as their teammates score a point and roaring as the crowd roar right back is what you can expect when the Huskies take to the court.
“We’re different, we’re not like everybody else, and that’s okay. We’re going to be ourselves on and off the court without shame,” said head coach Garrett May.
Since working at GBC, he’s made a point to create an identity for the team, and to him, the team’s energy plays an important role in that.
“I think that helps us play with a lot of confidence and that it doesn’t really matter what or how we do things, we can still be a competitive volleyball team,” added May.
The Huskies have a total of 16 players on the roster, with only six players on the court at one time. That leaves a huge opportunity for team spirit on the sidelines.
But how does this impact the team other than boosting the player’s energy?
May, and first-year player Tashi Sheling both agreed that the thriving team spirit gives them an advantage.
“It gets the crowd going, especially when we’re at home. When we’re at away games, we kind of match the voice of the opponents’ bench as well, and their fans, and it helps us a lot,” said Sheling.
He believes that this team spirit does more than give players energy on the court. It also has the potential to get into their opponents’ heads and potentially throw them off their game, he said.
“We want to play an aggressive game. We want to kind of bring it to the other team. We want to kind of dictate the pace, and I think we did that well,” Sheling added.
This was the case in a game against Loyalist College back on Nov. 24.
“You know, they’re a very loud team, they thrive off of each other’s energy and that’s how they keep things going and they did a very good job,” said Loyalist’s head coach Chris Jenkins after a 3-1 loss against GBC last semester.
Having lost four games early on in the season, the team made a comeback and finished off the first semester with a 6-4 win rate.
“We want to ride that wave into the second semester and hopefully win more games than lose and obviously make it to the playoffs and go from there,” Sheling said.
As such, the player is calling on his teammates on the bench to deliver on the team spirit that is needed to continue their winning spree.
“I feel like because of our bench we can play as well on the road as we do at home. The home crowd is a huge advantage, but just because of our bench, they’re so good,” he said.
