Posted By PATRICK KENNEDY
Earlier this decade Regiopolis-Notre Dame underwent an unofficial shift in varsity athletics, a gradual alteration unnoticed at first but one that soon transformed the Panthers into perennial powers in one particular sport.
Make no mistake -- volleyball is king at Regi, and today the Catholic cats are kings of triple-A volleyball in the province.
Again.
On Saturday night, the top-seeded Panthers copped their second Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations three-A title, beating the Bulldogs of Winston Churchill 3-1 in the final of the 20-team tournament in Stratford.
Curiously, the cats, winners of 59 straight matches heading into the final, were forced to claw The former paced the Panthers attack with 18 kills while the latter added a dozen.
One Justinich kill shot stood out and simultaneously inflated the cats' spirit while deflating the Bulldoggies. McKenna equated it to a clean open-ice hit in hockey.
"John was a beast out there," he said. "He had a couple of huge blocks but that big kill really got us going."
Added Sheahan, one of nine Regi seniors making their high school volleyball swansong: "When John ripped it, our whole bench just went crazy and the other bench was completely demoralized."
Though they won on the road, the Panthers enjoyed a distinct home-court feel. Approximately 100 fans, friends, family and faculty members journeyed to Stratford.
back against the second-seeded Bulldogs. The St. Catharines high school stunned Regi in the opening set, 25-18.
However, there was an upside to that upset.
"Losing that first set was the turning point in the match," noted Regi coach Mark McKenna, the former Queen's player who in his four years with Regi volleyball has directed the senior pumas to a quartet of OFSAA medals: silver, two bronze and now gold.
"We knew we hadn't played our best, especially with errors in serving," McKenna added. "We had something like five service errors in that first set and to their credit Winston Churchill capitalized and took it to us.
"That was our wake-up call.
"Every time this team has been pushed this year, the players have responded in a positive manner."
The Panthers, who entered OFSAA with a 73-3-3 overall record, breezed through the round-robin and deep into the medal round without losing a set, including a convincing sweep of arch-rival Chatham-Kent in Saturday's semifinal.
During a timeout following that opening-set setback to Winston Churchill, Regi assistant coach Pat Farrell told colleague McKenna the team was simply following a course blazed by the 2002 OFSAA champs -- the first Kingston high school team to garner triple-A provincial gold.
"Pat reminded everyone that Regi lost the opening set in the 2002 final, too," said McKenna. "That calmed us down."
Indeed, the cats rebounded with a dominant 25-12 victory in the second set before locking up the crown with set wins of 25-22 and 25-16.
Regi's power hitters, right side John Justinich and left side Peter Sheahan, had a field day in the final.
"It felt like a home game," explained Sheahan.
"It was probably even better than the KASSAA final, maybe not as many (fans) but better because of what was at stake."
Five years ago Farrell kick-started Cats volleyball, offering clinics and camps and competition for young players at Regi feeder schools.
"For some guys, setter Cameron Santoni for instance, this is the culmination of a lot of practice," Farrell said of the setter, who started with Cats in Grade 6.
"He and the others reaped the rewards this weekend."
Farrell also heaped praise on McKenna, calling him "one of the best coaches, if not the best, in Ontario.
"When Mark came to Regi, it gave us committed coaches in both junior and senior. In terms of continuity, he turned this into a program."
A program that today is tops in the province.
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