The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
Work ethic in sports is everything and all great teams have that. In the eyes of Hapnot Collegiate Kopper Kings senior men's volleyball coach Craig McIntosh, his team has lacked that. "What I told the guys is they're getting a little complacent in practice," McIntosh commented. "They were starting to have very little enthusiasm with some of the things we were doing. So of course we need to be more creative with our practice. We do that by having little competitions and adding points to it and having consequences involved and different things like that Ð anything to have it spicier, I guess you could say." The team has been practicing four to five times a week since the victory at the Creighton tournament in mid-September. The coach also told his players that with them being in the North, they practice hard five times a week, but without playing, things can get stale. "We need to play competitive games to make sure their heads are in the program, make sure their heads are where they're supposed to be," he said. "Without that competition up north, we see the need to go down south and it costs a lot of money. So of course we need to be more creative with our practice." The team is going to do a swing through the south that will see them play in Morden, Winkler and Winnipeg, against East Kildonan High School. "We're probably going to get more games on this swing than we would in a normal tournament," the coach says. "That will be good for the guys because Winkler's a pretty good 'AAAA' school, and Morden is a good 'AAA' school." Hapnot is also a 'AAA' team. The players would leave for their trip on Friday, Oct. 14 and head back on Sunday. The Kopper Kings were forced to do this after losing their big tournament in Brandon. "It's usually where the team sees its provincial competition," says McIntosh. Jake Rogers, one of the team leaders, backed his coach's sentiments. "This week we have kind of started over again," says Rogers. "Last week we had some practices that weren't what they needed to be, and they weren't what they were at the start of the year." Rogers also admits that winning the first tournament in Creighton was good, but the victory may have gotten over the team's head. After the team travels south, Hapnot Collegiate will be hosting its own tournament two weeks later. The southern road trip should keep the team sharp so they play well in their own building. As of Oct. 5, Manitoba High School Athletic Association has the Kopper Kings ranked 10th.
