It was a historic season for the Hapnot Kopper Kings and Kopper Kweens volleyball teams.
The high school’s four teams – and boys’ and girls’ senior and junior teams – each brought home banners in their respective zone competitions.
This marks the first year anyone can recall that all Hapnot teams won banners in the same sport in one season.
Each banner win represents the chance for the four teams to move onto Provincials.
Though high school tournaments offer a high level of competition in any sport, Hapnot has decided to step things up.
Based on its enrollment, Hapnot is classified as a AA school; however, the school’s phys-ed department has chosen to have all of the teams compete at the tougher AAA level.
Teams at the AAA level tend to be more aggressive and offer stronger competition because they have larger enrollments as well as more opportunities for students to advance their skills.
Jake Rogers, coach of Hapnot’s senior girls team, says the school has actually shrunk over the last few years, so to move into the AAA category is impressive.
Top spot
The senior boys’ and girls’ teams hosted the zone competition the weekend of Nov. 14-15 with teams from across the North competing for top spot.
The Kings and Kweens were both victorious.
The Kings found an easy win over Cross Lake in the semis to advance to the final against Thompson.
It was a quick win for the Kings as they downed the Thompson Trojans for the banner.
The Kweens had a tougher time. They placed second in the round-robin portion of the tournament and faced The Pas in the semifinals.
The Kweens rolled over the Huskies to move onto the final in what would be their toughest game of the weekend.
The Trojans girls’ team took the first set against the nervous Kweens, but Hapnot came back strong, earning the second set win that sent the teams to a final set.
In a third set, it’s a race to 15 points, but the winner must win by two points.
The Kweens finally claimed the banner and their ticket to Provincials with an 18-16 victory over the Trojans.
The junior teams, meanwhile, both travelled to The Pas for their zone competition over the Halloween weekend.
Both the Kings and the Kweens easily finished first in the round-robin portion of the season.
It was another Flin Flon and Thompson match-up as the junior varsity girls lost their first set to the Trojans. The girls recouped and earned a win in the semi finals.
The Kweens moved on to face Cross Lake and were down, again, in the first set. But they came back in true Hapnot fashion and earned the next two sets to take home the banner.
The Kings were up against Cross Lake in the semifinals. With the win, they were off to the final against Thompson.
The Trojans got under the Kings’ skin and picked up a win in the first set. Hapnot bounced back and picked up the next two wins for the banner.
