Bishop Reding’s senior boys volleyball team has reached championship play at every opportunity this season – with the biggest of those still to come.
Standing on the threshold to OFSAA the past three years, the Royals finally punched through this past week – upstaging Oakville’s White Oaks 3-1 (25-19, 23-25, 25-13, 25-16) in the Golden Horseshoe Athletic Conference semifinals.
With their AAA provincial tournament ticket secured, the four-time Halton Catholic champs delivered some high-stakes payback to perennial rival Oakville Trafalgar – who denied them passage to OFSAA three straight times – with a best-of-five sweep (25-18, 25-15, 25-18) in Wednesday’s GHAC final.
This followed a thoroughly dominating regular season and league playoff run that didn’t include a single set loss, with Reding punctuating their perfect showing with a 3-0 (25-20, 25-18, 25-20) victory over St. Thomas Aquinas of Oakville to continue their regional dynasty.
“The experience and lessons from those previous losses (in GHAC play) really helped us this year. This is the strongest, smartest and most hard-working the guys have ever played. We were more prepared this time,” said head coach Dan Byckalo, who leads the Royals into their first trip to OFSAA in recent memory – and perhaps ever (school records not readily available).
The secret to the Royals’ success is hardly well hidden.
With three provincial players – including 6-foot-4 national 17U left-handed hitter Will Clarmo – and five others in the club ranks, Reding has a wealth of talent and high-calibre experience.
And with deceptively-effective setter/captain Kyle Malchenko and right-handed striker Connor Gunn leading the charge, Reding’s attack is as versatile as it is formidable.
That’s been abundantly clear in tournament play, where the Royals came away with a gold and three silvers this fall. Highlighting those efforts was a Brock Tournament semifinal sweep over two-time defending OFSAA champs Uxbridge and 3-0 semifinal win at the Uxbridge Tournament over Scarborough’s Neil McNeil – another team heading to OFSAA this week in Kingston.
The Royals dropped two other meetings with Uxbridge, but each time were missing at least two starters.
Still, Byckalo realizes his 16-member team will be to be in absolute peak form to add to the season-long medal haul at the provincials.
“It’s all about playing smart and minimizing our mistakes. We’re going to have to set and pass extremely well to be successful.”
The Royals are expected to be one of the top-five seeds once OFSAA rankings are revealed this week. The 20-team tournament runs Nov. 21 to 23.