{"id":651,"date":"2017-04-26T18:56:44","date_gmt":"2017-04-26T18:56:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/vpms1.humber.smartmanagedservers.com\/sweatspring2017\/?p=651"},"modified":"2022-11-30T19:58:09","modified_gmt":"2022-11-30T19:58:09","slug":"set-for-greatness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/sweatmag\/set-for-greatness\/","title":{"rendered":"Set for greatness"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Helena Shlapak<\/b><\/h3>\n

The Mohawk women\u2019s cross country team won eight straight titles from 1982 – \u201889.<\/p>\n

St. Clair has won four straight baseball championships dating back to the sport\u2019s berth in 2013.<\/p>\n

Cambrian picked up seven gold medals in badminton from \u201899-\u201806.<\/p>\n

No team has ever conquered a decade. Not until the Humber women\u2019s volleyball team this year. These Hawks didn\u2019t lose a game, regular season or playoff, going 130-0 for the last six seasons.<\/p>\n

It was the beginning of the last set when Taylor Hutchinson, assistant coach and former player turned to her girls on the bench.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe should just watch, not get caught up and just enjoy it,\u201d she says. The Humber Hawks had nothing to fear. They had already won.<\/p>\n

Hutchinson smiles as she reminisces about the winning game on Feb. 26, 2017, \u201cWe\u2019re constantly trying to be better all the time. It\u2019s just nice to kind of sit back and watch it happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

Head coach Chris Wilkins admits he shed a tear when the Hawks won. He knew all the hard work the girls and coaches had put in. He also knows that if there is an eleventh win, it wouldn\u2019t mean as much as the tenth.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt just sort of, put a finality on everything,\u201d says Wilkins.\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think it will actually hit me until I\u2019m done volleyball and I\u2019m bored again with my life,\u201d says Alexandra Newman, a fifth-year star who lead the team in sets played for the past two seasons.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt feels pretty amazing and I\u2019m very proud of every person who has come through the program and the girls I\u2019m playing with today,\u201d says Newman.<\/p>\n

\n

The Hawks knew that nine-straight championships had put a target on their back. Some teams crumble under the expectation of perfection, but Wilkins says this team thrived on it.<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes (as an athlete) maybe you only fall under pressure once or two times in your career. These girls are living the pressure every game,\u201d says Wilkins, \u201cWe\u2019ve built up such a reputation that, they don\u2019t want to lose a game, they don\u2019t want to play poorly, they want to play well for each other. It allows us to get through tough games and be able to truly be ready,\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery year we lose a couple of pieces but the core group tends to stay together. It helps groom the next core group that comes along,\u201d says Wilkins,\u00a0 <\/span>\u201cthe girls enjoy playing with each other, I think they enjoy playing with me and the school so it just creates an atmosphere where people want to come and be a part of something special like that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wilkins says he was happy to see great chemistry all-round, \u201cthe veterans really took on the rookies, and the rookies really pushed the veterans. It was fun to watch.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite Humber\u2019s success there were hiccups along the way. Elizabeth Deakin-Poot, a third-year middle and most consistent player with hit percentages for the past two seasons north of .400, was out for three months with an injury.<\/p>\n

Wilkins says Deakin-Poot was still able to be a positive for the team all year even only having played in 11 games.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s the person that says the right thing at the right time on the court when things are maybe not working,\u201d says Wilkins.<\/p>\n

Celine Blanchette, first-year setter feels like her team and her school is like a second family and is a testament to the low turnover of the team.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a family-like atmosphere. Everyone\u2019s so supportive, even the fans and the workers here. I\u2019m really enjoying it, I\u2019m going to be here awhile,\u201d says Blanchette.<\/p>\n

Winning provinicals meant the Hawks would be one of eight teams heading to Victoria, B.C. to play in the CCAA championship between March 9-10. Unfortunately, Humber finished in last place.<\/p>\n

Newman says that for future players, they should enjoy the time they have on the team, regardless of what happens.<\/p>\n

\u201cEnjoy every success, enjoy every failure,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

While this may have been a blow to the Hawks, it doesn\u2019t take away from all the hard work they have put in or talent that these players have.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s an illusion that you can\u2019t push women athletes as hard as you can push men,\u201d says Wilkins.\u00a0 <\/span>\u201cThat\u2019s completely an illusion. I think I push harder than most coaches push their men\u2019s teams.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe went out there to take what was ours,\u201d says Newman. \u201cWe are a talented team but we also work very hard. We deserve all the success we\u2019ve had because we worked for it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

No team has ever conquered a decade. Not until the Humber women\u2019s volleyball team this year. These Hawks didn\u2019t lose a game, regular season or playoff, going 130-0 for the last six seasons.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":652,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[192],"tags":[37,19,139,55,71,49,56,53],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/sweatmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2017\/04\/Humber1.jpg",1155,770,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/sweatmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2017\/04\/Humber1-160x160.jpg",160,160,true],"medium":["https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/sweatmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2017\/04\/Humber1-640x427.jpg",640,427,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/sweatmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2017\/04\/Humber1-768x512.jpg",696,464,true],"large":["https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/sweatmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2017\/04\/Humber1.jpg",696,464,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/sweatmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2017\/04\/Humber1.jpg",1155,770,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/sweatmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2017\/04\/Humber1.jpg",1155,770,false],"td_150x0":["https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/sweatmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2017\/04\/Humber1-150x100.jpg",150,100,true],"td_218x150":["https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/sweatmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2017\/04\/Humber1-218x150.jpg",218,150,true],"td_300x0":["https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/sweatmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2017\/04\/Humber1-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"td_324x400":["https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/sweatmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2017\/04\/Humber1-324x400.jpg",324,400,true],"td_485x360":["https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/sweatmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2017\/04\/Humber1-485x360.jpg",485,360,true],"td_696x0":["https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/sweatmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2017\/04\/Humber1-696x464.jpg",696,464,true],"td_1068x0":["https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/sweatmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2017\/04\/Humber1-1068x712.jpg",1068,712,true],"td_1920x0":["https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/sweatmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2017\/04\/Humber1.jpg",1155,770,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"sweatmag","author_link":"https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/sweatmag\/author\/sweatmag\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"No team has ever conquered a decade. Not until the Humber women\u2019s volleyball team this year. These Hawks didn\u2019t lose a game, regular season or playoff, going 130-0 for the last six seasons.","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/sweatmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/651"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/sweatmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/sweatmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/sweatmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/sweatmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=651"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/sweatmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/651\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2406,"href":"https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/sweatmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/651\/revisions\/2406"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/sweatmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/652"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/sweatmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=651"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/sweatmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=651"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/sweatmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=651"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}