As they’ve done all season, the Lakeland Rustlers are trying to put their best foot forward, on and off the court, this week at the Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) women’s volleyball championship in Niverville, Man.
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As the three-time defending national champions, and freshly crowned Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference (ACAC) gold-medallists, the volleyball side of things has been right on par for the Lloydminster powerhouse.
The big difference this year, of course, is that the Rustlers have had to overcome ACAC sanctions that not only threatened their path to victory, but also brought their character into question, they said in Meridian Source interviews.
“With the kind of year that we’ve had, it’s been kind of (crappy),” said the Rustlers’ fifth-year star, Avery Bates, the MVP of the ACAC championship tournament two weeks ago in Camrose.
“We don’t know who actually really likes us and what story everyone believes. You can’t really think about what other people think of you, because then it’s just going to dawn on you.
“But we know that the people who showed up (in Camrose), they’ve always supported us, and it was really nice to see that, (while playing) against other people and other teams that might not have had the greatest ideas about us.”
Lakeland capped an improbable championship run at the ACAC tournament, winning three matches to mine gold, after playing must-win volleyball for three months.
After a hazing investigation last fall, the ACAC suspended the Rustlers for eight games, meaning that when they finally hit the court for league play in late November, their record was already 0-8. Undaunted, they went on to win all their remaining 11 regular-season matches to earn the fourth and final playoff position in the North Division, en route to winning the school’s fourth straight ACAC championship.
While they took care of business on the court, the Rustlers say it was sometimes a struggle off the court for players to look past their detractors.
“There was a lot of online stuff,” Bates said during a pre-nationals practice last Saturday morning, before the Rustlers flew to Winnipeg the next day. “But you’ve got to push past it. We know who we are and that we’re good people.
“Honestly, this is the best team in the league, in my opinion, as people and as players. From Day 1, as a first year coming in, you feel that immediately — that we are good people. That’s what we strive to do throughout the years that we’re here, and that’s what Austin (coach Dyer) pushes for.”
Dyer is in his 18th year as coach of the Rustlers, who opened their national defence on Wednesday evening against the hosts of the eight-team CCAA championship, the Providence Pilots.
“It should be a good environment to go into,” he said about that quarter-final matchup. “When it comes to competition, I’m not concerned about it. If we show up and we play at our level, we’re going to be in a position to win every match.
“But it’s sports. You’ve got to play the games. We’ve done everything the right way. Now, it’s just whether or not we will show up and perform when it matters.”
For the Rustlers, that mindfulness has been well-trained this year. They couldn’t afford any losses in their playoff drive. At the same time, they tried to stand firm during a tumultuous time for the program.
“We were handicapped eight games to start the year,” Dyer said. “Every game has been a playoff game since November, for us to try to qualify for playoffs. And then, we come in as the fourth seed and have to play the top team from the South (Red Deer) in the (ACAC) quarter-final.
“Everything, on the whole year, has been completely stacked against us. And they’ve (still) done it. We trained at the level we needed to train at the whole year. They stuck with it. They stuck together. Our performance on the floor has shown, again, the actual character of our group.”
Dyer defended his team’s actions off the court, which he believes are best illustrated in their commitment to school, sports, careers and community.
“Half my team wants to be teachers,” he said. “We have people out working with kids. We run all of our programming on Sundays for kids. They’re volunteering (in the community).
“To put the integrity and character of this group in question, it’s almost laughable. But again, that’s the world we live in. People can hide behind a screen and type whatever they want, and it is what it is.”
Dyer contends the Rustlers were disciplined for team-building activities that they thought were within the rules.
“I’ve got a phenomenal group of athletes with great character, and the hard part for all of them is that’s what has been put into question, is their character,” he said.
“The most unfortunate part through all of it is that they got punished for something that they didn’t even know was wrong. They had no idea that there was even rules in place with the stuff that they were doing. Had they known, again given the group that I have, they never would have participated in having a rookie party and what was supposed to be good, light fun — dressing new players up in a costume and sending them on a scavenger hunt. That’s what we were sanctioned for — those three things.
“For them, that time in their career was some of the best memories and the most fun that they had. It’s unfortunate, No. 1, that they didn’t know it was against the rules, and No. 2, that they get punished punitively, very severely, for something that they didn’t even know was against the rules and wrong.”
As part of its investigation, the ACAC also disciplined the Rustlers’ men’s volleyball team, which was forced to forfeit its first four games this past season. When they eventually returned to the court, the Lakeland men went with a young team, as five veterans opted to sit out as redshirts this year. The Rustlers still made a push for an ACAC men’s playoff berth but ultimately fell short in February.
With the support of the men’s team and the Lakeland faithful who travelled to Camrose, the women Rustlers were appreciative of that Lloyd love at the ACAC championship.
“Through it all, they’ve been on a mission to get back to competition and, honestly, just to be able to move forward,” Dyer said. “And based on everything that we’ve been through, we’ve continued to operate the same way.
“Given all the circumstances throughout the year, my message right from the get-go has been, ‘We’re going to get through this as a team. And we’re going to come out the other side of it with dignity and with grace.’
“We’re not going to engage in any extracurricular stuff online — the stuff that consumes our world now. I just said, ‘You know what, let’s not be a part of that. Let’s not let it impact us, the best that we can.’ Because all that matters is our team and everybody that’s in our team room, as long as we stick together and ensure that we’re doing things the right way.”
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