The men's volleyball team from Providence University College in Otterburne is off to Victoria, BC for the CCAA National Championship this week. 

Russel Willms is the Athletics Director for Providence. He notes the team is ready to go. 

"They're super excited. We've been doing a couple of extra training sessions and using the [Niverville] CRRC for our practices. We fly out on Tuesday and then there's a practice day all of Wednesday and then we'll face NAIT in the first round on Thursday. I believe it's at 7:00 PM, prime time Manitoba time for first serve in match number one for us.” 

Willms says the CCAA, or Canadian Collegiate Athletics Association is very competitive with around 100 member schools, so this championship tournament means a lot to them. 

coaches talk to their players

There is an interesting story to follow for Providence at this tournament. Willms notes last year, they hired Phil Dixon following the departure of Coach Cody Quiring. However, things didn't work out and Phil Dixon ended up taking a head coaching job at NAIT in Edmonton instead.  

Before leaving, Dixon made a recommendation for his replacement, Paul Armbruster, who was then hired and has done an excellent job with the program this year.  

“Well, would you believe it, they're going to meet each other in the first round of the CCAA National Championship. Phil's team in Alberta was ranked 5th and upset a bunch of teams to win the Alberta Conference. Paul's team, our Providence team, was ranked second, obviously we have a small conference of just four teams, but they upset the number 8 ranked team in the country, CMU, in the men's final so they're representing Manitoba. And they've been drawn to face off against each other in what is a just a storybook sort of story.” 

Willms says there is a lot of healthy respect between the two coaches and their teams.