Elgin Park ends Kelowna’s run in Triple A boys volleyball provincials, and Okanagan Mission rallies to beat Riverside in Quad A girls V-ball provincials.
The Vancouver College Fighting Irish are in the midst of one of the greatest runs in B.C. high school football history.
Vancouver College beat the South Delta Sun Devils 29-0 on Saturday at B.C. Place to claim their third straight Triple A provincial title and wrap up their third perfect season in a row.
Vancouver College is 38-0 over that stretch. They outscored their opponents 467-60 in their 13-0 campaign this year.
The Fighting Irish haven’t lost a game since Nov. 20, 2021, when they were defeated 27-24 by the Centennial Centaurs of Coquitlam at Vancouver College in the playoff quarterfinals. The Fighting Irish were 9-0 going into the contest.
The high school football record book lists championship game scores to 1966. The best any team has done at the top tier over that time is win three provincials in a row and Vancouver College becomes the fifth squad to accomplish that, joining the 1970-72 Notre Dame Jugglers, 1987-89 Notre Dame, the 1996-98 Richmond Colts, and the 2011-13 Mount Douglas Rams.
The 2014 Rams’ side took a perfect 11-0 record into the provincial finale that year but the Victoria squad was upset 55-30 by South Delta.
The Rams were 32-5 over their 2011-13 championship seasons.
It’s difficult to come up with win-loss records for the Richmond and Notre Dame three-peat seasons.
That 2021 campaign where Vancouver College lost to Centennial was the one where floods around the province caused high school football to pivot midway through the campaign and opt for regional championships rather than provincial ones due to travel concerns.
Centennial was blanked 19-0 by Chilliwack’s G.W. Graham Grizzlies in the semifinals, and the Grizzlies beat Port Coquitlam’s Terry Fox Ravens 36-33 for what was called the Triple A Coastal title.
There was no high school competition of any kind in 2020 due to COVID-19 and Vancouver College won it all in Triple A in 2019. The last public school to win the Triple A provincials was 2018 Mount Douglas.
In Double A football on Saturday, North Vancouver’s Windsor Wolves rallied to defeat the Vernon Panthers 17-14, keeping Vernon from winning its second straight provincial crown and third since 2019 at that level. Windsor last won Double A in 2017. High school football went to two tiers in 1988.
Meanwhile, Surrey’s Elgin Park defeated three-time defending champion Kelowna 17-25, 25-19, 25-20 and 25-22 in the best-of-five semis at the Triple A boys volleyball provincial finals at Oak Bay in Victoria and then swept Delta 27-25, 25-21 and 31-29 in the provincial championship game.
Elgin Park’s Max Grantham was named tournament’s most outstanding player and was joined on the first all-star team by teammate Charlie Lang-Gould.
At the Quad A girls volleyball provincials at Surrey’s Earl Marriott, the best-of-five provincial final went the distance and Kelowna’s Okanagan Mission rallied to beat Port Coquitlam’s Riverside 20-25, 25-24, 25-21, 25-22 and 17-15.
Riverside finished second last year as well, losing to Kelowna.
Okanagan Mission’s Kylie Taylor was picked the tournament’s outstanding player, while teammate Hana Friesen was named outstanding libero and Mercedes McKenna made the first all-star team.
Langley Christian (Double A) and Langley’s Credo Christian (Single A) were the other boys’ winners, while Vancouver’s Crofton House (Triple A), Abbotsford Christian (Double A) and Chilliwack’s Unity Christian (Single A) were champions of their divisions on the girls’ side.