One of Darren Wandy's points on his resume happens to be his work as a volleyball coach, another one is his archery work
Being a coach of Gr. 9 volleyball for first-year boys at the Yorkton Regional High School isn't an easy job because he only sees each student for one year; it's actually a lot less than that considering the volleyball season only lasts for a couple of months.
According to coach Wandy, teaching them is one thing, coaching them is a little different.
"There are a couple things, actually," begins Wandy. "The first thing is that we are dealing with growing boyswhen these guys enter Gr. 9, some (of them) are far from meeting their athletic maturity.while others are further advanced.
The other aspect is that Gr. 9 students' skills are usually all over the place when it comes to sports, he said.
"The other difficult thing about coaching Gr. 9 boys is that students' skills are at different skill levels."
Wandy said it depends on how much volleyball kids play or are exposed to at the elementary level.
"Students come into my program (at the YRHS) at different skill levels.
Some play for fun, some work on the finer points of the gameit's usually a mixed match of skills at tryouts (in September)."
Volleyball has stuck to Wandy ever since high school so he knows the game.
"In high school, I attended was considered a volleyball powerhouse in the province of Manitoba," he explained via electronic mail. "It was just what kids wanted to do because of the success
Volleyball was the sport of choice at my school because of the success and coach we had at the time."
Even before that, volleyball was the sport to play. "I started in elementary school during intramurals. However as soon as I entered Gr. 7, volleyball was 'the' sport to play in my hometown. (Like I said) the program at my high school was one of the best in the province-if not the country so it was just natural to look up to the older Grade players and want to be part of the program when given that chance."
Wandy pointed out that football was not a school sport.
Wandy says he would like to be able to continue to play the game but limited playing opportunities in Yorkton have kept him away so far.
"I would like to, or (at least) organize something, however there is no opportunity currently in the City to play at a competitive level. Besides a lot of my time these days are occupied with school coaching duties, family and finishing my Masters in Education Administration.
Another one of Wandy' projects, affected by the above, has been the Bongo tournament.
"2012 would have been the 21st running of the Bongo Volleyball tournament, however entries seemed to come in very slowly this year compared to previous years so I decided to cancel the tournament this year and try again next year. Hopefully the popularity will come back."
