Men’s rugby and women’s volleyball expected to build on big seasons

Ryan Lavender
Sports Reporter

While Humber’s rugby squad and the women’s volleyball team took home Ontario Colleges Athletic Association gold this season, each team has some big expectations for next year, said the assistant coaches of each team.

“Our expectations are the same for next year, if not higher,” said rugby assistant coach Rick Bot.

“Because of the core coming back, and because of the recruits we hopefully have coming in, I would hope to be in the medal matches at provincials next year,” said women’s volleyball assistant coach Dean Wylie.

On the rugby team, the player who takes the spot of departing all-star winger Adam Chianello will have big cleats to fill, said Bot.

“Hopefully, the person who will fill in that spot will be able to come close to accomplishing what Adam has done,” said Bot.

Wylie said that with the level of talent on the volleyball team, the entire roster is posed to have a break out year.

“All of them,” said Wylie. “We have such strong personalities. There are a lot of quiet people I expect to have banner seasons. Consistency will shine.”

While the rugby and volleyball teams finished with 7-1 and 12-2 league records respectively, both coaches look at discipline as a factor which the teams can improve upon next season.

“In league play, a lot of teams we played, you could get away with making mistakes that the better teams won’t let you get away with,” said Wylie. “And that was evident at nationals.”

“We need to control the amount of penalties we take,” said Bot. “We don’t need to be pushed back down the field all the time.”