On November 27, Ecole Gabrielle-Roy’s junior varsity boys volleyball team captured the AAAA provincial championship after defeating Sisler High School in the final, held at the University of Manitoba.
The amazing fact about this is that Gabrielle-Roy is an A/AA school by size that applied for a wildcard spot just to get the opportunity to play in the AAAA provincials this year.
Gabrielle-Roy’s players are students who come from a mixture of towns such as Île-des-Chênes, Lorette, St. Norbert, La Salle, St. Adolphe, Ste. Agathe, Dufresne, Niverville, Grande Pointe, and Ste. Genevieve.
This is also the first time in a very long while that a small school like Gabrielle-Roy has been successful on such a large stage.
“It was super exciting sneaking into the provincials as a wildcard spot, and we expected it after being ranked second in AAAA due to our great performances in past tournaments,” says Logan Barnabe, one of the players of the championship-winning team. “Playing in it was obviously super exciting, but nerve-wracking at the same time, since only our coaches had some AAAA experience.”
Gabrielle-Roy went on a provincials run for the ages. They dispatched Glenlawn in the quarterfinals before overcoming Daniel McIntyre in the semifinals.
In the championship final, Gabrielle-Roy went up against Sisler and prevailed 25–23, 25–23, and 26–24 in three straight sets.
“I knew we could win it all if we fought very hard and stayed disciplined, and we did, which I’m very proud of,” says Barnabe. “We stayed disciplined and played our hearts out. We went for every ball and tried not to let a single one touch the floor, and we never let up.”
Barnabe is excited that he and his teammates were able to bring home a provincial AAAA championship to Gabrielle-Roy, as it truly was quite the Cinderella story.
“I think it’s huge for our school to beat a school of almost 2,000 students while we’re at around 200 students. And so many people from the school came to cheer us on at the game, so you could tell they really wanted us to win. They were very loud and encouraging. It was an amazing feeling.”
