2001 Anderson Collegiate Vocational Institute

Team – Volleyball

Photo Credit: Christine Small Photography

It took 40+ years for a Durham Region school to be crowned provincial volleyball champions (Dunbarton High School, 1993). Just eight years later, its smaller rival from Whitby, Anderson Collegiate Vocational Institute, became the first Lake Ontario Secondary School Association (LOSSA) team to win a Senior Boys AAA volleyball title; and they succeeded by doing what no other Whitby high school had ever accomplished in the championship’s history: dominating teams from much larger schools in Toronto, Kitchener-Waterloo, Barrie, and London.

The 2001 Anderson CVI Raiders team enjoyed a truly exceptional season, achieving an overall record of 34-1, with their lone loss occurring in the pool round of their first tournament. From there, the team won 30 consecutive matches without dropping a single set. Remarkably, the team’s average margin of victory, including wins against several top 10 teams and former provincial champions, was more than eight points per set.

In LOSSA league play, the Raiders competed against eight other AAA schools and finished in first place with an 8-0 record. The team swept each of these matches by two sets to none.

The team was also successful in winning three mid-season tournaments, the Unionville High School, York University, and ACVI tournaments, respectively. At Unionville, the team disposed of highly ranked Mayfield (Caledon) in the semifinal and Francis Lieberman (Toronto) in the final. At the most important tournament of the season, York University’s Excalibur Classic, the team cruised through pool play without dropping a set. In the quarterfinal and semifinal, Anderson routed top 10 teams from Eastview (Barrie) and Georgetown, before sweeping #2 ranked Upper Canada College 25-17 and 25-18 in the final. And at the team’s own tournament two weeks later, they repeated this performance, defeating Upper Canada College in a more convincing fashion, 25-16, 25-14, in the championship match.

The Raiders continued their dominance throughout the Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations (OFSAA) championships. Led by coaches Ian McNee and Karin Gillan (Hennig), Anderson entered the tournament as the top-seeded team and went undefeated throughout, with a 4-0 record in pool play, then dominant wins in both the quarterfinal (Unionville 25-11, 25-13) and semifinal (Mayfield 25-10, 25-10, 25-14), before defeating Grand River Collegiate Institute from Kitchener-Waterloo by scores of 25-17, 25-23, and 25-16 in the OFSAA final.

The 12 players on the 2001 Anderson CVI Raiders volleyball team were:

With no player taller than 6’ 2”, their accomplishments represent what is possible when team success takes priority over individual performance. Anderson’s breakthrough in 2001 raised the bar for other LOSSA teams and has led to four subsequent OFSAA Senior Boys titles: one AAAA title for Sinclair Secondary School and three AAA titles for Uxbridge Secondary School