In 2019, Becky Grisdale-Turner and Annette Lamour co-founded Steel City Ignite Volleyball for Sault and area teens who want to play the sport at a higher level of competition.
Their commitment is starting to pay off in winning fashion.
Steel City Ignite’s 16U Blaze Red team won the gold medal in its age category at the Ontario Volleyball Association’s Ontario Championships held April 20-25 in Toronto.
Though not the first medal for a Steel City Ignite team, the victory won by the group of determined 15-year-old females marks the club’s first gold medal win at a major tournament.
“In every tournament you can win a medal but this is the be-all and end-all tournament. We took everybody by surprise,” Grisdale-Turner, the team's coach, told SooToday.
“We were the last-ranked team in our division. We were ranked 16th but I knew my team was top-notch.”
Blaze Red defeated the first-ranked team in two sets on the first day of the provincials.
“That gave my girls a lot of confidence. They realized ‘we are not out of place.’ Every match we won in two games. That was a pretty big feat,” Grisdale-Turner said.
Teams in the Ontario Championships held at Toronto’s Enercare Centre played in the morning, afternoon and evening during the tournament.
“There are 56 whistles going off at once in this giant building so we had to really focus,” Grisdale-Turner said.
Amid all that competition, the Blaze Red girls started to get noticed.
“We started to get coaches asking ‘who is this team? Where are you from? Your team looks so good.’ I was pretty impressed with how composed our girls were,” Grisdale-Turner said.
Volleyball teams consist of 12 players but Blaze Red won gold with a smaller, injury-plagued roster.
“We started with nine players and by the end of the season we only had eight, and then one of our eight got an injury so we pulled up another athlete from one of our non-travelling teams,” Grisdale-Turner said.
“We were the smallest crew in our division. We had the least amount of players and obviously you’re tempting fate because if something goes wrong you’re down another player and you could end up forfeiting, so we had to be really cautious. We got down there and one of our players ended up getting sick so we were down to seven players.”
Despite exhaustion and a short bench, Blaze Red dug deep and played its way to the finals.
In the gold medal game, Blaze Red faced the Barrie Elite Tsunami - the only team that had defeated them earlier in the tournament.
Trailing by a score of 23-18, Blaze Red fought back to win 25-23.
“Our ladies took them in two sets,” Grisdale-Turner said.
“I wasn’t surprised. I knew how good the girls were but in volleyball it’s not just about the skill you have. It really comes down to your ability to maintain your composure, play positively, to work as a unit, and that’s what the girls did. They were a machine. They had the mental toughness and they are just a beautiful team to watch.”
“I’ve always been an athlete,” Grisdale-Turner said, reflecting on her own experiences in sports at Central Algoma Secondary School
“I was athlete of the year at CASS two years in a row. I played every sport but volleyball was my passion.”
She played and refereed volleyball as a university student in London and her love for the sport continued as a teacher and now as CASS vice-principal.
Grisdale-Turner and Lamour launched Steel City Ignite Volleyball four years ago to fill a need and provide more opportunity for Sault and area teens through the sport.
High school volleyball seasons typically run from November to February, whereas club volleyball seasons for Steel City Ignite Volleyball run from September to April.
Communities smaller than the Sault have volleyball teams at colleges or universities and Grisdale-Turner wants to change that.
“Sault Ste. Marie does not have post-secondary volleyball. We’re hoping that will change in the future so that some of our local athletes who want to play volleyball can go to Sault College or Algoma University and play on a travelling team.”
“The purpose for starting club volleyball is to give our athletes who want to play longer seasons and compete at the post-secondary level an opportunity. In order to be even looked at for post-secondary typically you would have to have a club that you play for.”
Steel City Ignite Volleyball currently includes 10 teams, seven of them competitive.
All but one of the club’s teams are female teams, players ranging in age from 12 to 17 and drawn from high schools in the Sault and area.
Grisdale-Turner, as head coach of the club, said she appreciates the help of Lamour as Steel City co-founder and assistant coach in getting the club started and on an ongoing basis at tournaments.
“Annette keeps us organized and she’s been incredible in doing a lot of behind the scenes work.”
Lamour has two daughters playing in the club.
Older daughter Juliette Lamour, 18, is now a student at Algoma University and still plays with the club. A recent lottery winner, Juliette helped sponsor this year's team.
Grisdale-Turner said she is grateful for Juliette’s help, and also expressed her appreciation for other individuals and businesses that support Steel City Ignite Volleyball.
“We’re super impressed with the support of our families who took time off work to spend five days in Toronto. It’s really like a family when you’re playing club volleyball.”
She added that she is also grateful to Sault College for letting the club’s teams practice at its gym.
With Steel City Ignite’s season now over, Grisdale-Turner said beach volleyball training will begin soon.
She said the club is looking for additional coaches and volunteers to help out and wants to expand its boys volleyball program.
Steel City Ignite sent two teams to last year’s provincials, doubling that to four in this year’s tournament.
The club’s 18U, 17U, 16U and 15U female teams competed this year.
While proud of all club teams that played, Grisdale-Turner had special words of praise for gold medal-winning 16U Blaze Red.
“We had been working together for quite some time and they are just a fantastic group of athletes. My expectation for us was to improve our ranking in Ontario and to let them know we’re here and can’t be ignored.”
“I truly could not be more proud of these young female athletes,” Grisdale-Turner said.