After a blizzard in Charlottetown kept the Canadian collegiate men’s volleyball champion Camosun Chargers stuck in P.E.I. for a couple extra days earlier this month, team members were happy to get back home to Greater Victoria.
The Gazette caught up with fourth-year Charger middle and former Belmont Bulldog Alex Sadowski for a quick Q&A on winning it all, winding up his athletic career at Camosun and what the future might hold.
GNG: Now that you’ve had a chance to savour the victory, how exciting is it still to know you went out on top for your Camosun career?
AS: Even though things have settled down, it is still very surreal to think that we have won the National Championship. Finishing on this note will forever be ingrained in my memory and is something special that anyone can appreciate. I can enjoy it even more when I think of my teammates and the bond that we have created over this past year.
GNG: You guys crafted some amazing comebacks through the week. Was there an overarching tone around the team that helped you guys get back on track when you were down in sets or matches?
AS: I don’t think that we started the semi-final or final match in the fashion that we would have liked. When we did lose sets we lost by quite a large margin. Looking back, we were never incredibly concerned with the fact that we were losing, but rather what we needed to fix in order to start winning. This confidence gave us a boost when we knew we needed to change and when the title was really in jeopardy.
GNG: What kind of legacy do you and fellow graduating Charger Jeremy Finn leave for the upcoming players like (ex-Belmont Bulldogs) Doug (Waterman), Mark (Severinsen), Taran (Silas) and others?
AS: The legacy that we have created is something quite special. To know that we have won Camosun College’s first National Championship with an amazing group of guys and in the way we won is just incredible. I have never played on a team which was closer than this year’s Chargers team. Whether you were playing or sitting on the bench, every player contributed equally to our success. I am hoping that future players can recreate this amazing feeling.
GNG: What are your plans in the immediate future?
AS: Plans … honestly, I don’t have any. Now that we are back in Victoria after being stranded by an Atlantic storm, I have to catch up on school and relax. I am sure that in the coming months, this experience will reach new levels of importance to me, but for now I will just take things day by day.
• For a look back at the team’s run to the 2015 Canadian Colleges Athletic Association championship title, visit goldstreamgazette.com and type the word ‘”Chargers” into the search bar.
editor@goldstreamgazette.com