8 THE VOICE, THURSDAY, OCT. 13, 2016 EDITOR ROBERTO TEIXEIRA Volleyball skills course excites youth Fall season of volleyball skills development kicks off at Marpole-Oakridge Community Centre By ALYSE KOTYK kneepads — ran into the Marpole- Oakridge Community Centre gym, eager to begin the fall season of youth volleyball skills development. The program is the largest it has ever been with a record number of regis- tered participants. Now in its third season, the commu- nity centre's youth volleyball skills training program aims to teach partici- pants aged 18 to 18 the fundamentals of volleyball including bumping, passing, setting, serving and spiking. Each week, youth participants focus on one particular skill and practice it through a series of drills. The program's coach, Dustin Szeto, helped launch the program when he and Anntuaneth Figueroa, community centre youth worker, wanted to find a way to further engage the community's youngsters. Szeto says he works with young players of varying skill levels in the program. "Some of them who are in elementa- ry school maybe want to try out volley- ball and see if they like it," he said. "Some I get, they're just going into high school so they know they want to play volleyball and want to make the high school team so they come to me, they learn the fundamentals and when they go to their volleyball tryouts they'll be a little bit ahead of the curve." In addition to learning volleyball skills, Szeto pointed out that the youth who participate also receive valuable lessons that they can take off the court and into their lives. "Definitely they're working on team- work and their social skills," he said. “When they first come into the camp, most of them don't know each other. So I try to get them playing in groups, try- ing to work together and trying to build bonds with their teammates." The fall season of the volleyball skills development program will run until mid-December. Seen youth — many donning LANGARA COLLEGE photo Jacob Vanderpas, a Langara Falcons golf player, swings his way to the top at a tournament at Westwood Plateau golf course. Jacob Vanderpas got individual gold medal at PacWest competition 66 IT hope it motivates players to see what people are capable of JACOB VANDERPAS LANGARA FALCONS GOLF PLAYER By LAUREN BOOTHBY Falcons golfer has won Langa- ra’s first gold medal at a Pac- West provincial golf champion- hip in early October - in only the second year the program has exist- ed. First-year player Jacob Vanderpas took the individual gold at the PacWest competition, while the team finished fourth overall. Golf has only been part of the Langa- ra athletics department for two years. The Falcons’ collegiate team began competing in the 2015-2016 season. “Tt’s outstanding,” said Vanderpas. “Just playing your best is the important thing, but to come out five shots ahead, I thought it would come down to a shot or two, but not five shots so that was pretty cool.” Taylor Seidel, one of Langara’s golf- ers, said having a strong player like Vanderpas on the team pushes him to do better. “Tt definitely makes a difference. You know the number-one guy is always go- ing to have a good round, so it gives the rest of the team more confidence to make a missed shot here or there,” said Seidel. Vanderpas said the team could have done better overall - they were only one spot shy of the third-place finish required to make the national competition — but he has big goals for the future. “It’s promising next year. I think if we have the same group of guys and get better over the summer and may- be get a couple of better players from outside then who knows, right?” he said. Vanderpas is going to the CCAA national championship from October 17 to 21, where he hopes to inspire other golfers. “T hope it motivates players to see what people are capable of,” said Van- derpas, who began the sport at the age of eight and started competing at 15. “That if they have specific goals, that they can reach them.” Double trouble for Langara a TANNER BOKOR photo From the left: Chelsea and Amelia Brown will hang up the Falcons' jersey this season. Twins Chelsea and Amelia Brown bring competitive spirit to field By TANNER BOKOR Brown are making waves on the Langara Falcons women’s soccer team. The Falcons are led up front by the Brown twins, who are tied for second place in team scoring with two goals apiece in the PacWest provincials. The team currently sits in second place in the PacWest provincial standings, just one point behind league leaders, Doug- las College. The Brown sisters originally tried out to join the UBC Thunderbirds women’s soccer team, but at the urging of Langara head coach Ryan Birt, they instead committed to Langara. “TBirt] really liked how we played, offered us some scholarship money, and we decided that would be the best fit for us,” Amelia said. Chelsea and Amelia agree that there can be positives and negatives to being Te sisters Chelsea and Amelia Falcons soccer rivals together on the field. “We fight sometimes on the field. We're pretty competitive with each other, but we also help each other out as well. We’re always looking to give each other opportunities,” said Chel- sea. The twins started playing soccer early, at the age of six, moving on to play at West Vancouver’s Sentinel Sec- ondary School. “From a young age, our dad influ- enced [us] to get into sport early and thought that soccer would be the best fit for us” said Amelia. The sisters are in their final season as Falcons’ players, but they plan on making it a memorable one. “Tm looking forward to finishing off well, and our team is really strong this year,” said Chelsea. “I really just want to make this year a good one and win nationals.” ® Falcons’ Tally t*) WOMEN'S SOCCER NEXT GAMES W-D-L -10/15/2016 (Capilano) 4-3-2 -10/16/2016 (VIU) Ranked: 02 -10/22/2016 (Quest)