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It happened in the Gold Medal game between Pakmen 17U Gold and Phoenix Legacy (17U) at OVA Challenge Cup, on Dec 2 2023, in Oakville:
By DAVID WINER Special The Pakmen have drawn a line in the sand that may never be crossed. Competing at the Ontario Volleyball Association Beach Provincials, the Pakmen Volleyball Club prevailed with a flurry of gold medal performances that would confound the most optimistic prognosticator. “It was a record performance!” said ecstatic Pakmen director Kelly Smith. “These were the most Tier 1 gold medals at a Provincial Championship in OVA history.” Many of the 200 enthusiastic youngsters, who took to the six regulation sized courts this summer to participate in Elite Beach training, competed at an unworldly level resulting in 10 out of a possible 15 Tier 1 gold medal showings. “We are especially proud of head coach Jessy Satti after coming off a record-breaking indoor season,” said Smith. “His 18U boys won Provincials and Nationals, and he became the first coach to ever win three consecutive 18U national titles. Now, his male beach athletes performed so well, winning almost every single event, including several all-Pakmen finals, and in some cases, winning gold, silver and bronze. “Also, Arjun Selhi, who played for Jessy as an indoor player and was one of Jessy’s assistant coaches on the beach for three years is now in charge of the girls’ program and they also enjoyed a lot of success.” Assisting Satti on the boys’ side were Omar Abu Jazar, Saad Shaikh and Kadeem Clarke, while Selhi was assisted by Osemi Efosa. “Across the board on the boys and girls side we’ve had a tremendous amount of success, said Satti. “I give a lot of credit to the athletes, who make the conscious decision to stick with their teammates and do beach volleyball with the club. It creates a really good dynamic and team culture. There’s lots of opportunities for players to do different beach programs with other coaches, but I’ve found our athletes enjoy our beach program. It shows that the club is able to offer high quality programming 12 months of the year, and our results from indoor and beach proves that.” Setting the tone were Pakmen trailblazers Salma Abdelrazak on the girls’ side and the tandem of Misha Panasiouk and Aleksa Rakic on the boys’ side who worked overtime to collect two gold medals apiece. Panasiouk and Rakic mastered the 15U and 16U Tier 1 age groups that were chock-full of Pakmen teammates. “I think Misha and Aleks had a great summer. When they played up (16U) and won, it was definitely a special moment,” said Satti. “I think they showed people that the way beach volleyball is played can outweigh factors like size and athleticism. We make sure to teach beach the way we feel it should be played, and we’ve done that since the inception of our club. By getting athletes to buy into the training and structure, it puts them in a position to have a lot of success.” The 15U division, contested August 12-13 at Toronto’s Ashbridges Bay, was swept by Panasiouk and Rakic, followed by silver medalists Davis Hinshelwoods and Spencer Ham and bronze medalists Cooper Spehr and Jonathan Sousa. Pakmen inhabited two of the three podium placings in the 16U competition on August 5-6 with Yahia Elsayed and Chris Tang securing the bronze. The highlight of the tournament for both Panasiouk and Rakic was beating Elsayed and Tang in the 16U semi-final. “We lost to them in the final at an earlier tournament and they became the duo that we always wanted to play and beat,” explained Rakic. “While we lost to them in the first set, we fought through it and eventually won the third set 18-16.” “Even though we were ranked No. 1 entering the competition, the favorites were Yahia and Chris, who are both really good beach players and were also the tournament winners last year,” added Panasiouk. “We are also a year younger than them. But in a really close third game we were able to win, despite the fact the majority of the audience supported the opposing team.” A lot of planning had to go into Rakic and Panasiouk’s style of play considering there would be extra wear and tear on their bodies competing on back-to-back weekends. “Having to play multiple games a day with only about an hour of time for a break, it came down to how efficiently we used our time to rest and recover,” explained Rakic. “Sitting in the shade, and wearing towels and shirts to conserve our energy, was a must. After finishing each day we used our time to recover using ice, a roller and massage gun to prepare us for the next day and stay as fresh as possible.” However, the biggest reason for success, other than talent, is the rapport the two have developed. “Since Misha joined our rep team two years ago we’ve stayed close friends,” said Rakic, who attends Mississauga’s Applewood Secondary School. “Being able to connect easily from this friendship, it was easy to play together. All the time that we spent practicing on the beach and indoors made our basic skills better and helped us learn how to help each other through our struggles. If I’m struggling Misha is there to help me, and if Misha is struggling, I am there to help him.” Panasiouk, who attends Earl Haig in North York, says there’s a number of factors for their success. “The first is, of course, trust. We know that at the most crucial and stressful moment we will make the right decision that will lead the team to success. The second is communication. We are good at making our jobs easier and more efficient by communicating on the court; and the third is we are strong players in terms of set of skills no matter who the opponent serves, we know that we will definitely score a point.” “We are able to adapt and learn from our opponents,” added Rakic. “We understand how our opponents play and not only play to our strengths, but to their
By DAVID WINER
Jamie Ha had an itch he couldn’t scratch for much of the spring and summer.
After winning the Ontario Volleyball Association Provincial indoor title with his 14U Mississauga Pakmen teammates, Ha fully expected to lay claim to the Eastern Canadian indoor title as well.
But, as is often the case in sports, expectations are sometimes met head on with disappointment, and the Pakmen suffered an early departure from the indoor Nationals in the first week of May.
Luckily for Ha and his good friend and teammate Harjas Chahal, volleyball has two seasons. And where expectations fell short in the spring, hopes and wishes were met and exceeded at the tail end of the summer, as a gold medal at the Provincial 14U Beach Volleyball Championships on July 30, was followed by more gold at the Youth Beach Nationals Aug. 18-21 at Toronto’s Ashbridges Bay.
“It feels amazing to win both Provincials and Nationals because during the indoor season the boys 14U Pakmen team lost in the quarter-finals at Nationals and Harjas and I feel proud to represent Pakmen and win beach Provincials and Nationals.”
“Being a double gold medalist feels amazing,” offered an exultant Chahal. “And in the gold medal match, when we got the final point, I was on my knees celebrating as Jamie was jumping around. We both couldn’t believe it.
“At the beginning of the season, we knew we would be contenders for gold, but we didn’t know that we’d end up winning Provincials, let alone Nationals, so we were both grateful.”
It’s as if the two David Leeder Middle School graduates won the back-to-back titles for their indoor teammates as much as for themselves.
While Ha and Chahal defeated Aurora’s Dalton Irwin and Markus Law-Heese 23-21, 21-13 in the championship final, and Quebec’s Carl-Eric Lafleur and Florent Hogue 21-14, 21-17 in the semi-finals, the two 14-year-olds felt their toughest challenge came against Ontario’s David Kang and Arthur Bento in the quarter-finals when they were stretched to three sets, eventually prevailing 15-21, 21-10, 15-10.
“Playing David Kang and Arthur Bento in the quarter-finals was our toughest match of the tournament because they beat us in the first set due to a lack of communication,” felt Ha. “But in the next two sets, Harjas and I started talking before and after every point (which helped) to secure the win.”
“Losing the first set to Kang and Bento was expected because we weren’t playing and communicating like we had been the whole season,” agreed Chahal. “Being the morning, (and) also the third day (of the championship) had a bit of a part to play (in it), but our coach Jessy Satti had a talk to us and just said to communicate and talk, which we did the next two sets, which led us to a win.”
And for his part, Satti couldn’t be more proud of his players.
“Jamie and Harjas were sharp all day,” said Satti. “They had moments where nerves were kicking in, but they managed to overcome that by communicating with each other and taking pressure off each other.
“Once the nerves settled, and they started getting comfortable, they became a very aggressive team,” added Satti. “They were hitting the ball hard and serving very tough. It was nice to see them play their best volleyball at the very last tournament of the year, and at the most important tournament.”
Other than the three-set victory over Kang and Bento, the 5-foot-6 Ha and the 6-foot-1 Chahal were also extended to a third set against fellow Pakmen teammates Ishaan Thandi and Lyam Krapp in preliminary round action, dropping the opener 21-18, before bouncing back with 21-14, 15-13 wins.
Thandi and Krapp eventually bowed out to Lafleur and Hoag 2-1 in the quarters.
“Losing to Thandi and Krapp did have a part to play (in our gold medal), because me and Jamie were used to being down the first set during the season, so we knew how to come back from it again,” said Chahal. “Like our coach Jessy says, ‘it doesn’t matter how you start out, it matters how you finish,” so in keeping that in mind, we pushed through and ended up winning both games.”
“Coach Jessy has helped us a lot, with him constantly reminding us of little details that Harjas and I use while we play in games,” said Ha. “Jessy has also guided us during practice and at Provincials and Nationals.”
This summer also proved one more thing to the David Leeder graduates, who will go their separate ways in September. While Ha will attend St. Marcellinus Catholic Secondary School, Chahal will attend the neighboring Mississauga Secondary School.
And that is, “Harjas and I will remain as a team,” said Ha of his best friend. “We both learned a lot about the game of beach this summer and we will continue to improve on (communicating with) each other off and on the beach courts, as well as cheering after every point.”
“I feel Jamie and I clicked because we had that chemistry being on sports teams together (since Grade 3) and knowing each other since elementary school,” chimed in Chahal. “I knew we were going to be contenders for gold, both at Provincials and Nationals and I had the confidence, but saying something and doing it, are two different things, but we tried our hardest and our hard work paid off.
“You can expect me and Jamie to try out for the upcoming 15U indoor (Pakmen) team and hopefully we can win a Provincial and National championship.”
Other than the preliminary round victory against Thandi and Krapp, Ha and Chahal also defeated Loreto Cerasuolo and Tyler McBride of Oakville; Andrew Song and Forest Turpel of Niagara; Markus Hong and Ethan Hendriksen of London; Lafleur and Hoag; and Irwin and Law-Heese, by 2-0 margins.
“Winning in two sets was important because we didn’t want to waste any more energy than we needed to as the tournament was three days long,” said Chahal. “So we needed all the energy we could get.”
Also representing the Pakmen at the Nationals were Owen Jacobs and Darrin Harnandan-Wang, who reached the round of 16 before losing a tough three-set match to Angelo Ventresca and Matthew Battad of British Columbia, 21-15, 17-21, 12-15.
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