It took a few swings to get warmed up.
But by the midway point of the first set Friday, Old Buzzards power hitter Norm Kershaw was pounding the ball down so hard onto the hardwood floor, referee Dave Murguly turned from his stand at the net to suggest Kershaw's spikes were going "all the way down to the basement."
It soon became obvious to the crowded pack of onlookers at Kelly Road secondary school gym the 47-year-old Kershaw hasn't lost the athleticism that made him captain of the Kelly Road Roadrunners 1986 provincial double-A champion volleyball team.
The Buzzards were in fine form Friday afternoon taking on the current Kelly Road senior boys in a hotly-contested best-of-three match. After losing the first set 25-23, the more seasoned Roadrunners came back to win the next two, 25-14 and 16-14, to claim the victory, picking up where they left off 30 years ago when they captured the double-A banner at the provincial tournament Kamloops.
"That was an absolute blast," said Kershaw. "It was like we'd never stopped playing, everyone knew their spots, everyone was out there talking, I'm just really happy.
"Hopefully this motivates the kids a little bit that these other guys can get up at any age and still have some fun. I'm grateful maybe they took it easy on us because of our age."
The '86 Roadrunners beat NorKam of Kamloops in four sets to win their title, after finishing as runners-up the year before at the single-A level.
"It was just surreal to win that - we knew we had a tight team but we were never the big players, we were the short scrambly guys," said Kershaw. "It was Wally (Brown's) coaching all the way through, with nothing hitting the floor. We used to call it guerilla ball. It used to be ugly sometimes but it never landed on the floor."
Kershaw and Stephen Matyas are the only Buzzards of the six team members who showed up Friday who still play volleyball regularly. Despite their advancing age, the Buzzards dove for balls, jumped high at the net and used their experience and knowledge of the game to bring a touch of finesse around the net, and that gave their 30-years-younger opponents plenty of trouble. The Buzzards had just two practices to get ready. Middle blocker Paul Simmonds hadn't touched a volleyball since he left high school.
"Every mistake is a point," said Brown. "We made less mistakes than they did and I'm glad we got two wins and it was a really close game. This rendition of the Roadrunners did a really good job, they just have to put the ball over the net a bit smarter and they'll get a lot of points. They just have to play a bit more.
"I think (the Buzzards) were in a lot better shape than they thought they were. I kept telling them, 'Don't try to put the ball in those little squares, put it deep,' and it worked a couple of times."
For a while in the third set it looked like the young 'Runners were on their way to wrapping up the match. Robert Andersen was serving up bombs and his teammates - Liam Campbell, Kaden Grey, J.T. Laxdal, Braden Dukacz and Greyam Hepner - were playing lights-out defence, sending the ball back over the net with shots that got the Buzzards off balance. That led to a five-point run and an 11-7 lead.
But the Buzzards are used to playing Wallyball and had an ace up their sleeve on the bench, coach Brown, and a time-out by the 70-year-old tactician had the desired effect. Dan Drezet reached up for a timely block to end the young guys' run and the Buzzards hammered down three consecutive spikes to tie the game.
Brown called his team to the bench one more time and with the game tied 14-14, Matyas launched a soft serve over the net that wasn't returned and on match point, Laxdal missed the pass from Grey and it was all over.
"It was really fun to play against them," said Dukacz, one of just three Grade 12 on the young 'Runners. "Considering we took them to three sets and pushed them to the very end, I'm proud of my team. They're still a high-calibre team."
Drezet heads the Prince George Youth Volleyball Club and doesn't play very often, but it didn't show on the court. He was one of the guys diving for balls and as the Buzzards' setter, his passes were mostly on the mark.
"It's great to be back in the old gym where we started out as Grade 8s running around - we had some good teams back then and that helped us out down south," said Drezet. "Some of these guys, Norm and Mike (Todoruk) can still jump and some of us have a harder time getting off the floor. It was nice to win. Some of these guys I haven't seen in 30 years."
The match was publicized in advance in The Citizen and on local radio and TV and on Facebook and that helped turn it into a 30-year Kelly Road reunion. Dozens of classmates of the '86 'Runners and some of their now-retired teachers turned out to watch and share old memories after the game. Drezet said Friday's match is just the start of what he hopes will become an annual Roadrunner alumni event.
"We had nothing but fun out there - they were a lot tougher than we thought," said Simmonds. "We're going to pay for it later. I was already stocking up on Advil all day today."
The current Roadrunner team, which also includes Ben Hirtz, Koen Heitman and Caleb Gurney, is hosting an eight-team tournament this weekend at Kelly Road which wraps up with the final Saturday starting at 5:20 p.m. Coach Todd Kuc says he hopes his troops draw inspiration from playing the '86 provincial champions, still the only Kelly Road volleyball team ever to claim the B.C. crown.
