• Submitted by: manso
• Sports
• 12 / 29 / 2010

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Local Sports. By MIKE ROBERTS. The Cambrian women's volleyball team is training in Cuba, hoping to find the secret ingredient that will help lead them to an Ontario College Athletic Association championship.

The team left Sudbury in a bus on midnight Boxing Day evening, headed for Toronto.The Golden Shield boarded an early morning flight on Dec. 27 at Pearson International Airport, leaving for Cuba where they will be training for the next week.

The team is scheduled to return on Jan. 3.Although the thought of going to Cuba and escaping the freezing Sudbury temperatures may sound nice, it will be far from all fun and games for the women.

The team's schedule includes two training sessions a day, with the potential for a third, says head coach Dale Beausoleil.

"We'll be training two to three times a day while we're in Cuba," says Beausoleil. "We'll be doing workouts with the girls once a day. We'll be playing with the Cubans once a day as well. Then we'll probably throw something else in for them as well."

The team will be travelling with personal trainer John Hillier, who will help with the team's physical fitness. Along with workouts with Hillier, they'll get the chance to play not only against, but also with multiple Cuban teams.

The Golden Shield sits in second place in the East Division standings, ranked sixth overall in the Ontario College Athletic Association.

The chance to share tips and tactics with volleyball players from another country has fourth-year player Adriana Pacitto excited.

"We are so grateful our coaches are taking us there," says Pacitto. "We are going to benefit a lot from having time to work on skills, as well as physical fitness. I think that playing Cuban teams will benefit us because they are teams we have never seen before. The West Division has a lot of strong teams that we haven't gotten the chance to see play, so it will help us learn how to handle diversity in teams."

Beausoleil believes the experience for the women will help improve his team as this isn't the first time he's taken a Cambrian squad to Cuba.

"I did it about 12 or 14 years ago and it was outstanding," says Beausoleil. "Just that experience to go train with the (Cuban) girls will be quite the experience for the girls."

Pacitto sees the trip as a great way to help with team bonding.

"Above all, this trip is going to serve as bonding," says Pacitto. "We will be spending over a week with just our team and it gives us a chance to get to know each other better and become closer friends. Spending New Year's together will be a big deal for bonding. Hopefully this translates into even better chemistry on the court."

A team with a 9-1 record working this hard over the holidays to improve on chemistry, along with every other aspect of its game, is impressive. While other teams will still be digesting turkey dinners and settling in to watch Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve, the Golden Shield will be finishing its second or third workout of the day.

When you're willing to put in this much work, it usually benefits by becoming one thing: A run at the championship.

Beausoleil hopes Cuba will be just that for his team.

"I'm just hoping that Cuba is very beneficial to us and that we come back strong and ready to go because it's going to be a battle," says Beausoleil "I mean, the season will be compressed. In five-six weeks, there is going to be a lot of games and we've got to be ready mentally and physically. Physically we need to be fit and mentally we need to be tough."

Mike Roberts is a journalism student at Cambrian College. His Cambrian Athletics column appears every other Tuesday in The Sudbury Star.

Source: /www.thesudburystar.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=2907135