Matt Busse of the Huskies volleyball squad took his high powered kills to Japan.

The Huskies men’s volleyball team returned home from their 12-day trip to Japan on Sept. 8. The club flew there to take part in pre-season training and exhibition matches against Japanese universities.

Brian Gavlas, who has coached the Huskies volleyball team since 1992, has brought his team to Japan three times now, and always enjoys it.

“Every time I’ve gone it’s been an awesome experience. We get treated extremely well and their generosity is unbelievable,” Gavlas said.

“The training we get to do in the heat and with the Japanese teams is outstanding. It’s great preparation for the new year.”

The men competed in university gymnasiums without air conditioning. This combined with the added heat and humidity of being on the island nation forced the Huskies to come extra prepared for training days.

“Take lots of shirts to practice,” Huskies right-side hitter Matthew Busse learned.

“We had to change often so we wouldn’t get drenched from our own sweat.”

The team started their adventure in Tokyo, where they played against the University of Waseda and Chuo University. The team spent most of the time doing drills and scrimmaging with their overseas competition, but did play a best-of-three match against Waseda, winning the first set and losing the following two.

After spending a few days in Japan’s capital, the team ventured south to the city of Katsura where they met up with the International Budo University. IBU is renowned in Japan as one of the top schools for education in martial arts and sport fitness training.

Being in partnership with IBU during his many years as Huskies coach, Gavlas recognizes the school’s commitment to volleyball.

“They treat the sport a little differently than we do. The amount of time and training that they put in is extensive, making their skill level very high.”

Gavlas, along with the other coaching staff, generated statistics after they played Budo and found the Huskies squad had to earn 80 per cent of their points, as opposed to gaining points from team Budo’s errors. This number was significantly lower for the Budo squad, who only had to earn about half of their points and could rely on the Huskies’ mistakes to earn the rest.

It’s no surprise then that Budo capitalized on the Huskies’ errors and beat them in nine of the 10 sets that the squads played against each other.

The trip wasn’t all about volleyball, though. The players were treated to a few days of sightseeing as well. The Dogs volleyball club took their minds off of sport by attending a professional Japanese baseball game and, in Tokyo, the team had the chance to visit temples, go shopping and to enjoy the Tokyo Disneyland.

“It wasn’t all heat, sweat and drudgery,” Gavlas joked. “We had some fun.”

The visiting Huskies didn’t exactly blend into their surroundings either. Busse found it amusing how the locals reacted to his six-foot-eight frame.

“We got a lot of looks, and some people would even stop to ask for our picture. It was cool.”

The players’ heights weren’t as comical when they saw the small bedrooms they were given at some places. Up to eight players were put in each room at the visitors’ hall at IBU and each player had to sleep on a traditional sleeping mat instead of a mattress.

The team found the positives in their lack of space, however, and felt the rooms added to the cultural experience that helped the players to bond with one another.

“Going to a different culture, spending time together and learning from that culture at the start of the year like this will definitely help us translate some of the things we have learned into our game,” Busse said.

Although the team doesn’t start regular season play until the end of October, the team will keep busy in the coming days with a match against Huskies alumni on Sept. 14 at 7 p.m. at the PAC. Following that, the team will be hosting the Frank Enns Charity Golf Tournament at Saskatoon’s Moon Lake golf club Sept. 15.

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File photo: Raisa Pezderic/The Sheaf