Howard Gange (right) was inducted into the Sask Volleyball Hall of Fameand and got to reconnect with coaches he worked with, like Wendell Haugen (left). (Facebook/Wendell Haugen)

By Jeff D’Andrea

Hitting the VBall hall

From football to volleyball to the hall, P.A.’s Howard Gange’s journey changed club sports

May 12, 2022 | 5:00 PM

Back at the start of the 1980s, Howard Gange decided he wanted to make a big change and challenge himself with something he didn’t know.

After 17 years of coaching the Carlton Crusaders football team, Gange decided to fill the vacant spot of girls’ volleyball coach. It was a sport he didn’t know much about but wanted to challenge himself and learn more.

“I thought ‘why not take a shot at it?’ It’s a lot nicer working in a gym with 12 girls than it is working outside on a frozen field with 50 boys. So I made the switch,” Gange said.

Little did he know at that time, that switch would change the sport in Prince Albert for the next 40 years and lead to Gange being inducted into the Sask. Volleyball Hall of Fame.

A year after taking charge of the Crusaders, Gange founded the Toppers Volleyball Club in 1982 to help local athletes play more volleyball and expand their skills. Even though Gange stepped away from the Toppers when he retired from teaching in 1994, Toppers are still running strong today, bringing home medals each spring.

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Gange was originally selected for induction in 2020, but the actual ceremony itself was delayed until last Saturday.

“In 2020 when I was first informed when they were going to do this, I was flattered and honoured that they would do so. The fact that it took a little while was a fact of life in the last few years. It didn’t bother me,” Gange said. “It was great to go ahead with the event last Saturday and be recognized by the organization and get to meet again a lot of the people I was involved with in the past, including a lot of the people in Prince Albert that are still keeping the club active and alive.”

Gange figured out pretty quickly that Prince Albert had a need for club volleyball. After his 1981 Crusaders won the city championship and headed to provincials, he and the Crusaders had their eyes opened when they went to provincials and failed to win a game.

“We came away thinking ‘what do we have to do to become competitive?’ Obviously, we found out that Regina, Saskatoon and even Yorkton, they were running club volleyball and obviously, giving the girls obviously an awful lot more opportunities to make contacts with the ball and improve their skills at a younger age,” Gange said.

That’s when Gange started the Toppers in 1982, and saw early results both at the club and high school level. Gange’s Crusaders won the provincials in 1986 and the quality of volleyball in all of Prince Albert started to rise. He also held the Toppers’ practices on Sunday’s while other high school sports were going on, as to not interfere with other sports.

Gange said he was happy to reconnect with Wendell Haugen and Doug Wallace, who still are involved with the Toppers. Gange also heavily relied on Mark Tennant when he started coaching, as Tennant was the coach for University of Saskatchewan Huskies women’s volleyball team.

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Jeff.dandrea@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @jeff_paNOW