The Klassen Award

We interrupt all this Ben Mast appreciation to bring another awesome award to this Award Season. Though we could save this for his own week, I've already made a schedule and I'm sticking to it. So, we're naming a new award after one of our current seniors. That's right, Russell Klassen is getting his very own award.

And it's an award that he is obviously going to receive this year. The award is for the team's most aggressive player. Over and over again, Russell proved that he is the most vicious player on the team. Throughout our season, we talked to doubles teams about hitting players from the other team when they are at net. One way to be smaggressive (smart and aggressive at the same time) is to aim at players instead of trying to pass them. There is less chance of error and it requires the opponent to make a shot.

Russell was the master of hitting people at the net. So much so that opponents often moved off the net when they were serving to Russell. It's rare that one person in a doubles match can affect the overall strategy so much. But Russell's aggressiveness fed into Blake's strength. With the opposition's net presence eliminated, Blake was free to roam the net for putaways. Russell's killer forehand made it possible.

At one point this season, we played a tournament against my brother's team. My brother made a bet that one of his players would hit more people in the day than Russell. I told him there was no way, Russell bases his game on that aggression. Throughout the day then, Russell proceeded to hit players with shots a total of 12 times in three matches! That doesn't include the errors he forced because they were able to move. I'm sure that my brother's player was nowhere close.

This attitude of knowing what his game is and sticking to it with confidence is something all Bruin players should learn from. Russell earned a place for himself in Bethany lore, all because he was hungry for some "flesh."

Now, back to the regularly scheduled Ben Mast week schedule!