OLDS — Three Ecole Olds High School athletes have made the U16 boys Kings Volleyball Club team in Red Deer.
They are Grade 10 students Liam Hartt, Ethan Giesbrecht, Grayson MacDonald. Their coach is Ryan Dermott, who played volleyball at Olds College.
“It is a premier volleyball club so it is awesome that they made it. There hasn't been enough interest to get a full team going in town so they went to Red Deer to try out,” Liam’s mom Kristy Hartt, wrote in an email.
All three have lots of time to practise because at the moment, they’re not scheduled to play any games until a tournament in mid-February in Calgary.
They’re also hoping to play tournaments in Edmonton – and possibly at Olds College if a tournament for boys is organized. One for U15/U16 girls has already been scheduled for Jan. 23.
“I actually tried out in Airdrie the week before,” Giesbrecht said during an interview.
“I was just kind of looking to play somewhere, because the school season had just ended and I just kind of wanted something to do and I like playing volleyball, so I just kind of ended up in Red Deer.”
Giesbrecht, a setter, has been playing the game since Grade 7.
He played hockey for about seven years, but there’s just something about volleyball that really appeals to him.
“It’s almost kind of like you have to have a lot of control on the ball and it takes a long time to get that. And I guess it’s the thought of really being good at something. And the whole game is kind of like that,” he said.
Hartt decided to try out for the team after his mom noticed online that the Kings were offering tryouts.
“I said ‘sure, I’ll try it,’ and she signed me up.”
When he got there, Hartt was pleasantly surprised to find that Giesbrecht and MacDonald were also trying out for the team.
“It makes me feel more comfortable and just, you know, not new people. There’s some people you know who can help you through the tryouts if you’re feeling down or something,” Hartt said.
“So yeah, I think they really help boost your enthusiasm and confidence and stuff.”
Hartt said he took up volleyball because he loves team sports and because his uncles played it, all the way into post-secondary education. He’d like to take the sport that far too.
Hartt believes his height, about 6’2,” is a great advantage. It comes in handy at his favourite position, a power hitter.
"It’s where you get to smash a lot of balls and all that stuff,” he said. “Kills and spikes.”
Hartt says he’s played “every possible sport I think there is” including baseball, hockey and soccer.
"Anything that I can do to take some time out of my day, I just try and do it. I work out and all that stuff. I just like being physically active,” he said.
He likes volleyball, but not necessarily any more than those other sports.
“But I think I might be better at volleyball, so that’s why I’m choosing to take it to a higher level and get more playing time and stuff to get better,” he said.
MacDonald is a right-side hitter.
He too has played other sports, but is now focusing on volleyball, especially now that he’s on a major club team.
“It would have been hard to balance the other sports along with something like this,” he said, noting he, Hartt and Giesbrecht have to commute to and from Red Deer several times a week, just for practices, let alone games or tournaments.
He too would like to continue playing volleyball in post-secondary education.
Kings U16 head coach Ryan Dermott played volleyball for the Olds College Broncos men’s team from about the 2018 season until 2020. One of his assistant coaches is playing for this season’s edition of the Broncos.
Dermott is impressed with all three young Olds athletes.
“They’re good players,” he said. “They’re good, solid kids who know how to play the game. And they’ll just grow from there.
“They’re only basically 15 years old, so they have the talent to get better and they have the talent where they’re good enough to play right now as well. But they’ll only grow from here.”
Dermott admires their desire and work ethic, noting it’s not easy for students to balance school work with the need to drive to and from Red Deer for practice three nights a week.
Dermott, MacDonald, Hartt, and Giesbrecht are all concerned to varying degrees that with the Omicron COVID variant ripping through the province, some – or all – volleyball games might be cancelled due to the virus.
However, they’re pretty confident that a way will be found to play some or all of those games and tournaments.
“That does worry me a bit, but hopefully our teams will be able to fight through it and persevere through this pandemic and hopefully just get back to normal," Hartt said, “because I think lots of kids are missing sports right now and missing out and just stuck on their couches playing games instead of being able to play sports.”