Volleyball Nations League coming to Ottawa in June
It’s not a worst-to-first Cinderella story, but the Canadian men’s volleyball program has sure come a long way, to a point where it can even think about an Olympic medal.
That’s pretty good for a program that went 24 years between Olympic appearances. A fifth-place finish at Rio de Janeiro in 2016 showed the arrow was pointing up.
The recent success of the volleyballers will be on display at TD Place arena on June 8-10 in the third leg of Volleyball Nations League, with Canada lining up against the United States, Australia, Germany and Australia.
Not long ago, the Canadian men were afterthoughts internationally: guys who tried hard, but had a tough time competing on the world stage. Along the way, however, the have-nots became haves: tough for anybody else, no matter how good, to beat.
“It’s interesting to be in a program that develops that much,” said Dan Lewis, who played 14 years with the national team and is now an assistant coach. “Glenn Hoag was the coach that came into the program. He was the key who knew what we needed to do to close the gap.
“You need a few breakthrough wins. It’s hard to believe when you’ve got beat up so bad for so many years. I’ve seen us lose to the Dominican Republic and I’ve seen us beat Brazil. It can’t get any wider than that. It’s one thing to have the athletes, it’s another thing to have the skill level and it’s another thing for all of them to work together. It took time. It took us four or five years before we got one really big win.”
Volleyball Canada president and CEO Mark Eckert got on board in 2011.
“I inherited the downs,” he said. “We got out of the downs. It was a lot of hard work that started with Glenn back in the day. We started getting into international matches. We got them back into the best league in the world, and, when you play with the best, you’re going to get better.”
Once the success began, Own the Podium funding became a big help. Plus, with success, Canadian players got noticed by international teams.
“All of a sudden, in the winter, they’re not playing in seconddivision France, they’re in firstdivision Italy,” Lewis said. “That’s a big difference.”
Following Hoag’s retirement, Stéphane Antiga became head coach and the march forward continued, with one eye already on the next Olympic Summer Games, in 2020.
“Volleyball is strict (for the Olympics),” Lewis said. “There are only 12 teams. Internationally, it’s extremely competitive. There are no guarantees for qualifying for the Olympics. I was there a lot of times when we didn’t do it. It’s never a guarantee, but we’re going to have a much better chance. Then, when we get there, we don’t want to just get there, we want a medal. That will always be our goal.”
Eckert said the Canadian men’s program was “clearly knocking on the door. Depth is really important and Olympic Games are a battle. We’re getting to that place where we have that depth.”
The Canadian men’s team, which trains in Gatineau, is sixth in the world rankings. The U.S. squad is ranked second.
Twelve core teams and four challenger teams will battle to become Volleyball Nations League champion in a round robin competition. With 130 matches throughout the league season, each team will play a minimum of 15.
The Canadian men’s team competed in World League Group 1 in 2017, finishing third overall after defeating the U.S. for the bronze medal. World League and Grand Prix have since been replaced by Volleyball Nations League, which will provide the Antiga’s squad with its first opportunity to play on home soil since the 2016 Olympics.