devon cote
volleyball school: Kelowna freshman’s future: UBC Okanagan
It didn’t take Tim Cote very long to discover just how quickly his son Devon had fallen in love with a new sport.
“I would come into his room,” remembers the dad, “and he’d be watching pro volleyball on his computer. Most kids would be on Facebook, but there he was, watching some match from maybe Poland or Brazil? I would hear the broadcasters talking in all of these different languages. It was hilarious.”
Devon Cote didn’t begin playing volleyball until his first year of high school, but the ascent of Kelowna Secondary’s 6-foot-2 outside hitter, who possesses the vertical leap of a 6-foot-8 player, has been as dizzying as those numbers would suggest.
“I loved finding those full-length games on YouTube,” laughs Cote, who this past December was selected by a panel of B.C. university coaches as The Province’s 2014 B.C. high school boys volleyball player of the year. “They were in all different languages. After a while I would start to recognize specific phrases, like ‘block-ay.’”
No matter the language, nothing gets lost in translation when it comes time to understanding the passion Cote has for the game.
Invited as a ninth grader to watch the UBC Okanagan Heat men’s team practice, he jumped right into the team’s pre-game hitting line, an act of bravado that not only belied his tender age, but foretold his future destination.
This fall, Cote will remain in his hometown as the Heat’s star recruit, ready to continue his development in the sport under UBC Okanagan head coach Greg Poitras.
“Pound for pound he is one of the best prospects that the Okanagan has seen,” Poitras says. “He has a great mind for the game, and a great motor.”
The latter can be translated to mean that Cote is a real fighter, and actually he is.
“He’s won a title in Brazilian jiu-jitsu,” says Mike Sodaro, his highschool coach. “You look at him and he doesn’t appear that muscular, but he could take you to the ground.”
Put it all together and you have a most enviable package. Yet Cote’s greatest strength has always been his love of the game.
“Once I started playing, I couldn’t stop,” Cote says, laughing. “I would be downstairs hitting the volleyball against the wall for hours, and I’d set up a net in the backyard and play for hours by myself.”
Working toward what he hopes will someday be a pro career in a far-off land, don’t be too surprised if you hear an excited broadcaster blare something along the lines of “Cote, block-ay!”