New coach, same old goal
Niagara College hoping to extend medal streak in women’s volleyball
The more things change in women’s volleyball at Niagara College, the more they stay the same.
The Knights will open the 201819 Ontario Colleges Athletic Association (OCAA) season with their fourth head coach in five years, yet a lack of continuity at the top of the program hasn’t adversely affected the team come playoff time.
After earning the bronze medal at provincials under Joey Martins in 2015, settling for silver under interim head coach Ray Sarkis and bronze and silver the past two seasons under the Nathan Janzen, Niagara once again is setting its sights on extending the streak with another a topthree finish.
“Hopefully, a gold medal in preparation for national championships, which we are hosting in 2019,” said Sarkis, acting director of athletics and recreation and the school’s intercollegiate coordinator.
Incoming coach Natasha Spaling is working on a medal streak of her own. She earned back-toback silver medals at the Canadian championships the past two years as an assistant coach with the women’s volleyball team at the University of Alberta.
The 25-year-old native of Drayton, Ont., northwest of Kitchener, isn’t intimidated by high expectations in her first head coaching job at the post-secondary level.
“I wouldn’t say ‘intimidated,’ I’m excited,” she said. “I like coming into programs where excellence is an expectation, and being part of an excellent program and excellent people.
“I thrive under high expectations, and I hope that our athletes will be the same way.”
Though it wasn’t that long ago that wrapped up a five-year career at the University of Waterloo, Spaling feels she is ready to take the next rung up the coaching ladder.
“I spent the past two years learning from some of the best coaches in the country, and some of the best international coaches,” she said. “I’ve been exposed to a lot of different opportunities.
“Now, I have connections all across the country. I have spent a lot of time learning and listening and applying.
“I’m excited to take the next step.”
She suggested being only a few years older than her players has its advantages.
“I think it will be helpful to connect with them, and I think the fact that I did play in the past will also be helpful to connect with them,” Spaling said.
“I’d never expect anyone to really do what I wouldn’t expect from myself.
“Hopefully, I bring some new ideas and some new concepts, and even new techniques, that they are going to enjoy, learn from and be interested in.”
Coaching at the university level as well as the club level with the Kitchener-Waterloo Predators has taught Spaling she must fit her game plan to the team and not the other way around.
“I’ll have some fundamental principles that really won’t change, but we need our players to be able to play,” she said. “I would never want to just try and fit people into a puzzle that they didn’t fit into.”
To Spaling, practice and conditioning are important parts of a process that is all about showing improvement from the first practice in the pre-season to the final set in the last set of the playoffs.
“We are going to work really, really hard, and we are going to practise quite a bit,” she said. “I believe in ‘purposeful practice’ so working hard doesn’t always mean that we’re going to be in the gym every single day.
“Sometimes, working hard means taking time off to focus on their mental health, taking care of school and academics, because sometimes they need that break.”
Spaling becomes the first woman to become head coach of the Knights women’s volleyball program since Andrea Deschambeault left the position after two seasons 15 years ago.
Spaling said having a female coaching a women’s team is
“very important.”
“My mentor coach out in Alberta was Laurie Eisler, she’s obviously a woman and one of the only female coaches in Canada U sports,” Spaling said. “She taught me that being a female coach represents more than just you, it represents women in sports, and how important it is that women have a voice, that women support women.
“You’re a good role model to the athletes who are coming up, so I think it’s really important and I think it’s great.”
She had a female coach her first two years at Waterloo and male coaches in her final three seasons with the Warriors.
“I don’t think there were too many differences, mostly it’s just difference in people, in personalities,” Spaling said. “It helps for sure for me to be able to relate and to be able to understand what they’re going through.
“But I think it takes work, no matter who you are as a coach.”
Sarkis said the younger sister of one-time NHLer Nick Spaling brings a lot to the position. He said her background background as a former player and an assistant at one of the top programs in Canada were big pluses.
“We’re thrilled, first of all, to have a female coach involved with our program,” Sarkis said. “She brings a lot of knowledge to the game of volleyball.
“Our athletes will be able to relate to her, knowing how she’s played the game at every level.”
Over the years the college tried to hire female coaches for its varsity programs.
“We haven’t been successful simply because we found that ladies just don’t have the time for our programs, others have decided to go the university route instead,” Sarkis said. “They found full-time positions.”
He also said having a female coach who can relate to female players is important.
“There are situations throughout the year where there are personal issues that come up,” Sarkis said. “I think it is important to have a female touch.”
However, he didn’t feel there was a disconnect when he succeeded Martins as interim head coach of the women’s team three years ago.
“Not at all, because my years of coaching high school prepared me for that,” Sarkis said. “To me, as a coach, I don’t find a difference but for the athletes themselves, I think relating to a female might be different.
“You idolize your peers. A female coach, who has played at every level, you listen to her. She’s telling you what to do and you realize, ‘Yea, she’s done it. I can do it.”
Spaling, who played high school volleyball at Norwell District Secondary School in Palmerston, majored in kinesiology and minored in psychology at Waterloo. She earned a masters of coaching from the University of Alberta.