Olympic berth on the line in Edmonton
Team Canada hasn’t qualified since 1992
— The road to Rio runs through Edmonton.
At least, it will for one of the four national men’s volleyball teams playing in the NORCECA continental qualification tournament Jan. 8-10 at the Saville Community Sports Centre.
The winner between Canada, Mexico, Puerto Rico and Cuba will punch their ticket to the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.
It’s Team Canada’s best chance to reach sport’s grandest stage since a 10th-place finish in 1992.
To put that in perspective, the youngest player on this year’s roster is Nicholas Hoag, who was born 10 days after the closing ceremonies of the Barcelona Games in ’92.
“Most of them were very small the last time the team went (to the Olympics),” said Glenn Hoag, Nicholas’s father and head coach of Team Canada the past 10 years. “That’s part of the problem of not knowing what it is, which puts a little extra pressure on the guys. None of them have been there.”
They’ve been learning, though, and taking strides on the world stage as they go. At the world championship in 2014, the team earned Canada’s best showing, a seventh-place finish. They reached the same place at the World Cup in Japan in 2015 after qualifying for the first time in 12 years. Toss in a third-place finish at last year’s Pan-Am Games and moving from fourth to third to second and finally first at each of the last four NORCECA (North and Central America) championships, and the steady and noticeable improvement is evident.
“All these world championships, it was a first for quite a few guys so it was a great thing for the program because it just got them to gain experience at a high level,” Hoag said. “And hopefully we can translate it into qualifying here.”
The Canadian program is riding a wave of confidence coming off a pre-qualification event in Cordoba, Mexico, this past October where it captured gold.
They have now cracked the top-10 in FIVB world rankings, with Cuba five spots behind in 15th, Puerto Rico 22nd and Mexico 24th.
“I don’t really look at the rankings much because there are so many good teams right down to the 40th spot,” said Hoag, who couldn’t remember Canada being in the top-10 before. “It’s always a battle to win, so it really helps us when we’re ranked for international tournaments.
“So that’s a good thing, but we respect a lot of the teams that are at a lower rank than us because they’re good competition.”
Of the 12 Olympic berths available, four have been claimed. The United States, Italy, Argentina and Brazil have qualified.
A second- or third-place finish in Edmonton will earn teams a spot in the final qualifying tournaments being held in Tokyo May 14 to June 5, so while this is not the last chance, it’s certainly Canada’s best chance to break a 24-year Olympic drought.
STAR DOWN:
Team Canada will be without star Gavin Schmitt this weekend. The face of Canadian volleyball is undergoing surgery to repair a stress fracture in his leg. A three-and-a-half month recovery time could still have him ready for a potential Olympic run.
“He’s a world power, he’s one of the recognized opposites in the world,” Hoag said. “He tried to jump in Poland but it just didn’t work. It’s unfortunate we don’t have him for this event but we’ll have to do it without him.”
WOMEN’S UNDERWAY:
The NORCECA Women’s Olympic qualification tournament began Thursday in Lincoln, Nebraska, where the reigning world champions and No. 1-ranked U.S. team hosts the Dominican Republic (7th), Puerto Rico (15th) and Canada (16th). The winner will earn a berth in the 2016 Rio Games.