Fynn McCarthy
VOLLEYBALL SCHOOL: George Elliot (Lake Country) FRESHMAN’S FUTURE: UBC
Last summer, after just his first full season in the sport, Fynn McCarthy made Canada’s under-18 national team.
Later this week, in the Czech Republic, with all of two years’worth of volleyball experience, the 17-yearold McCarthy finds himself a part of the Canadian team at the FIVB Under-21 World Championships.
“With Fynn, it’s exciting to try and imagine where he will be in five years’ time,” says Kerry MacDonald, the UBC head coach who won the recruiting battle to secure the 6-foot-6 attacker for just that time frame. “For him, there is no ceiling. His rate of growth within our sport is unprecedented and I am so excited to see where he will take it.”
The Canadian volleyball world just has to be thankful that McCarthy discovered the sport at all. He had a six-week introduction to the game as an eighth-grader in the spring of 2013 and had actually decided to give the sport a serious shot two years later in Grade 10.
But right around that time, he broke his collarbone playing midget rep hockey. Once he healed, however, he hung up the skates and began to live in the gym.
“It’s all happened so quickly,” admits McCarthy. “Literally, if I blinked, I would have missed it all. But I have worked so hard and it is great to see all of that begin to pay off. Every minute that I play and train doesn’t seem like work to me, because I love volleyball so much.”
Soaking it all in, McCarthy has embraced the coaching of both the Kelowna Volleyball Club’s Paul Thiessen and George Elliot head coach Chris Frehlick, a former Olympian.
And this fall, after a summer of international experience, McCarthy comes to Vancouver for what looks like the start of an extremely promising U-Sports career.
“He is the kind of player who doesn’t want to sit on the bench as a rookie,” coach MacDonald explains. “His competitive level is remarkable and he wants to make an impact immediately.”
It’s hard to imagine anyone ascending to the ranks of the national elite within their sport in just two seasons, but this Okanagan superstar has done just that.
The question now: Is there a gym in Canada with a ceiling higher than Fynn McCarthy’s potential?