It sometimes flies under the radar, but volleyball is a sport the Island digs as it continues as a reliable provider of talent.
Captain Fred Winters and Josh Howatson headline sa国际传媒鈥檚 national men鈥檚 volleyball team roster for the FIVB World League, which begins May 31 against the Netherlands at the Colisee Pepsi in Quebec City.
Winters, a searing power hitter, is a graduate of Claremont Secondary. Veteran international setter Howatson graduated from Oak Bay. The pair came within an agonizing game of qualifying for the 2012 London Summer Olympics last year.
The 18th-ranked Canadians play Turkey in pre-World League matches May 15-16 in Gatineau, Que., and May 18 in Kingston, Ont., as sa国际传媒 has qualified to re-enter the World League for the first time in five years.
鈥淭his is a very important competition for our program,鈥� said national team head coach Glenn Hoag, in a statement.
鈥淎s we start a new Olympic quadrennial [to Rio 2016] the World League will help us gain valuable experience.鈥�
Meanwhile, Devon Parkinson and Marc Howatson of Victoria have been invited to the national 鈥楤鈥� team camp for the 2013 World University Games in Russia.
The women鈥檚 national team camp opened this week in Winnipeg with Shanice Marcelle of Victoria 鈥� recently named BLG Award winner as the most outstanding female athlete in the CIS in any sport 鈥� Shelby Michaels of Mill Bay and Dani Smith of Vancouver Island University invited.
In beach volleyball, Jamie Broder of Victoria and Kristina Valjas of Toronto have set course for Rio 2016 with impressive recent results. They had their career best women鈥檚 FIVB Grand Slam Tour placing by finishing ninth in the China Open last week. They followed up by advancing to the playoffs this weekend in the $220,000 Grand Slam Shanghai Open.
Claremont-grad Broder and Valjas began their breakthrough season by winning the opening NORCECA (North and Central America and Caribbean) tournament this spring.
Last summer, the since-retired Martin Reader from the Comox Valley represented sa国际传媒 in men鈥檚 beach volleyball at the London Olympics.
