听
TORONTO 鈥� You don鈥檛 have to look too hard to see a volleyball pattern emerging.
Fred Winters of Victoria captains undefeated sa国际传媒 (3-0) into its semifinal match tonight against Argentina at the 2015 Pan American Games. Shanice Marcelle of Victoria and her Canadian women鈥檚 teammates didn鈥檛 make the medal round and lost 3-2 Thursday to Peru in the seventh-place game. But if there was a Pan Am Games tournament all-star team, the fluid Spectrum grad would be on at least the second team.
World No. 6-ranked Canadians Jamie Broder of Victoria and partner Kristana Valjas would have been women鈥檚 beach-volleyball medal favourites in these Pan Am Games but gave up the opportunity in order to chase valuable Rio Olympics qualifying points at FIVB tournaments overseas. And retired, six-foot-seven 2012 London Olympics beach volleyball player Martin Reader of Comox, a member of the Camosun College Sports Hall of Fame and now a personal trainer and model, was featured prominently in a Games photo spread that profiled athletic bodies in Toronto鈥檚 largest newspaper last week.
If you haven鈥檛 guessed, volleyball is as popular a niche sport on the Island as rugby, field hockey or lacrosse.
鈥淚t starts with the coaching on the Island,鈥� said Winters, who has captained sa国际传媒 to the verge of the podium here at Toronto 2015.
鈥淔or me, it was Shon Ryan at Claremont. I owe a lot of my love and interest in volleyball to him. I bonded with all the guys I played with in Victoria and we are best friends to this day. It鈥檚 the coaching on the Island that makes it so great. So it sucks that UVic lost its team because there is such a good volleyball tradition on the Island.鈥�
Charles Parkinson, here doing the Pan Am Games volleyball broadcast play-by-play for CBC and ESPN, is a part of that Island coaching strength. The former national team player and 1979 Puerto Rico Pan Am Games bronze-medallist is the Camosun College men鈥檚 head coach and guided the Chargers to their first national title this year.
鈥淚t鈥檚 in the Island air. There is a good feeder system at different levels on the Island and, at each level, there are experienced coaches to help develop the players,鈥� Parkinson said. 鈥淲hen athletes are put in an environment where they thrive, they will rise.鈥�
Parkinson pointed to Winters鈥� and Marcelle鈥檚 performances here at the Games.
鈥淪hanice is terrifically athletic and has matured into a great attacker who is fast and explosive with great defence-to-offence transition. And although Fred is in the early twilight of his career, his experience and leadership are invaluable. There鈥檚 not a situation on the court in which Fred Winters has not been in 5,000 times before. It鈥檚 tough to replace veteran players like that.鈥�
Marcelle thought back to her beginnings in volleyball.
鈥淚t was Grade 5 at McKenzie Elementary and then on to the Victoria Titans . . . it鈥檚 times like this [at Games] where you get nostalgic and think back to where it all started,鈥� said Marcelle, two-time champion in the Germany pro league, headed next season to France.
鈥淚 did cross-country, basketball, track, but ended up liking volleyball best.鈥�
The more than 50 Island athletes in these Games have won 17 medals, including 13 golds, in events across several sports over 13 days of competition. They will get a chance to add to that total tonight when Maddie Secco of Victoria and University of Victoria Vikes products Kaitlyn Williams, Thea Culley and Danielle Hennig play Chile for the bronze medal in women鈥檚 field hockey, and Emma Fletcher of Victoria and her Canadian women鈥檚 soccer teammates meet Mexico in the bronze-medal game.
The Island presence in the Toronto Pan Am Games concludes with strong medal chances in track and field on Saturday for Olympians and 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games bronze-medallists Cam Levins of Black Creek in the 5,000 metres and Mike Mason of Nanoose Bay in the high jump.
The Island athletes here are chasing the 21 medals that Island athletes won at the 2011 Pan Am Games in Guadalajara, Mexico. But the 13 golds at Toronto 2015 by Island athletes have blown away the three-gold total of Island athletes from Guadalajara.
The Toronto Games conclude on Sunday at Rogers Centre with the closing ceremonies in which Kanye West headlines.
The 2019 Pan Am Games will be in Lima, Peru.
