Canada Volleyball

September 24, 2016

Volleyball is considered to be one of the most popular sports in Canada. Along with other popular sports such as ice-hockey, basketball, soccer, rugby, baseball, cricket, tennis and golf the sport of volleyball is known as one of the most played sports in the country. Volleyball is one of the emerging sports in Canada as well.

It’s no surprise that a great number of people take an interest in the game of volleyball in Canada. About 500,000 – 800,000 participants of different ages and skill levels are estimated to be involved in the sport of volleyball in Canada.

Moreover, this number is growing year after year. It’s worth noting that volleyball is particularly popular among young Canadians. Volleyball is a popular choice among both children and adults. It’s important to know that the sport of volleyball in Canada constantly gains in popularity.

The sport of volleyball is extremely popular in Mississauga and its surrounding areas including Brampton, Etobicoke, Milton, Oakville as well as Georgetown. The statistics provided the nationally acclaimed Pakmen Volleyball Club, Pakmen, shows that about 400 hundred of club’s volleyball players live in the Brampton area of Ontario. Approximately, 600 hundred of club’s volleyball players live in the Milton area of Ontario. Hundreds of club’s volleyball players live in the Oakville area of Ontario. A large number of club’s volleyball players live in such areas as Etobicoke and Georgetown.

Canada Volleyball is on Rise

It goes without saying that volleyball in Canada is on rise these days. As you can see, Canadian men’s and women’s volleyball teams successfully represent the country on international volleyball tournaments (such as the Olympic Games, the World Championships, the Pan-American Games and many other volleyball competitions).

It’s worth noting that Canada has one of the strongest men’s volleyball teams in the world that participated in RIO 2016 Olympic Games, advanced to Olympic volleyball quarter-finals and took the 5-th place. Without a doubt, Canada men’s national volleyball team made a big impression on its fans.

The reality is that Canada men’s national volleyball team hasn’t managed to qualify for the Olympic tournament for 24 years. Thus, Canadian volleyball fans were excited about the news that their favorite team had won the spot final Rio spot at last-chance Olympic qualifier. Therefore, the dream of so many volleyball fans has finally come true.

Among other recent achievements of Canada men’s national volleyball team are: 7-th place on World Championship that took place in Poland in 2014; 7-th place on World Cup that took place in Japan in 2015; bronze medal on Pan American Games that took place in Toronto in 2015; bronze medal on Pan-American Cup that took place in Mexico City in 2016 and, of course, gold medal on NORCECA Championship that took place in Cordoba in 2015.

As you can see, Canada is making a huge progress in the sport of volleyball. Today, we are going to talk more about the development of volleyball sport in Canada and highlight the greatest achievements of Canadian volleyball players.

The Canadian Volleyball Association (Volleyball Canada – VC)

The Canadian Volleyball Association was established in 1953. The first president of the association was Gordon Odell. Initially, the organization had branches only in three regions of Canada – Montreal, Ottawa and Toronto.

Later, the organization was renamed to Volleyball Canada (VC). Today, the association is headquartered in Ottawa, Ontario and has branches in different parts of Canada. Volleyball Canada (VC) has more than 80,000 members these days. The mission of the organization is to promote the development of volleyball sport in Canada.

Volleyball Canada Committees

There are several volleyball Canada committees. These include: Domestic Development Committee (DDC), National Championships Committee (NCC), Sitting Volleyball Committee, High Performance Management Committee, National Team Athlete Representatives, National Referee Committee, Alumni and Awards Committee, Standing Committee Chairs, Volleyball Canada Representatives as well as International Commissions Representatives.

You need to know that some of volleyball Canada committees mentioned above have several sub-committees. For example, National Championships Committee (NCC) has National Championships Sub-Committee (VNCC) as well as Beach National Championships Committee (BVNCC). High Performance Management Committee consists of High Performance Beach Sub-Committee, High Performance Men’s Indoor Sub-Committee as well as High Performance Women’s Indoor Sub-Committee.

It’s important to note that Volleyball Canada committees play a key role in the development sport of volleyball in the country. Each committee has its own duties and responsibilities. For example, Domestic Development Committee is responsible for promoting indoor and beach volleyball in Canada. National Championships Committee is responsible for organizing Canadian National Volleyball Championships. Sitting Volleyball Committee works on volleyball programs for disabled people. High Performance Management Committee specializes in Volleyball Canada’s High Performance programs. National Referee Committee is focused on Volleyball Canada’s Officials programs.

Canada on RIO 2016 Olympic Mens’ Indoor Volleyball Tournament

There is no doubt that Canada men’s national volleyball team made the history of Olympic indoor volleyball this year. Canada men’s national volleyball team qualified for the men’s Olympic volleyball tournament was included in Pool A on the RIO 2016 Olympic Games.

Among other volleyball teams of Pool A were such teams as Italy, the United States, Brazil, France as well as Mexico. Canada beat the United States 3-0, lost Brazil 1-3, lost France 0-3, won Mexico 3-0 and finally defeated Italy 3-1.

Thus, Canada men’s national volleyball advanced to Olympic volleyball quarter-finals. In the quarter-finals Canada lost to Russia 0-3. As a result, Canada men’s national volleyball team took the 5-th place on RIO 2015 Olympic Games.

Canada Women’s National Volleyball Team

The leading Canadian volleyball organization, Volleyball Canada (VC), now obviously focuses its efforts on helping Canada women’s national volleyball team. The point is that the representatives of Volleyball Canada have recently announced about the organization’s plans to move the Women’s National Team Training Centre to Richmond, British Columbia. That means that Canada women’s national volleyball team will be provided with a world-class training facility in the nearest future.

There is no doubt that the new training center will have a huge positive impact on the development of players and will help create ideal environment for the Canada women’s national volleyball team that’s incredibly important for achieving success. Most likely that the training facility will help players of the Canada women’s national volleyball team improve their results and, most importantly, turn their amazing dreams into reality. This important change is expected to happen in the early 2017.

Beach Volleyball in Canada

Beach volleyball is well-developed in the country as well. Canada has a very strong beach volleyball national team. Among the members of Canada men’s beach volleyball Olympic team are: Chaim Schalk, Josh Binstock, Ben Saxton and Sam Schachter. Canada women’s beach volleyball Olympic team consists of such players as Jamie Broder, Heather Bansley, Kristina Valjas and Sarah Pavan.

Canada was represented by two teams on RIO 2016 Women’s beach volleyball competition. The first pair consisted of such Canadian women’s beach volleyball players as Heather Bansley and Sarah Pavan. The second pair consisted of such Canadian women’s beach volleyball players as Jamie Broder and Kristina Valjas. Bansley – Pavan and Broder – Valjas played against each other at the Round of 16 on the women’s beach volleyball tournament. Bansley – Pavan won the match and advanced to quarter-finals. In the quarter-finals Bansley – Pavan lost the match to the gold medalists, German pair Ludwig – Walkenhorst.

Chaim Schalk – Ben Saxton is a men’s beach volleyball pair that represented Canada on RIO 2016 Summer Olympic Games. The Canadian pair lost the game to bronze medalist of the 2016 Summer Olympics (pair from the Nederland, Alexander Brouwer – Robert Meeuwsen) – at the Round of 16 stage.