Grade-point anecdotes — Bobcats waste no time signing Calgary middle Bryant

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 30/10/2019 (2355 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Chris Bryant entered the Healthy Living Centre for a tour and walked out a Brandon University Bobcat.

Generally the process of contacting an athlete, bringing them in for workouts and ultimately signing a letter of intent is spread over a longer timeframe, but it wasn’t long after the six-foot-eight Calgary product trained with the BU men’s volleyball team two weeks ago that both parties felt it would be best to speed things up.

Head coach Grant Wilson offered him a spot on the team with the idea that he would take it home and sleep on it, but Bryant already made up his mind. Now he’s the third player to sign with the defending Canada West champions for the 2020-21 season, along with Brandonite Liam Kindle and Winkler’s Tom Friesen.

“I’m super excited to come out. I’m just trying to improve as much as I can as a player and I think Brandon is the place for me to be,” Bryant said. “I’ve always wanted to look out beyond Calgary, and Brandon has so many connections with family. Both my parents are alumni from the school. My dad (Greg) grew up in Melita and my mom (Lana), her parents live in Souris, so a lot of connections.”

Bryant is still quite new to the game: He wasn’t even playing when half the Bobcats’ starting lineup joined the team. But from Grade 8 to Grade 9, he grew eight inches.

“I was six-foot-four, 140 pounds,” he laughed. “Not a coach, but my best friend Jason who played volleyball was just like ‘come with me.’ I ended up making the team and fell in love with the sport immediately.

“I was the most stereotypical middle ever. I was the tall guy who hits the ball. That was the only thing I could do, the only thing I was good at. When I decided to start pursuing volleyball, it was a lot of ball-control skills.”

Bryant has made up for lost time, playing club and provincial team volleyball and has pushed himself to improve in all areas of the game. His Team Alberta coaches helped a lot with blocking — both making the reads and the footwork to close blocks quickly.

“I’ve always found my court vision to be really strong, and my placement in hitting is one of my strengths,” Bryant said.

“I have the height obviously … The edge I have over other players now is that I really feel like my ball-control skills. My defence and serving are what makes me a better player over other middles fighting for spots on a team like this.”

Bryant is planning to study physical education, but is mainly focused on taking his game overseas before returning to finish his degree and enter the working world.

After practising with the Bobcats, however, he realized just how much work is still ahead of him to get there.

“I noticed that not only the middles were as big as me but the two outsides were taller than I am. They’re contacting the ball close to 12 feet, and it’s so hard to imagine people are capable of doing this.

“I’ve got to hit the gym or do something to get myself on the same level as those guys.”

Wilson thinks Bryant is pretty close to that level already.

“If somebody walked into the gym and saw him out there training with our guys they would have not guessed he was a high school student. He immediately fit in,” Wilson said.

“Physically, he’s long, lean, moves pretty well for a kid his size and his age. He has very good basic skills in my opinion. He stepped up and made some good quality sets during the training and reads pretty well blocking for a young guy who hasn’t had a ton of experience. I think there’s just a ton of upside in what Chris can bring.”

QUICK HITS: The BU men are ranked second in Tuesday’s U Sports top 10, behind defending the national champion Trinity Western University Spartans. None of the other Bobcats teams are ranked.

» tfriesen@brandonsun.com

» Twitter: @thomasmfriesen