BU has strong Westman presence

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This article was published 08/03/2016 (3725 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

When Lee Carter was interviewed to become the first head coach in the history of the Brandon University Bobcats women’s volleyball team, he was asked what was his dream goal.

He replied that he wanted to win a national championship with a team mainly comprised of players from western Manitoba and Manitoba in general. That goal could become a reality on Sunday.

The Bobcats are hosting the Canadian Interuniversity Sport women’s volleyball championship this weekend, and Brandon’s roster is loaded with talented Manitobans. Of the 14 active players on the roster, seven are from Westman and four more are from Winnipeg. Four of the Westman players — Jodie Baker, Courtney Roberts, Gillian Leech and Breanne Sytnyk — are starters, as are a pair of Winnipeggers — Shanlee McLennan and Nikala Majewski.

Donata Huebert, who’s from Germany, is the lone out-of-province player who will start in Friday’s quarter-final match against the Trinity Western Spartans at 6 p.m.

“It’s really exciting for Brandon and western Manitoba to have athletes at this level that people can see and look at,” Carter said. “I think it makes an impact on the community and the young girls coming up.

“I think Donata and Regan Dahl and Tori Dakin before her, all those athletes made an impact on our community and the girls can see the level they compete at. Being from Brandon is awesome, but it’s also seeing players who can play at an elite level. Whether it’s Brandon or Germany, it also helps our development.”

Dahl is from Grande Prairie, Alta., while Dakin, who exhausted her eligibility last season, is a Calgary product.

Most of the Westman players on the Bobcats grew up together, and they’re incredibly close as a result.

Baker, and Roberts, both middles, as well as setter Mary Thomson, who missed most of this season with a knee injury, went to high school at Crocus Plains and reached the 2011-12 provincial AAAA varsity girls’ volleyball final. Leech attended Vincent Massey in Brandon while Sytnyk was in Shoal Lake, but all five played club volleyball together with the Storm.

According to Roberts, Carter calls that group the Fun Bunch, and it’s hard to deny just how close the players are.

“Not only are those girls teammates from my past, but I’m really good friends with them,” Baker said. “I think that it’s a way for us to better mesh on the court as well as we can talk volleyball off the court and they’re the girls they go to if I need to vent about volleyball or anything else. I think being such good friends with them all the way through is really good for our team.”

This group of Westman players took different paths to get to where they are now. Baker, Thomson and Leech all committed to BU on the same day. Baker and Thomson trained under experienced players and cracked the starting lineup in their third years with the team. Leech, meanwhile, has played a variety of roles, from serving and defensive specialist to being a backup libero or outside hitter. She made her way into the starting lineup this season, her fourth year of eligibility, at left side.

Roberts, meanwhile, went to South Dakota State University for two years before returning to the Bobcats in 2014-15.

Sytnyk went to the University of Alaska Anchorage for three years before returning to the Wheat City and joining her friends this season. She started as a middle but started at right side for most of the second semester.

Despite having so much time away, Sytnyk admits it wasn’t hard to get back in with the group.

“It hasn’t changed at all,” Sytnyk said. “When I came back and saw everyone, it was just like when we left off. Those couple of years didn’t even matter. It was nice to reconnect with everyone.”

Such a tight group could divide a locker room between people from the region and those from out of province, but Roberts doesn’t believe that’s the case.

“I don’t think we’re cliquy, but it’s hard to deny the fact that we grew up together,” she said. “I don’t like to exclude people, but we are closer because we grew up together. It’s hard to deny that. I try to include myself in other groups on the team.”

Having such a large group of players from a small area wouldn’t be possible if it wasn’t for the club and high school coaches in the region. The Crocus girls were under the tutelage of Trista Wenger, while Leech had Greg Beckwith as her high school coach. Those three and Sytnyk all were influenced by Derek Richels in club play.

Meanwhile, Jamie Campbell, a second-year backup libero, and rookie redshirt Danielle Larocque came up through Neelin and were coached by Kevin Neufeld. Bryce Wilson has had a major impact on a lot of players through the Storm program as well.

The rural areas have good coaches, like Steve Densmore in Virden, Jeff Maxwell in Forrest and Dean Kachur in Killarney, all of whom have helped produce CIS-quality players.

That coaching in high school and club is what Campbell believes allows the Westman players to adjust to the CIS level so quickly.

“I feel like the Storm alumni, we’re all different ages but we were brought up by the same style of coaching,” she said. “Lee is the same like Neuf and Richels who previously coached us. It’s pretty consistent coaching.”

Baker agrees with Campbell that club and high school coaches play a huge role in player development, but she gives Carter a lot of credit as well.

“Lee does a really good job of finding girls who are close to home,” she said.

“Maybe they’re kind of raw when they get here, but he turns them into good players and that’s really good to see.”

Natasha Rupa may epitomize that. The Shoal Lake product, who graduated high school a year after Sytnyk, played one season with the Winnipeg Wesmen before leaving the sport. She joined BU’s soccer team as a goalie this year and was asked to come on board with the volleyball team as a backup setter following Thomson’s injury.

Rupa eventually won the starting job before getting injured herself and Majewski took over.

The Bobcats may have their hands full this weekend as the eighth seed in the eight-team tournament. Even if Carter’s ultimate dream doesn’t come true this year, he believes his team will make a huge impact on the community.

All these Westman players, who once looked up to former Bobcats, are now the ones the next generation is idolizing. Having them play on a national stage in their home gym is something Carter hopes will help keep the cycle of Westman players representing the Bobcats continue.

“There’s a lot of Westman influence in this program from Day 1,” Carter said. “Kelly DeRoo, the first-ever captain, the first-ever kill. A Brandon girl and still coaching in Brandon with the Massey program. It’s people like that who make a difference in where we’re going and what we’re doing.

“It’s gotten us to some pretty good competitive areas and we know we always need to supplement one or two from out of province. The girls who come a long ways to be part of the program come because they see the success of what’s come before them and a lot of that has to do with Manitoba players.”

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