BU Bobcat Paycen Warkentin rose from No. 20 to top of game

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This article was published 16/02/2024 (597 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It was just a number at first. A “terrible” number.

Paycen Warkentin was handed No. 20, the last Brandon University Bobcats men’s volleyball jersey when he joined the team in 2020.

Now, No. 20 is the only one he’ll wear. He considered changing to No. 4 — his brother Chayse’s old number — at one point, but just couldn’t. It’s part of the Gladstone native’s identity.

“The 20th man, that’s what I visualize it as. I was given the jersey as the 20th man on the team,” Warkentin said. “I didn’t like 20 … I wanted to be a lower number. But 20 kind of suits me. I kind of like this number now.

“I kind of have used the 20, what I wear on my back, to prove you can come in as the 20th guy, but as long as you work hard and always stay true to who you are, you can go through anything.”

Bobcats head coach Grant Wilson didn’t recruit the six-foot-four middle blocker because, well, he was a six-foot-four middle blocker in a Canada West conference where six-foot-six is small for the position.

And it wasn’t a lack of awareness, either. Wilson coached Warkentin with the Brandon Volleyball Club before that, but advised he refine his game in the college ranks when he graduated high school in 2018.

Two years later, he was the MVP of the Manitoba Colleges Athletic Conference.

Now, he’s one of the top blockers in U Sports as the Bobcats enter this road weekend against the UBC Thunderbirds.

“I wasn’t convinced he could survive at this level based on his size and took him on because we knew he’d be a great teammate and the hardest worker,” Wilson said.“Maybe, if things blossomed, it would help us.

“Boy, did they ever blossom. I would not have predicted him to become the best blocker in the country and I couldn’t be happier for him.”

HUMBLE BEGINNING

Warkentin still found early success after a late start in the sport. He missed the cut for BVC’s 16-and-under Gold team and played on the Blue team, working his way up to Gold the following year.

He led his high school team to an A provincial championship, being named tournament MVP.

Not only was Warkentin undersized as a middle blocker, but he was goofy-footed, meaning he took off to attack with his right foot last. It’s something the majority of good coaches will try to beat out of a player, but is easier said than done. His U16 BVC coach, former Bobcat Jeremy Davies, pulled him aside during the first practice and tried to fix it.

“I could do it slow speed, when I coach and see some people goofy-footed, I can teach the footwork, but as soon as I’m in the game, it just switches and I go right back,” Warkentin said.

“I was having success with it so I was like ‘Why am I changing something that’s not broken?’”

After seeking U Sports offers and securing none by high school grad, Warkentin reached out to then Assiniboine Community College Cougars coach Joel Small, who offered him a spot back in club season.

Small played for BU when the program debuted in Canada West volleyball, helped win its first national bronze medal and joined Team Canada. He’s a rare middle blocker turned coach, which was big for anyone wanting to learn the intricacies of the position at the next level.

“I think, honestly, playing college is a very underrated and not looked at thing to do, but I think game experience is more important than practice experience. You learn more by playing and everyone knows that but they sometimes don’t want to go down to the lower leagues,” Warkentin said.

“I thank Joel Small immensely for allowing me to play for him. Everything he taught me has helped me be the player I am.”

LET THE KID PLAY

Following his MVP season, Warkentin went back to Wilson and asked if he could still play at BU. He also talked to UBC Okanagan, but was heart-set on his dream of wearing the blue and gold and following his older brother Chayse, who received the long end of the genetics stick at six-foot-seven.

As Paycen put it, the conversation “wasn’t anybody’s dream.” Wilson said he could have the last spot, that he likely wouldn’t play, or even travel on road trips, but could be someone who’d push teammates in practice and see where hard work could take him.

When the 2020-21 season was cancelled due to COVID-19, Warkentin got a year to catch up as no one was getting match experience.

He was already quick and athletic, but got into tremendous shape and developed into one of the most explosive jumpers in the country with a 44-inch vertical.

In the end, he didn’t sit that long. He came off the bench in a bunch of matches for Bryston Keck in 2021-22 as a change-of-pace guy. Wilson would use him if he needed the speed closing blocks on the outside, rather than the steady six-foot-eight Keck’s presence in the offence.

The following year, Warkentin was impossible to take off the floor. He put up 87 kills and 82 blocks in 12 matches, hitting .348 as Brandon went 13-11 and lost in the first round of the playoffs.

Keck, who’s now an assistant coach with the team, said Warkentin is “relentless.”

“If he makes a bad read, he’s still going to close a block. He’s a never-give-up type attitude and will do whatever it takes to win,” Keck said.

“I can’t name a middle in Canada West at his size that has had his amount of success.”

There can’t be one at the moment. Warkentin has upped his production to more than 145 kills with a career-high .371 hitting percentage and cracked the century mark in blocks, sitting one back of teammate Philipp Lauter at 108 and one back of Frank Jones’ BU single-season record.

When Wilson steps back and tries to wrap his head around how that happened, a few things come to mind.

“There’s three things. Number one, he has an athletic explosiveness a lot of guys don’t have in terms of laterally and vertically,” Wilson said. “Number two, it takes a lot of practice with your technique and timing to be able to be successful. Three, and maybe it’s the most important thing is the ability to read the game. He reads the game at a very high level and can make split-second decisions.

“You put all those things together, for him, it’s the absolute recipe for success.”

It helps the guy neck and neck with him for the blocking title is on his team. Warkentin and Lauter joke about trying to beat each other on the stat sheet every night and what transpires is an eagerness you can see in their eyes. Warkentin bounces like a dog ready to play fetch when opponents have the ball and closes blocks faster than anyone in the country.

His teammates have learned to brace themselves in case he’s late because he won’t quit on the play. Warkentin flies in to close the block and occasionally lands with a somersault after bumping his teammate and losing his balance.

That never-quit attitude was most evident during BU’s weekend against the winless MacEwan Griffins when Warkentin dove into the bleachers to chase down a ball Brandon easily could have won the match without recovering.

“To me, you just can’t teach that. That comes from inside. He’s got a great family, great support and he was raised to be a hard worker and a good team guy,” Wilson said. “He does whatever it takes for himself and our team to be successful.”

FINAL CHAPTER

He might have played his final match at the Healthy Living Centre last weekend — BU could still get one quarterfinal series at home — but either way, he’s made more roof-raising blocks and memories than anyone could have predicted.

“Brandon’s got one of the best fan bases and that’s what makes the HLC so special to play in,” Warkentin said. “This feels like my second home, to be honest. I feel honoured to be part of the Bobcat family and that everyone has accepted me.

“When I look back on these times, it’s not really going to be volleyball that I remember. It’s going to be the friendships I built with my teammates. That’s probably the most important thing and that’s what Grant teaches.”

He found a great one in his setter.

When you watch the Bobcat offence, you seldom see Warkentin and Love not on the same page. It makes sense considering they’re best friends on and off the court.

Love looks back at their first season together when they teamed up on the B-side for practice and relished every opportunity to beat the starters. He had a feeling they’d see the court together and is certainly glad Warkentin took the last spot in Brandon, rather than a big role elsewhere.

“I know he could have went some other places, colleges anywhere else really and got a different opportunity. He could have got promised starting,” Love said.

“He bet (on) himself, wanted to be a Bobcat … and put all his chips in one pile, went for it, worked really hard on and off the court. Now he’s one of the best middles I’ve ever played with.”

“Me and him built a special connection through these years and that’s a friendship that will last throughout volleyball and probably the rest of our lives,” Warkentin added.

“I can see his goals and his dreams are right in front of him. He’s going to do great things and I can’t wait to watch him at nationals next year.”

Of course, Warkentin still hopes to make it this year. That means a top-three finish in the playoffs, higher than he’s ever made it and well above the rest of the coaches pegged the Bobcats as the seventh-best team to start the season.

It will take at least one massive win on the road to punch their ticket to nationals in Kingston, Ont. One few people outside Westman will expect Brandon to pull off.

But shattering expectations is nothing new to No. 20.

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