Winnipeg’s Traa takes long road to starting role

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This article was published 20/03/2025 (210 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Ben Traa does whatever is asked of him.

Be a serving sub.

Play libero.

Play right side.

Now, set.

And lead your team to a 17-3 season and first-ever Canada West men’s volleyball championship.

“It’s been kind of a whirlwind,” the fifth-year Winnipeg Wesmen setter said after securing a spot at the U Sports championship.

Traa and the Wesmen earned the top seed and face the host Brandon University Bobcats on Friday at the Healthy Living Centre at 6 p.m.

The St. Paul’s High School grad bounced around Winnipeg’s lineup throughout his career, never settling into a true starting role until this season.

The Wesmen already had two experienced setters in Alex Krykewich and Tristan Arnold, but Traa stood out to new, interim head coach Chris Voth.

“He does have a wide range of experience that allows him to see the game from different perspectives,” Voth said, adding it wasn’t a simple choice.

“I had to choose not only who’s going to be on the roster but who’s going to start. It was very difficult.

“Like with all the things, I had some stats and tried to see how they would adapt to a new system … Ben responded and his numbers were the best, so he got the opportunity.”

Traa wound up 13th in the country in assists per set at 8.59. The six-foot-two lefty kept pace with the top setters offensively, chipping in 68 kills with just 19 errors.

More importantly, the team was sixth in Canada with a .280 hitting percentage. Traa’s certainly doing a few things right, and he credits the setters he watched over the years like Mikael Clegg and Matt Klysh with helping him prepare.

“Seeing all these great players come out of the program, I’ve been able to learn from them. Guys like Matt Klysh have taught me a lot about staying in the moment,” Traa said.

“Learning different positions helps me have a feeling for what other guys are feeling on the floor and what works best in certain scenarios. I think having the extra experience of playing different positions helped me along the way.”

Traa also has a great group around him, starting with first-team all-star Isaiah Olfert. The fifth-year left side finished fourth in U Sports with 4.23 kills per set.

His second option was a bit of a surprise to some in Luke Lodewyks on the right side. The second-year southpaw piled up 201 kills, averaging 2.64 per set with a handful of dominant outings.

Six-foot-nine Jaxon Rose is the biggest second left side in the country, adding another physical option to go with middle blockers Paxton Koop and Easton Dick, the Canada West rookie of the year.

WESMEN CRUISE THROUGH

FIRST SEMESTER, PLAYOFFS

Winnipeg took advantage of a favourable schedule, but also showed it may not have mattered who it played and didn’t play in the regular season.

When Canada West shortened the schedule by four matches, the Wesmen were fortunate enough to avoid the Alberta Golden Bears and Trinity Western Spartans.

They swept the UBC Thunderbirds at home on opening weekend, then steamrolled four bottom-half teams to hit 10-0 at the semester break.

Winnipeg started the second half with an upset loss to Thompson Rivers as captain Koop split a weekend with his brother Tyson.

It split Saskatchewan, then swept Manitoba before splitting with Brandon at the HLC.

The Wesmen knocked off the UBC Okanagan Heat to lock up first place, then crushed the Bisons 2-0 in a quarterfinal series, setting the stage for a home-court final four.

Winnipeg dropped just one set to Saskatchewan in the semifinals, then swept Alberta for its first-ever Canada West crown.

“That was an unbelievable feeling. Everyone was so happy. I don’t even think it settled in for a while after we had won,” Traa said.

“Having seen so many tough losses with great teammates over the years, I think this championship is not just for the 14 guys on our team but for all of the guys I’ve played with, that have built this culture we have.”

Voth knew a thing or two about the Wesmen culture from his days as a Bison. He’s one of Manitoba’s top players ever and has spent five summers with Volleyball Canada’s NextGen program.

He approached the idea of replacing 35-year head coach Larry McKay with a combination of fresh ideas and avoiding trying to fix what wasn’t broken.

“With coaching and with playing … everything you try to implement is a mosaic of your own experiences. Good or bad, I feel you carry those experiences with you,” Voth said.

“My goal was to bring the best of the things I’ve learned from working with the national team, working over in Europe.

“With the Wesmen program, it’s always been filled with teams with tenacity and with grit. That’s something I wanted to make sure I could preserve and didn’t want to impact that at all.”

Clearly, the rest of Canada West felt he did something right. Voth was named coach of the year during the playoffs.

He’s a candidate for national coach of the year at today’s all-Canadian breakfast and stands three wins away from Winnipeg’s first national title since 2007.

Not bad for a U Sports coaching debut.

“Crazy,” Voth said. “I couldn’t have really imagined it going like this.

“The guys have been working and learning and it’s been really great.”

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