Egger comes from volleyball family in Switzerland

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This article was published 13/02/2018 (3037 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Michelle Egger has quickly blossomed into another strong international volleyball recruit at Brandon University.

The five-foot-10 left side from Schwarzenbach, Switzerland has started each of the Bobcats’ first 22 regular-season matches and amassed 133 kills, 213 digs, 33 assists and been involved in 22 blocks with two matches remaining.

Her serving, however, has been lethal as her 68 aces has already set a new single-season Canada West women’s record, and her 0.79 aces per set also leads the conference.

And during this past weekend’s weekend set versus the Mount Royal University Cougars, Egger played with her mother, Barbara Egger-Bossi, in attendance.

Egger spent a week over the Christmas break back home in Switzerland, but was happy her mom had the chance to travel across the Atlantic Ocean to see her play in BU threads live for the first time.

“It is so nice to see her again,” Egger said after Saturday’s contest at the Healthy Living Centre. “It feels like I haven’t seen her in forever.”

Many Bobcat volleyballers, whether men or women, often have parents in the stands watching them play, but few of them have parents who are regarded as highly in the volleyball community as Egger’s parents are in her native country.

Egger-Bossi and her husband Patrick both excelled on the beach volleyball court, with both claiming Swiss titles. Patrick won his in 1995 and three years earlier as the vice-Swiss champion.

Egger-Bossi can’t remember what year she was on top of the podium, but she remembers volleyball played a key role in her life at an early age.

“I came out of a volleyball family,” she said of growing up in the eastern Swiss town of Glarus. “My father was the president of the volleyball club and I was the youngest of three volleyball players … my sister played nationals so it was like, ‘I want to do this too.’”

She hit the beach court around the age of 17 and it quickly became her passion.

“From the first moment on I just loved to play it so I did everything I could playing it besides a job and school,” Egger-Bossi said. “I had big experiences with beach volleyball throughout the whole world. I played a lot and I was on the national team for several years.”

But it wasn’t through volleyball, but rather mutual volleyball friends that she met her husband. Their joint passion for the sport brought them even closer.

Together they didn’t put pressure on Egger or their son Fabrice, who is in high school, to play volleyball.

Egger’s introduction to sports actually began in gymnastics, although looking back she isn’t sure how much she enjoyed it.

“It was not really my sport, I’m way too tall for it,” she said laughing. “I don’t know if I ever really liked it. I liked my friends on the gymnastics team but not really the gymnastics by itself.”

But by the age of 12 or 13, Egger finally told her parents she wanted to try her hand at volleyball.

Egger-Bossi remembers being “astonished” that her daughter wanted to try the sport.

“At the beginning it was like everyone expects you to be good and play volleyball — same with my brother — everyone expected it,” Egger said. “I felt pressure from all the people.”

“I felt like I had to play volleyball because of my family and then I started and I loved it, so it was the right decision,” she continued. “It was just in my mind I have to play volleyball.”

So does her serving prowess come from either of her parents?

Egger isn’t sure but she often calls her dad, who was her coach for many years while growing up, after matches at BU to ask about what tips he has for her to improve certain aspects of her game.

She doesn’t ask her mom for advice that often.

“Not so much with my mom, I don’t know why actually,” Egger said.

But like her mom and dad, Egger also became a mighty beach volleyball player, earning a silver medal with partner Kiki Josipovic at the 2016 Swiss championships and a fifth-place finish at under-21 nationals last year with Josipovic.

Egger had the chance to pursue beach volleyball this academic season but opted to come to the Wheat City and play U Sports volleyball indoors.

Egger-Bossi couldn’t be more proud of all her daughter has accomplished in such a short time with the Bobcats.

“She loves very much the team spirit and all the girls here are focused on big goals they want to reach,” Egger-Bossi said. “She likes all the people around and how they care about team … and she tells me a lot about the Brandon people being so nice and so open-hearted. I can feel it now too.”

Although Egger’s dad, who coached the Swiss men’s tandem of Stefan Kobel and Patrick Heuscher to a bronze medal in beach volleyball at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Greece, and mom, who is the head of continuing education events with the Swiss Association for sports in school, don’t see their daughter play in person regularly any more, they know she made the right choice to come to Brandon.

Egger, who came from VBC Aadorf where her parents are coaching and training the next generation of Swiss volleyball elite, is grateful for their support.

“It’s so nice to have parents because they support me for everything,” she said. “I know they’ll help me if I have any problems with volleyball or anything.”

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