Tuininga turned setback into massive success

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This article was published 05/06/2021 (1764 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Volleyball was done with Nicole Tuininga long before she was ready to be done with it.

The Brandon University Bobcats libero was just two years into her U Sports career when she had to step away in 2010. A back injury she suffered a few years earlier, attempting a double-backflip on a trampoline, proved too tough to push through. But she had too much left to give to the game to walk away and found a terrific way to stay involved.

BU assistant coach Kevin Neufeld was taking on a new challenge at Neelin, hoping to head coach a group of girls to greatness through their entire four years at the Brandon high school. There might not have been a better fit for an assistant than Tuininga (nee Clemons), who had first-hand experience in exactly what the Spartans would go through.

She agreed to join the squad, closing the book on a playing career to which few can compare.

It started early, following in the footsteps of her sisters, Jodi Howorth and Carla Cook. From volleyball to swimming, gymnastics and baseball, they did it all. Tuininga started practising with Cook’s Grade 9 team in Grade 7. She made Team Manitoba as a practice player the following year, then cracked the main roster the following year.

She jumped straight to varsity upon arrival at Lord Selkirk in Grade 10, joining the defending provincial AAAA champs coached by her provincial team bench boss Rick Scott. It was no surprise why his program was already so strong.

“I loved playing for him. I love his style of coaching,” Tuininga said. “He was very firm, very disciplined and I just took well to that. He also works really hard so seeing how hard somebody works makes you want to work just as hard, if not harder.

“It was amazing playing for him. He was a tremendous coach and it’s evident that wherever he was he made programs better.”

Tuininga was one of three sophomores on the team, along with former Trinity Western standout Amy Ott (nee Leschied) and setter Megan Cyr, who just recently retired from the senior national team.

It’s safe to say the group was stacked, and delivered a provincial title defence with Tuininga playing on a starting rotation with her sister Cook at left side. The Royals ultimately completed a four-peat and Scott, a former Carberry native, earned the women’s head coach job at Dalhousie University in Halifax.

Now Tuininga wasn’t actually planning on continuing with volleyball. She planned to become a logistics officer with the military but also had dreams of teaching in the back of her mind.

“Club season came up and I had remorse watching all my girl friends playing. I was like ‘I do still miss it. I think I can contribute.’ I played three quarters of club that year and was still signed up for the military,” Tuininga said. “… I didn’t want to join the military and regret it. I wanted to make sure it was my calling, something I wanted to do.

“My parents were like ‘What about volleyball? You want to give it up or you want to play a couple of years?’

“I was lucky enough that (BU head coach) Lee (Carter) was happy to take me, which I was thankful for because it was pretty late in the game recruiting wise.”

Tuininga joined the Bobcats in 2008, following their first-ever Canada West playoff appearance. Brandon reached the post-season each of the next two seasons but Tuininga knew it was time for a change.

“I just don’t know if my whole heart was in it, which pains me to say a little bit because that’s not fair to the rest of the team,” she said. “I had to focus on things like education and wasn’t whole-heartedly in it, unfortunately.”

She hit the ground running at Neelin with Neufeld, who she lived with upon moving to the Wheat City. Neufeld split the group up into a junior varsity team and freshmen squad, handing the reins of the latter to Tuininga. They’d practise or work out just about every day, treating it more like a university program than an average high school season. The results came quickly as the JV Spartans, with just two Grade 10 players, won the AAAA title on home court in 2010.

It wasn’t until the following year Tuininga learned what it’s like to end a high school season on a loss, as Neelin went 47-1 but fell in the provincial final. The Spartans bounced back to capture the AAAA varsity title in 2012, then settled for silver in their final season.

“That experience honestly has made me who I am right now as an educator, as a coach, it’s really transformed me,” Tuininga said. “To learn from not just anybody but one of the best coaches in Canada, it was amazing. I don’t regret an ounce of it. All the hours in the gym, the trips we took, the weekends together, I don’t regret any of it and only learned from the girls and from Neuf. I was so lucky and so fortunate to have that.”

Tuininga graduated with her education degree in 2014 and landed a middle-years teaching job in Lockport, just 10 minutes from Selkirk.

She started head coaching from the get go, with quite the group of Grade 7s. They stayed together the next two years and won a Grade 9 provincial crown in 2016, following a Manitoba Games volleyball gold with a number of the game athletes on Team Interlake that summer.

“I lucked out with just a fantastic group of girls, just like with Neuf’s. They all worked hard, they all pushed each other, they made sure everyone was being held accountable, which kind of makes your job easy,” Tuininga said.

She met her husband, Jeff, at Lockport and married him three years ago. She took a new job back at Selkirk Junior High and recently returned to the classroom following maternity leave. It’s certainly an adjustment juggling work and raising step-son Leo, 5, and daughter Annie, 2, but she’s determined to get back on the sidelines soon.

That’s what the biggest role models in her life did for her.

“Neuf, he had two kids and people put in those hours for me and honestly I fully believe kids or no kids I should be doing that as well. Kids obviously do make it a little more difficult … but somebody did that for me and I hope I can do it for others,” Tuininga said.

While she didn’t rewrite any BU record books, the move proved a positive one for the school alone.

“BU is a great school. It’s smaller and that’s what I loved about it,” Tuininga said.

“It’s a great school, a great community and the girls on the team are amazing. It was such a great experience and something I wouldn’t take back.”

» tfriesen@brandonsun.com

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