Gearing up for World League: Team Canada

Yeah. You could say I’ve been looking forward to writing this post 😀 The rundown:

Egypt
Japan
Iran
Netherlands
South Korea
Finland
Canada
Italy
Argentina
Serbia
Russia
France
Brazil
Germany
Bulgaria
Cuba
USA
Poland

The history of volleyball in Canada is, as you’d probably expect, nearly as old as the history of the sport itself, being that it was invented in the US. Pickup games in YMCA’s in Ottawa, Montreal, and Toronto are recorded as happening as early as 1900 (volleyball first invented in 1895). Canada actually weren’t charter members of the FIVB, which formed in 1947, but they weren’t too late to the party either, as Canada volleyball was confederated in 1953. The team’s first international appearance was the 1959 Pan-American Games, the second time the sport had featured at that event.

Canada men’s volleyball are still looking for their glory days. Their only medals in international tournaments where a single-digit number of total teams are present. They had a near miss at the 1984 Summer Olympics, losing the bronze medal final to Team Italy, but have only so much as attended one Olympics since. Team Canada came agonizingly close to qualifying for the London Olympics, with one loss to the neighbours to the south the only difference. They’ve a consistent record of participation at the world championships, but have only 9th place as a high-water mark there. They’ll almost certainly be back for next year’s world championships, having by rankings byes into the third round of qualification (which still isn’t for over a year).

But there is perhaps reason for guarded optimism. Canada returned to the World League last year for the first time since 2007 (and just the second time since 1999, and third since 1992) and avoided being relegated to this year’s qualifiers. That’s a reasonable goal for anyone’s first year in or back in the World League (and as you see, it’s one they failed to achieve in ’07 or ’99). Canada are in Pool C for the 2013 World League, meaning they get the overall weakest caliber of opposition, but have the toughest road to move on as only one Pool C team will do so. By the world rankings, Egypt are actually the strongest team in the pool, but that’s largely only because they changed how the rankings are calculated a few months back. Also, they’re kind of meaningless anyway beyond about the top 6 or 7. Canada also have a favourable travel schedule. Everyone plays 10 matches in pool play, 2 against each opponent in a double-shot at one site. Canada get 3 double-shots at home to just 2 on the road.

Glenn Hoag has been coach of Team Canada since 2006, and is set for a long tenure at the position. Coaching in international volleyball tends to be pretty transient, with coaches frequently only committing to one Olympic cycle at a time. By the time Hoag’s contract runs out, he’ll have been at the helm of Team Canada for three, and who knows if that’ll be the end of it. Obviously, qualification to Rio 2016 is the big carrot driving this mule. Here’s hoping no stick will be necessary. Hoag is an accomplished player and coach, having been part of that 1984 Olympic team that very nearly claimed a bronze medal, and has had a successful playing and coaching career in Europe. While it’s of course the players on the court who win and lose matches, the coach has a tangible effect on how matches proceed. Team USA men still lack a head coach this close to World League (hopefully they’ll have one by the time I preview them….that would be awk-ward if not), and there are some fans pretty unhappy about that. One even suggested (tongue-in-cheek) poaching Hoag for the position, though that’s probably only because I was posting there 😛

Three previous members of the team, Alexandre Gaumont Casias, Brock Davidiuk and Jeremy Wilcox, all retired from international play following 2012. All were longstanding members of the team, appearing in 50, 41, and 42 international matches respectively, and Davidiuk as a setter was a one-time former floor captain (at a NORCECA world championships qualification tournament in 2009). Wilcox was also a setter, and you can probably trace their departures to the rise of Dustin Schneider (who was awesome enough to follow The Net Set on twitter, so go ahead and give Dustin a follow yourself) at that position. He missed most of last year’s World League tournament (to the extent that he says he should have missed all of it) due to a knee injury, but should return at full strength this year. Despite being one of the shortest non-libero players you’re ever going to see in major international volleyball, Dustin makes it work and is definitely Canada’s top option at the setter position when healthy. He won the Best Setter tournament honour at the 2011 NORCECA Championship, and that’s no small thing in a tournament that also includes the likes of USA and Cuba.

The ‘Grand Old Man’ of Canadian volleyball, as you might say, is libero Dan Lewis (and yes, sorry to say….he’s actually taller than Dustin), with more than a decade of experience with the senior national team. Small aside — it’s very hard to dredge up information on him without finding links instead about actor Daniel-Day Lewis or Lewis University coach Dan Friend. Ugh. Lewis will be 37 by the time this year’s World League starts, but there’s been no indication he’s hanging it up or slowing down. Outside hitter Fred Winters was the floor captain at last year’s World League, though it remains to be seen who will hold that mantle this time around.

And then we have a few players I can best characterise from their twitter feeds. Outside hitter Steve Gotch is perhaps the most active tweeter on the club. Fellow outside Gavin Schmitt, who has the same exact birthday as me (year and everything), is also pretty chatty on the twitter machine. Schmitt conceivably has the size to play middle (a few gigantors would out-size him, but they’re pretty rare), and the team don’t have a particular standout at that position, so I wonder if that’s ever been considered.

And I don’t know if I simply caught it at a particularly inopportune time, or what, but the less said about Dallas Soonias‘ twitter the better (think of the worst twitter cliche you can, and that’s Dallas’ feed). He’s an accomplished player, and a lefty swinger, which is sure to befuddle opposing blocks. Successful pro career, and as a collegian he won an award as the top male aboriginal athlete in the country, and I wish him nothing but the best, but, oh, god…. some things are just best left unsaid.

So that was a little more overly familiar than I’ve usually been with player rundowns, but you’ll perhaps understand 😉

So are we looking at a winner?

Well….**deep sigh**….if I take off my rose-coloured maple-leaf glasses for a moment, I have to admit it’s a tough row to hoe. They’re not clearly the best team in Pool C (although no one is), so it’s hard to project them into the finals round. Week 1 will be an interesting barometer, as they draw first a team I think they should comfortably defeat, but I really can’t say for certain (that being Netherlands). Week 2 is Egypt, which, no disrespect meant, had better be a comfortable victory. Then in weeks 3 and 5 (week 4 is just Netherlands vs. Egypt) come Korea and Finland, and those are the matches that might tell us the most.

I try my best in the rare instances when I do show favouritism (in, say, the cases of Wichita State and Hawaii in college volleyball) to always make it about supporting the team I favour rather than denigrating the opponent, and you can add Canada at the World League to that list. Make us proud, eh?