By Brendan McConnell
With the FIVB World League being contested over the course of June and July across the globe, Canada’s men’s national team has a grueling, three-country campaign ahead of them – one that will test the mental and physical endurance of our country’s volleyball elite.
But competing on foreign soil at this level of competition is nothing new for the lone Ottawa native on Team Canada, Adam Simac.
The 29-year-old middle has been playing professional volleyball in Europe for four years, a career that’s landed him in Germany, Slovenia, Austria and, most recently, Turkey.
“Volleyball is a lot more popular there than it is here,” notes Simac, who won a Turkish pro league title this past season with Izmir. “Kids would come out to every match and they knew who every player was.”
“I even had somebody make a Facebook fan page for me,” he laughs. “It’s very, very flattering.”
Simac says it’s a fairly big gear shift from playing for a pro club in Europe to competing with Gatineau-based Team Canada, who desperately want to make their country’s first appearance at the Olympic Games since 1992 come Rio 2016.
“Going from the national team, everybody’s here for the same reason,” highlights the Sir Wilfrid Laurier Secondary School grad who never played club volleyball before joining the Queen’s Golden Gaels. “It’s not about how much money you get when you’re on the national team, it’s playing because you get to wear the maple leaf and you’re playing for your country.
“Overseas you have different pressures with guys getting different amounts of money and the club heaping expectations on you. If you don’t win then they might withhold your next paycheck or something like that.”
Team Canada, ranked 18th in the world, opened World League play by splitting pairs of matches with the Netherlands and Portugal in Quebec City and Mississauga. Following June 14-15 matches against South Korea in Mississauga, Canada will ship off to Japan and Finland.
The intense travel time and schedule is always a major concern for player health, explains Canadian head coach Glenn Hoag.
“Because they’re flying around on a plane so much they get pretty stiff,” says Hoag, who coached Simac’s team in Turkey. “So we have protocols during warm up and lots of stretching.”
Canada warmed up for World League with a trio of matches against the Turkish national team, including two they won in Gatineau.
Lortie brothers make Team Canada
A pair of familiar faces in the local volleyball community were part of the crowd at the exhibitions, but Jérémie and Bruno Lortie were there on business. They each claimed spots on Canada’s FISU and junior national teams respectively.
“I was really overjoyed that I made the team,” says Bruno, who won a CIS national title in his rookie season alongside his older brother a couple months ago. “You have university ball then you have the national team then you go play pro after that. It’s the first step of the big step so I’m really happy about this.”