As Rebecca Maxwell begins her senior year at Louis-Riel high school, the volleyball star will have with her a new addition to her medal collection, a bronze from the 2016 USA Volleyball High Performance Championships.
The July 19-23 competition in Fort Lauderdale, FL marked the second consecutive summer the setter had the chance to play for Team Ontario, having taken part in the National Team Challenge Cup last year in B.C.
“That was huge for me,” recounts Maxwell, noting the provincial team experience was excellent for her development, and that she made many good friends amongst teammates and other teams. “We had lots of fun. It was fantastic. I loved it.”
It’s a similar story in her specialized sports-study program at Louis-Riel, where she’s surrounded by other elite athletes who are also devoted to their academic success.
Big university sports & academic dreams
“My friends, we all have aspirations of going to university and playing varsity sports,” explains the student who maintains an average above 90%. “Everyone works really hard at school. We help each other a lot to stay engaged with everything that we do. It’s a really great atmosphere.”
Maxwell moved from Hamilton before her Grade 8 year, and chose to study at Louis-Riel because of its sports-study program, which offered the opportunity to get in a lot of repetitions, a big key to success in volleyball, she highlights.
“It was a lot more relaxed” at her previous school, indicates Maxwell. “For volleyball, it was just girls who wanted to try something new. Here, it’s much more competitive.”
On top of her university aspirations, Maxwell would like to one day become a volleyball coach, inspired in large part by Frank St-Denis, the director of Louis-Riel’s volleyball program and a teacher at the school.
St-Denis, who won his own bronze medal this summer as coach for the Canadian junior men’s national team at the NORCECA continental championships, provides first-class technical instruction, Maxwell signals, but it’s much more than that.
“Frank talks to us a lot about how to improve ourselves not only as athletes, but also as people,” underlines the Ottawa Mavericks club player. “How to better manage family relations, studies, your time, your health and your well-being. He always wants to help people. If you have a problem, go to him and he’ll do whatever he can.
“Frank is almost like a second father to me.”