‘Don’t want this to be the thing that ends my career’ Hall of Famer Ogoms gunning for return to court after battling cancer By: Joshua Frey-Sam Posted: 5:12 PM CDT Monday, Jun. 8, 2026

Alicia Ogoms would be (mostly) at peace if she called it a career. No one would question her decision either.

Frankly, however, she has no interest in that.

The 32-year-old wants to go out on her terms, and she’s fought like hell for the last 20 months to make sure that happens.

Ogoms has already solidified herself as one of the most accomplished female players to grace the volleyball court in Manitoba’s rich history, and now she’s on a mission to carry out something that — to her knowledge — has never been done before.

“I’ve always kind of tried to find people that I can model my game after, I kind of look for touchstones,” Ogoms told the Free Press recently in a revealing phone call from Vancouver, where she’s lived since March. “I couldn’t really find anyone else that had Stage 3 cancer and came back and played volleyball again.”

The 6-4 middle blocker stood proudly in front of a crowded hall at the downtown Convention Centre on Sunday with nothing to hide as she candidly recited her acceptance speech following her induction into the Volleyball Manitoba Hall of Fame.

Ogoms said she never thought she’d get to this point as a “Black, queer woman with crippling anxiety” who “seems to check every Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion box there is.”

“I couldn’t really find anyone else that had Stage 3 cancer and came back and played volleyball again.”

Then again, this was always what she had been chasing, ever since she watched her father, Joe, be enshrined into the Manitoba Basketball Hall of Fame.

While the writing had been on the wall for years that Ogoms would one day be immortalized, there was also a time, not long ago, when it was feared that she might not be alive to accept this honour.

It was Sept. 30 of 2024 in Santorini when Ogoms found a lump on her left breast while taking a shower.

An initial scan led team trainers to believe it was a cyst, but an ensuing MRI revealed it was something far more frightening.

One month later, on Halloween, doctors informed Ogoms that she had been playing with two tumours in her chest: one she could feel, at the front of her breast, and one that was deeper than the skin. Both were deemed 90 per cent carcinogenic, and she was diagnosed with Stage 3 breast cancer.

“I think, for a long time, I guess, I had a little bit of that cognitive dissonance, because I was like, ‘How could I feel good, but also something be so wrong with me?’” Ogoms said.

Playing in her ninth season professionally, Ogoms hadn’t made it that far without taking care of herself. She was a stickler for taking physicals, blood work and heart tests regularly to ensure she remained in the best physical shape.

Her family also had no history of cancer. As Ogoms discovered quickly, however, this disease never discriminates.

“I had a moment with my wife — luckily she was there with me when I was going through all of this — we had this memory that we went to McDonald’s, and it was like kind of like laughing and crying, and then laughing, because it felt like a sick joke,” she said.

“I felt a little more fallible,” Ogoms said. “I think you just get to a place where I played for so long, and obviously — knock on wood — I’ve been pretty healthy overall, in my body and stuff, and so, I think it definitely was a really good reminder that there are a lot of things that can change really fast, and that… it can happen to anybody.”

Ogoms underwent eight rounds of chemotherapy, three surgeries and 25 rounds of radiation in Winnipeg from Nov. 6, 2024, to Oct. 6, 2025.

“I think, for a long time, I guess, I had a little bit of that cognitive dissonance, because I was like, ‘How could I feel good, but also something be so wrong with me?’”

The first surgery — a full mastectomy — had removed most of the cancer, but doctors discovered that it had spread. Ogoms had an option for a second — and, eventually, third — surgery instead of going into radiation. That came with risk, however, as the second procedure would remove her lymph nodes and the surrounding fat, which would significantly limit the mobility of her left arm.

If she wasn’t planning a return, it would’ve been a no-brainer, but because she was, it needed to be a calculated risk.

“I kind of was like, ‘Oh, I can do that.’ I’ve rehabbed so many injuries and rehabbed so many things in the past. I definitely felt good that this wouldn’t be an issue, and luckily, it hasn’t been an issue,” said Ogoms, adding she has about 95 per cent of her range of motion back.

Ogoms has now completed her systemic treatments and is in the maintenance phase of her rehab. Barring any more surprises, she will officially be declared cancer-free in 2030.

Ogoms rehabbed with AYA (adolescents and young adults), which she said helped her tremendously, being around people of a similar age during a time when she couldn’t be around people face-to-face due to her suppressed immune system. They also helped prepare her for every step in the process.

Throughout the trying process, Ogoms’ goal never changed: she was going to be back on the court one day.

“From the first appointment that I had with my surgeon, I was like, ‘Yeah, I want to go back. I don’t want this to be the thing that ends my career,’” she said.

Ogoms made a name for herself as a local teen sensation while playing at St. Mary’s Academy. As the province’s top-ranked high school player, she led the Flames to the AAAA provincial title while pacing the team in attacks, kills, blocks and aces.

She committed to play in the NCAA Division 1 ranks at the University of Southern California — a significant landing spot for a player from Manitoba — and went on to further prove her talent over four seasons, earning honourable mention for the Pac-12 Conference’s all-freshman team in her first year and capping her career with a conference championship and Second-Team All-American nod.

Her play took her to some of the world’s top professional leagues in Poland, Italy and France, and Ogoms became a staple on the senior women’s national team for a decade.

“This is the peak of what I wanted to accomplish as a player.”

“Just a wonderful person. Probably one of the most competitive athletes you’ll ever see,” said Andrei Halkewycz, who is Volleyball Manitoba’s Awards and Recognition committee chair and a board member.

While Ogoms is not the first person to be inducted into Volleyball Manitoba’s Hall of Fame while still being actively involved in the sport, it remains a rare accomplishment for an athlete.

“It’s pretty amazing. It just adds to the quality of the individual and hard worker she is as an athlete and a person she is,” said Halkewycz, adding the committee would’ve considered her regardless of whether it knew she was still attempting a comeback.

“I’ve known Alicia through her high school days and club days and watching her on the national team, and she played professionally — so I’ve known her a long time — and it just adds to her legacy.”

Ogoms wants to play professionally again this fall and will be shooting for a return to the national team in the process.

She’s been back in the gym six days per week since February, and anticipates training with the NextGen program later this month.

“I’m so grateful for this honour,” Ogoms said. “This is the peak of what I wanted to accomplish as a player.”

“I do feel a lot less pressure, trying to come back and play, because I feel like I’ve done the thing that I’ve wanted to do. I feel like whatever I do now is just gravy.”

Because Ogoms has now accomplished her career-long pursuit of being enshrined, she said she also feels less pressure in her attempt at a comeback.

Her return to training hasn’t come without its challenges — her cancer has put her into a post-menopausal state, which has led to hot flashes, joint pain and weight gain, among other things — but Ogoms has embraced both the challenges she’s faced and the ones that await.

She wants to be an example for all women.

“I don’t really see myself as a role model, per se, but I think just maybe as an example that you can be really sick and you can get back to where you were,” Ogoms said. “I don’t think I’ll be exactly as good as I was before, but your life can still go on, and it’s gonna look different, obviously, but it can still have a new look to it, and it can still be just as fulfilling.

“My whole career I feel like I’ve been, weirdly, the first for a lot of stuff, so I’m like, ‘Why not this be another one of those things?’”

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