Balancing act

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This article was published 10/10/2014 (4263 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

First impressions of Brittany Habing: Confidence, humility and, most of all — balance.

Clear-eyed, fresh-faced and open, the University of Manitoba Bisons setter was a key member of last year’s national championship squad. Her coach says she’s the best in the country at her position, making the fifth-ranked Bisons a threat to repeat as this new season begins.

Habing and the Bisons were a little off their game Thursday night as they opened the 2014-15 campaign with a 25-23, 22-25, 25-19, 19-25, 15-10 home loss to the Calgary Dinosaurs.

The evening began on a high note as the Bisons women’s volleyball program celebrated its seventh championship with a banner-raising ceremony prior to the game.

The 22-year-old Habing grew up in East St. Paul and attended River East Collegiate before starting her education and varsity volleyball career at the University of Winnipeg.

She then chose to sit out a year and move over to Ken Bentley’s program at the U of M, cashing in with a national title last spring.

“It wasn’t a great fit,” she says about the transfer. “I liked the program Ken was running and they were having a good cycle with their athletes here. This was a better fit in the end.”

A student in the sciences faculty, Habing plans to apply for the nursing program. Volleyball is important. So is school.

“I’d like to finish my nursing degree and obviously start work. Who knows? Ten years may bring children,” says Habing, when asked what she has planned for herself when her university career is over.

“For some reason, it’s never been a huge desire for me to go overseas and play professionally. It may. Who knows? It’s hard to say now what my life will be like when I’m not playing volleyball, and how I’ll feel, but I wouldn’t say it’s No. 1 on my list for sure.”

Bentley named Habing and hitter Rachel Cockrell co-captains this week and says his setter is not only a fine player but an instinctive leader.

“She’s the best in the country and I wouldn’t say that lightly. She’s a tremendous athlete and her knowledge of the game and volleyball acumen is incredibly high,” says Bentley. “I think back to nationals last year when we won nine straight sets and a large part of that was her selection; who she set, when she set them, why she set them. Just such a good command of what she was doing.”

Bentley says Habing has the willingness to lead and doesn’t shy away from what needs to be done at any given moment.

“Brittany has a universal respect — when she has something to say people are going to listen,” says Bentley. “How she delivers that message… is based on who her audience is. She has a very good command of that, which is why she’s in the position she’s in.”

Habing says being a leader comes with its challenges, but working with other women and in particular her team, makes it worthwhile.

“As odd as it probably is to say that girls are very open about how they feel, there’s not really a lot of problems that go on in the change room that have to be dealt with,” says Habing.

“A lot of our girls will just approach each other. But if I have to get involved, I listen to both sides of the story and figure out what I think is the best solution for both and talk to both of them. We push each other very much, so if we feel one of the girls isn’t working hard enough we’re not afraid to say, ‘Brittany get your butt going and get a few more reps in there.’ No one takes that personally. We know how hard we have to work if we want to win another championship, so that’s not really a big deal.”

Even if Habing were to consider playing pro in Europe after university, the payday isn’t enormous for most players other than the very elite. But money isn’t why Habing got into volleyball or why she’s stayed so long.

“Volleyball has been part of my life for a long time. I play for the love of the game, right, and I’d like to think that most NFL and NHL players do it for that,” she says. “The salary makes a huge difference, I guess. But I just love the feeling of winning, whether or not I’m getting paid for it.”

Sacrifice is just part of doing something very well, whether it’s being a doctor or a parent or an athlete. If you’re going to put a lot of time into one thing, others will have to fall to the wayside.

“The ‘I have volleyball’ excuse has been going on for how many years? Sometimes I see my friends out having fun at the bar on Friday night or going to the movies or what not, and I have a game the next day,” says Habing. “But at the end of the day I’m happy with where I am. So I wouldn’t really change anything.”

Repeating as champs this season will be very difficult. Getting out of Canada West is a huge challenge, with 29 of the last 32 CIS champs coming from the conference and six of those winners from this province. Habing says everyone dreams about the perfect season, but understands peaking at the right time and going on a playoff run is what will fulfill her goals.

“Most people would want to go undefeated in regular season, undefeated in playoffs and that would be sort of the ideal run,” she says. “But if you look at last year, at the Christmas break we were 6-6. Our team peaked at the right time for sure, last year. Ideally you’d want to go 24-0 and just keep winning, but who is winning at the end of the year is the true determinant.”

There’s an old proverb about asking an adult if the young child he or she once was would be proud of the person they have become. Habing says little Brittany would be proud of today’s Britanny.

“I think so, yeah. Volleyball has been in my life for quite some time. I mean, had you told me 10 years ago that I was going to win a national championship at the age of 21, I would have been overjoyed,” she said. “Volleyball has really taught me a lot about life and competition. I would be happy with where I am today.”

gary.lawless@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @garylawless