All-American honours for Ogoms

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This article was published 02/05/2016 (3744 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Growing up in West Kildonan, Alicia Ogoms never dreamed of becoming a NCAA All-American.

What Ogoms has been able to do is chart her own path, one that led the former St. Mary’s Academy star to a top honour as Manitoba’s best high school volleyball player to a star with the mighty University of Southern California Trojans.

In fact, despite battling a lingering foot injury, Ogoms’s play was so impressive she was named a second team All-American for her efforts this past year, a season in which she helped lead her Trojans to a record of 33 wins and three losses and an NCAA Regional Final appearance.

“At first, I was little bit shocked when I found out because I had a little bit of an injury,” Ogoms said of her All-American nod.

“I was pleasantly surprised for sure, especially because of how many people were impressed by my work. It was definitely validation for me — all of my hard work was paying off. My goal was to be an All-American since I got here.”

Heading to Southern California wasn’t as easy as you might think at first for Ogoms. Being away from home took some adjustment, but after four years, she’s grown fond of Los Angeles.

“My last couple of years, I played a lot more and got a lot better,” she said. “This last year was certainly my favourite.”

Ogoms grew up in Winnipeg’s West Kildonan area to parents who both played high-level basketball.

She followed suit, all the way through high school, but in Grade 7 she got a taste of volleyball and never looked back.

It paid off. She was the top-ranked girls volleyball player in the province, the MVP of the Winnipeg West Athletic Conference, an MVP of the volleyball provincial championships, a title she won with St. Mary’s, and was named to the All-Manitoban team.

“It was an enjoyable time for me,” she said. “I definitely had a good year in my Grade 12 year, but the two years before that I was relatively unknown. I had a lot of good coaches who taught me about the game. It definitely helped me when I got to USC.”

The next couple of years will look a lot different.

Ogoms is graduating from USC this year and she’s heading back to Winnipeg for the summer to train and tryout for Canada’s national team, who failed to gain a spot in the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

“Hopefully, I’ll make it,” she said. “I’ve been watching them since I was a kid. I hope we get to the point where I can help the team make it to that level.”