Allard is “living the dream”

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This article was published 26/06/2017 (3324 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Sisler High School volleyball player Averie Allard is living the dream playing with Team Manitoba at the 2017 Canada Summer Games.

“I’m so excited,” she said.

Allard, an 18-year-old Grade 12 student who plays for the Spartans and for Cobras Volleyball said she “literally live(s) volleyball.

“There’s nothing that matters more to me than volleyball,” she said. “My whole life is sports. I build everything around my volleyball. I like to be around people who are just as passionate not only about my sport but all the other sports. I think it’s a great atmosphere and something really good to end off before I leave for university.”

The Spartans’ setter started playing for fun in Grade 7, when she attended École Lansdowne School. It wasn’t her favourite sport at the time, but it was fun, she said. Her physical education teacher at Lansdowne, Ryden Marko, ultimately became a big part of why she is so passionate.

“He instilled that passion in me — that if I liked something I should go for it, I should push for it.”

Allard was a ringette player but she’s also very competitive, so when her brother, Adrian, started playing for the 204 Volleyball Club, she felt she could give volleyball more of her time.

“I’m super-competitive. I like to be better than everybody,” she said. “So when he started playing, I was like ‘Well, I’ve got to play now because I need to be better than him.’ We were always like that,” she said, with a laugh.

Team Manitoba Josh Thordarson head coach has been coaching Allard for a month and said she is a very driven athlete.

“She is a very competitive player and incredibly hard worker,” he said. “She is a very talented setter, but her fierce, competitive nature will add a lot to the competitive play that we are going to be able to deliver.” 

Volleyball has gone beyond being just a sport to Allard. It was also one of the ways in which she bonded with her brother. Tragically, Adrian was diagnosed with cancer last year and died at just 18 years old on December 6, 2016. 

Allard said both she and Adrian played several sports but volleyball was the one they shared.

“We’d go to the cabin, and we would play volleyball outside. It was something that we really bonded over. I feel like we weren’t as close until we both started playing volleyball,” she explained.

After the Canada Summer Games, Allard will be moving to Saskatoon to play for the University of Saskatchewan Huskies. 

She said the past few weeks have been good practise for university life because, aside from practising four to five days a week with Team Manitoba, she was studying for final exams.

“I think it will be a really good experience especially because of how hard Thordarson trains us,” she continued. “We have a very intense schedule, and I wouldn’t have it any other way because to play volleyball for four hours every Saturday is living the dream for me.”