Wesmen big man makes his mark with Team Canada

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This article was published 09/09/2010 (5813 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Matt Schriemer was already one of the best young volleyball players in Canada by the time his first season with the Uni­versity of Winnipeg Wesmen was over.

Now, after spending a summer with the provincial junior team and the national men’s program, he’s hoping to remove the word young from that description.

The 6-foot-8 right side from North Kildonan joined the Wesmen after leading his Miles Macdonell Buckeyes to a provincial championship in 2008-09, his Grade 12 season.

Schriemer was thrown into the deep end almost immediately after arriving at the U of W’s downtown campus, as coach Larry McKay used him as a starter for most of the season.

“It’s rare that there’s an opening (for a first-year player in the starting lineup),” McKay said, “but there was at his position. It’s rare for a first-year guy to be good enough to hold down a starting position.”

Schriemer said he was surprised to be on the court as much as he was, but was determined to make the most of his opportunity.

Playing what his coach calls “a very important attacking position,” he showed that he belonged at the university level and was named to the CIS all-rookie team.

“It just sort of happened,” Schriemer said of that honour. “It was definitely not a goal of mine at the start of the year.”

If Schriemer ends up taking his game to even greater heights this coming season — and McKay believes that’s well within his reach — his experiences this summer could prove to have been the catalyst.

First, he was part of the Manitoba team that won gold in the National Team Challenge Cup. Then, he became one of two Manitobans selected to play for Canada at the NORCECA junior men’s championship.

The team lost to the U.S. in the gold-medal game, but earned a trip to the 2011 world championship in Brazil.

“It was awesome,” Schriemer said of the NORCECA tournament, which was played in Gatineau, Que. “I’ve never played at that kind of level and intensity before. It was a first for me.”

Schriemer is already looking forward to next year’s tryouts for the team that will travel to Brazil.

Meanwhile, McKay is hoping the international competition will help make Schriemer a more complete player for the Wesmen.

“Hopefully he’ll have picked up some of the behaviour and lifestyles of these top guys,” said McKay, who coached Schriemer as a member of the Strike club team for two years. “They’re all great physically, but what separates them from the average player is how hard they work, how well they eat and how they act when they’re at practice.”

Playing alongside the nation’s best young players — and training against the national senior men’s team in the lead-up to the event — showed Schriemer that he can hold his own against elite players. It also showed him where his game needs the most work.

“You’ve got to be consistent all the time, and you’ve got to be good at everything,” he said. “You can’t just be a super-good attacker and a pretty good defender. You’ve got to do it all to play at the next level.”

avi.saper@canstarnews.com