Jimmies star shines again

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 14/08/2017 (3261 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Having been named athlete of the year in Grade 10 and 11, Nash Bockstael wasn’t exactly surprised when he received the award again in his final year at St. James Collegiate Institute.

The St. James resident said he didn’t play as many sports in his final year as he had in the past few years, deciding to focus on volleyball, basketball and badminton doubles.

“I was a bit more surprised, but I was still hoping to get it,” Bockstael said.

The 18-year-old also received MVP for basketball, where he played point guard.

“I’m used to that position,” the 5-8 athlete said. “I’m not tall enough to play anything else, so for Grade 9, 10, 11 and 12, I played point guard.”

This year saw Bockstael go from a supporting role to more of a leader for the younger players.
“We had Grade 12’s that were pretty good at basketball… after those kids left, I was more the main role and had to score more and create more offense, so it was different for me to learn… that was a big thing in Grade 12,” he said.

Bockstael played power in volleyball, which wasn’t the plan at the beginning of the year.

“I started off as setter for the team, and then a couple of our players got hurt, so I moved to power, so it was a mid-season shift,” he said. “I had already played setter and power during my whole volleyball career, so I knew how to play both… I think I handled it pretty well and continued playing.”

The boys didn’t have a junior varsity team for volleyball, which resulted in a few younger players playing for varsity. Bockstael found himself once again in a leadership role.

“I was chosen to be captain, along with someone else, so the Grade 10’s, I helped them a bit,” he said. “I was pretty good friends with the coach, he was a former grad, so he asked me to help, not run practice, but to make sure everything was going smoothly.”

Bockstael played badminton doubles with a friend who he knew was interested in the sport, although they hadn’t play as a team before.

“We didn’t go very serious, just took it for fun because it was our last high school sport and we wanted to make it fun,” he said. “We were both pretty good.”

Besides school sports, Bockstael also plays outdoor club soccer.

After the other seasons finished, Bockstael took part in track and field for some time, before deciding to take a break from sports for the remainder of the year. His preferred race distances were 100- and 200-metres, which he says speaks somewhat to his endurance as an athlete.

“I do play soccer outside so I know how to pace myself and play a whole game, but I get little spurts of energy that I can go at it for a bit, and then I’ll take a break and I can go again.”

He says both of his parents are volleyball players and were heavily involved in sports in high school. He plans to play on a co-ed volleyball team with his dad.

Bockstael is looking to continue his education at the University of Manitoba’s Asper School of Business, where he hopes to learn the skills to eventually over his family’s insurance business.