Volleyball phenom goes all-in

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This article was published 12/10/2023 (960 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The finest high school volleyball player in the province won’t be anywhere near a local gym this fall.

Brooklyn Grobb-Prins, a 16-year-old left side from Selkirk, has taken her talents to Richmond, B.C., where she is training with Volleyball Canada’s National Excellence Program. She’s the lone Manitoban — one of 18 players in grades 10, 11 and 12 — training five days a week with the women’s national team coaching staff and support team.

It’s been the experience of a lifetime for Grobb-Prins, who arrived in B.C. on Sept. 16 and is living with a billet family before returning home on Dec. 23. She’ll miss her entire Grade 11 season with the Lord Selkirk Royals, who are currently ranked No. 2 in Manitoba without her.

“So far, it’s been really great,” says Grobb-Prins. “I love the people I’m staying with. All my teammates are really great. The facilities are super nice and everything has been going really well.”

Grobb-Prins understood she needed to make a total commitment to the NEP program. The squad practises Monday to Friday and has three sessions per week in the weight room under the supervision of NextGen head coach Matt Krueger.

“On the days we don’t have (weight-training) workouts, we have a second practice,” she says. “It’s just lots and lots of practising… so, you have to put in lots and lots of time in your evenings for school.

“There’s lots and lots of reps of passing and hitting and game play. The coaches just go around and tell us anything we should fix or try to do better and then teach us like the way that they want Team Canada to do it.”

Grobb-Prins initially stood out on the provincial scene primarily because of her size — she’s 6-3 and still growing — and being an unusually adept passer for someone of her stature. At NEP, she’s just one of many players standing 6-foot or better.

So is Grobb-Prins more of a refined player or raw prospect?

“To be honest, I would say a little bit of both,” says Krueger. “Reception is one of her strong points. She has some skills that require a little bit more work. And that’s kind of the cool thing with NEP — a lot of them have their one or two areas that they’re really strong and a lot of them have a couple areas that they could improve upon.”

Her parents didn’t hesitate when the call came in May for the teen to join the NEP. She had attended and thrived at a five-week Volleyball Canada training camp in Calgary as a 14-year-old.

“That was the first experience of her going away and she nailed that,” says her mom, Karla Grobb. “So, I think after that, we realized she was ready to go. She does volleyball all the time here, so she’s really just doing the same thing over there but in a high-performance environment with really good coaches.

“I mean, obviously we miss her but it’s nice to see her acquiring better skills with good coaches there.”

The NEP women’s program, now in its fourth year, is the brainchild of current senior national team coach Shannon Winzer, who oversaw a similar program during a previous stint with the Australian national team. The aim is to produce even more skilled players for the senior national team, which is currently ranked 11th in the world.

“The high-performance environment that these athletes are exposed to and the training load that they’re exposed to is just something that they wouldn’t get in high school or club,” says Krueger.

“Already in the quick three weeks, the improvement in some of the skills that we’ve been working on has been drastic and I think just with the volume and the load, the amount of time that we spend on court… it’s still hard to improve, but it’s easier to see the improvements a little bit quicker. And again, with all the resources that we have, nothing we do is not thought out and prescribed.”

Grobb-Prins has the drive and athletic ability to do well with the national team, says her Junior Bisons club head coach Roger Labossiere.

“She’s very calm on the court and she’s just a great kid, somebody that always asks what she can do differently and what she can improve on,” says Labossiere. “Her physical ability as a 6-3 16-year-old, that’s a great thing to have. Having the ability to be a strong passer at that age and with that height, that’s the big thing. That’s what Volleyball Canada sees in her.”

Grobb-Prins, by virtue of her U.S. tournament appearances with the Junior Bisons, is already well known to college recruiters on both sides of the border.

“Last year when we went to our tournaments in the States there were all these U.S. colleges that were very interested in her and were reaching out to check in with her after that,” says Labossiere. “She’s got lots of opportunities. Obviously, within Canada I think any coach would take her, but I think she’s got a lot of opportunities in the States for sure, too.”

Grobb-Prins had a leaping reach of 10-foot-1 before spraining an ankle last spring and she’s working diligently to return to that level.

“University coaches are often looking for athletes that can touch nine and a half and above and it’s not a super common thing to have an athlete that can touch 10 feet on a high school team,” said Selkirk head coach Chad Whiteside. “For her size, Brooklyn’s remarkably agile.”

Grobb-Prins and her family are being very careful about her college destination.

“She’s not rushing into any decisions right now but they are anxious to secure their 2025 outside hitters down there,” says Karla Grobb. “So, they’re in a hurry (but) we’re not. I think she’s happy to be away from the pressure, to be honest, with all of the recruiting emails and calls that are coming in.”

Grobb-Prins is content with her choice to join the NEP but she’ll be cheering her Selkirk teammates on from afar.

“That was the one thing that I am missing the most,” she says. “Playing games and having my friends being able to watch and the high school season is super exciting and fun, so giving it up was hard. But I knew this is going to be way more worth it in the end. Skillwise, it’ll just make me so much better.”

Labossiere, who also coaches the province’s top-ranked Collège Jeanne-Sauvé Olympiens, says even without Grobb-Prins the Royals are formidable. But what if she was home and playing?

“I can’t imagine how good they would be if Brooklyn was on that team,” he says. “They’re an amazing team right now and if you put Brooklyn on that court, wow, nobody would beat them. They’d be unstoppable.”

mike.sawatzky@freepress.mb.ca