Weekes as strong as they come

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This article was published 24/11/2023 (682 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Three years ago, Owen Weekes had a reputation as a pretty good baseball and basketball player, with a sideline interest on the volleyball court.

Fast-forward to 2023 and the entire trajectory of his athletic career has changed.

Baseball and hoops are fun pursuits but volleyball rules his world now — and it’s not difficult to understand why.

The 6-foot-6 right side from Vincent Massey Collegiate is at the top of his class in 2023, honoured as the province’s No. 1 varsity boys player in the Free Press top-10 coaches’ poll while leading the 46-0 Trojans to the top of the provincial AAAA polls.

Massey, chasing its first provincial AAAA varsity boys volleyball title in school history, has the top-three players in the FP poll and four of the top 10. The Trojans have a provincial quarter-final matchup Saturday afternoon and it will be the 17-year-old Weekes, currently being courted by multiple U Sports programs, setting the tone.

It’s the kind of dominance unforeseen when he was in Grade 10.

“If we would’ve ranked the top-20 (junior varsity) kids, I don’t even think he would have been (on the list),” says Massey head coach Marshall Jones, who estimates Weekes averaged 15 kills per best-of-five match while hitting at a 60 per cent efficiency rate. “He played middle when he was in junior varsity and he was going through a growth spurt.

“He’s probably pushing 6-7 now and he was probably only 6-1 or 6-2 in Grade 10… The two things that come to mind for me is just his length — his arms and his legs are really long — and then when you combine that with his ability to move, for a big kid he’s pretty agile, that just allows him to be so dynamic.

“On top of that, he’s just got something in him that wants to be good.”

Weekes, who hopes to play for the national team one day, sees the benefits of being a multi-sport athlete.

“I think one thing that’s helped me from baseball to volleyball is the mental piece, because baseball is a really mental sport,” says Weekes, who pitched and played first base for Winnipeg South AAA. “The best players succeed three out of 10 times… I can make an error in the field playing first base and then have to sit with that for the next hour and a half, or strike out and have to go to sleep that night. In volleyball, making one, two, even three or four mistakes in a row, it’s like, ‘I’ve been here before.’”

While Weekes may have the body type and temperament suited for volleyball, basketball remains a sport heavily embedded in his family. His dad, Mike Weekes, was an accomplished player for the University of Manitoba Bisons in the 1990s, while his older sister, Olivia Weekes, is a Massey alum in her third season playing hoops for the UBC Thunderbirds.

Owen is concentrating on volleyball at the moment but he’s contemplating whether to finish Grade 12 playing basketball for Massey.

Winning a provincial volleyball title is what matters most and performing at the highest level is paramount.

“We’re flowing better, things are clicking more,” says Owen. “Now that we’ve worked on things we just know that if we play our game, we’re going to be good. So, kind of keeping that mindset has been a big push these last couple of weeks.”

The Trojans are an accomplished group with Weekes and fellow Grade 12s Keon Torz, a setter, middles Morgan Eby and Shay McKim, libero Mitchell Strilchuk and left side Everett Smith. Jones has pushed Weekes and the other veterans to be better.

“When you get to the level he’s at, you see the improvements at a slower trajectory than where he went last year, from pretty raw to pretty solid by the end of the year,” says Jones. “But he’s benefited for sure by being in a super competitive training environment all the time, because of this group. They’ve grown up together, playing JV together, then high school, then club (volleyball) together and then most of them making the provincial team…

“Owen’s got goals for U Sport but then he’s smart enough to know he’s got goals for after that, too. He’d like to play at the highest level he can possibly play at.”

Trojans assistant coach Ken Krahn, a former national team member himself, sees an international future for Weekes.

“He jumps well, hits well, he’s really smart and usually doesn’t make many errors,” says Krahn. “He needs a more consistent serve and maybe change his arm swing a little to contact the ball at a higher point… but Owen’s got that potential, I think, where he’s gonna be a special player.”

Since the beginning of the season, Weekes figures he’s added some nuance to his game — becoming a better passer, refining his booming jump spin serve and not going for power shot on every attack.

“I’ve definitely learned,” he says. “Once guys get better and older, I can’t just swing down and try to be an ego hitter trying to bounce every ball. I definitely get blocked (sometimes) but I’m trying to just become smarter.”

mike.sawatzky@freepress.mb.ca