Volleyball auction action

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 17/03/2011 (5555 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Carla Bradstock is getting something in Winnipeg that she can’t get anywhere else in the world — training with Canada’s national women’s volleyball team.

“I was very fortunate to have the option of coming to the Team Canada training centre so that I am still progressing, even though it was too late for me to continue my pro season,” said Bradstock, 25, a setter who was playing professionally in Azerbaijan until she was injured in December. She returned to her home of Vancouver to recuperate and has resumed training in Winnipeg.

On Wednesday, Bradstock was participating in Team Canada’s launch of the 17th annual Fundraising Auction being held March 14-18 at The Shops of Winnipeg Square. Team Canada Volleyball’s longest-standing fundraiser, the proceeds go towards assisting players on the international stage.

Auction items include a round-trip vacation in a VIA Rail sleeper car from Winnipeg to Vancouver — among other vacation packages — a 2010 Sea-Doo and concert tickets to U2 and Katy Perry.

The Winnipeg-based national team offers full-time training at the Team Canada Volleyball Centre during the team’s off-season. Many players have recently graduated from their post-secondary teams and are hoping to land a pro contract.

“My plan right now is to get back into impeccable shape and improve from there,” Bradstock said. “We are so blessed here that we have a centre where everybody is welcome. It doesn’t even seem like a fall-back plan because (we’re) training under A-team coaches who are here year round. I can train at an elite level and not miss a beat, even though I’m not playing pro.”

Head coach Arnd Ludwig and assistant Scott Koskie lead the players in their technical and tactical training while the Canadian Sports Centre Manitoba offers the elite athletes access to its Integrated Support Team (IST).

The IST offers sports psychology, athletic therapy, physiotherapy, nutrition, strength and conditioning programs and access to doctors.

“Under Lupo’s (Ludwig’s) coaching, we’ve improved an incredible amount,” said Bradstock, noting Canada recently moved up four spots in the world rankings to No. 20. “We need to continue to get international experience and play the other 19 top teams in order to improve, and fundraisers like this help us to do that.”

Bradstock is preparing to join nine athletes from the full-time training centre who will compete in Costa Rica in exhibition matches April 12-18 against the Costa Rican national team.

Bradstock played at the University of British Columbia under former Winnipeg Wesmen coach Doug Reimer. When Bradstock and the Thunderbirds won the 2007 national championship, it broke a 30-year UBC drought for women’s volleyball on the national stage. Bradstock’s mother, Christine Trainor Bradstock, was a member of the UBC team that had last won it in 1977-78.

The 2011 Team Canada selection camp will be held in Winnipeg May 15-19 where athletes will be selected for July’s Pan Am Cup in Mexico, and for the national B team which will compete in the 2011 FISU Games in August.

See www.volleyballauction.ca for a full list of auction items and to make an on-line bid.

ashley.prest@freepress.mb.ca