Wesmen off to a great start

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This article was published 07/10/2021 (1528 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It was just a pre-season tournament.

Nothing important was at stake and the four teams involved used the event to tinker with their lineups and give some younger players some experience.

Yet last weekend’s Brandon Bobcats Invitational felt special. The Bobcats hosted the Winnipeg Wesmen, Manitoba Bisons, and Saskatchewan Huskies for a tune-up before the Canada West season officially gets underway later this month.

It’s the first time these Prairie schools have been able to compete since February 2019.

“You take it for granted getting to play all these games all these years. It was just a really great experience to get back out there and play again,” said fourth-year Wesmen setter Matt Klysh.

It was especially a great experience for the U of W as they went 3-1 on the weekend and capped it off by beating Saskatchewan in the final on the Sunday. The Wesmen are hoping it’s a sign of things to come this season as they’ll be seeing a ton of the Bisons, Bobcats and Huskies. With the Canada West conference trying to cut back on travel owing to the pandemic, this season will see the four teams play in a Manitoba-Saskatchewan division. In total, 12 of the conference’s 13 teams will advance to post-season play. The winning team in each division at the end of the regular season will host a four-team round-robin pool with the top two clubs advancing to the next round.

If the Wesmen, who lost in the opening round of the Canada West playoffs to UBC back in the 2019-20 season, are going to go on a run, fifth-year attacker Daniel Thiessen will likely be the guy who takes them there. He was named a second-team all-Canadian in 2019-20, becoming the first Wesmen to make an all-Canada team since Australian Tom Douglas-Powell did it back in 2014-15.

Thiessen was originally planning on stepping away from volleyball after his all-Canadian campaign, but the pandemic and the cancelled 2020-21 season changed everything.

“Honestly, I had some pretty bad knee issues. The body was kind of falling apart. I was going to graduate so it felt like it was time to hang it up. But having some time off and being away from the game, it gave me some time to reflect on everything that I’ve been able to do and everything that the game has given me, it made me realize that I’m not ready to be done,” said Thiessen, a Glenlawn Collegiate product.

“Then the time off gave my body the time to heal. I’m feeling a lot better now coming into this season than I ever have. Everything just kind of lined up for me to come back for another year.”

But not every star player is back. Setter Mikael Clegg is no longer running the offence as the Selkirk native has graduated and gone on to play professionally in Germany. His departure leaves a huge void, but opens the door to Klysh getting the chance to make a name for himself. Klysh is the most experienced setter on the roster as he was the backup to Clegg for the past two seasons. Klysh, a Dakota Collegiate grad, was a provincial all-star in 2016.

“Those are big shoes. Mike’s an extraordinary player and person. Just playing behind him for the last four years or so was a really awesome experience. I don’t think we ever got to have a conversation where I told him how much he helped me grow on and off the court,” Klysh said.

“He was a really special teammate and I’ll just do the best I can and hopefully that leads to success on the court.”

There are other reliable veterans on the team such as fourth-year libero Darian Picklyk, a three-year starter who led Canada West in both digs (198) and digs per set (2.41) last season, but this Wesmen team will be relying on some younger talent. Liam Kristjanson, a 6-9 left side, had a brilliant freshman season and was named to the Canada West all-rookie team. He also spent some time this summer in Volleyball Canada’s under-21 men’s virtual training group. The Wesmen, led by head coach Larry McKay who’s entering his 32nd season, are hoping for similar freshman performances from two of their most promising recruits: middle blocker Paxton Koop and left side Jaxon Rose.

Koop, the No. 4-ranked high school player in 2019, led the Steinbach Regional Sabres to the final four in 2019 and was named a provincial tournament all-star. Rose, a 6-10 giant out of Dakota Collegiate, was also a tournament all-star in 2019 as he helped the Lancers win the provincial crown. He was previously named to Volleyball Canada’s 2020 Youth roster.

“It’s great to have such an influx of young talent. Our six-on-six scrimmages at practice are great because of those guys,” Klysh said.

“We’ve had an extra year of recruiting and a lot of those guys did a lot of work over the summer. This is a really deep team and it’s a lot of excitement for the older guys when we have a great group of young guys to teach and mold and bring along with us.”

The Wesmen open the season on Oct. 29 at the Duckworth Centre against Brandon.

 

taylor.allen@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @TaylorAllen31