Jasper Volleyball Camp

Alberta Volleyball invited me to become a mentor coach at Jasper volleyball Camp.  I love this camp it is one of the best camps in Canada.  Jasper is an outdoor camp in the middle of the Rocky Mountain in Alberta where athletes from many provinces and states come to learn about the sport.

It is a 6’s camp, played outdoors but based on improving the indoor game..  Everyday you wake up and go outside and have a chance to see some amazing mountains.  The coaches here are university athletes and club coaches and some college coaches.  AVA hires mentor coaches to help raise the level of instruction for the “campers” Every night we have a coaches meeting to talk about different parts of practice planning or drill construction that we see and try to ask questions to improve and challenge the coaches.  The coaches also ask a lot of questions, which makes it even more enjoyable. The camp then improves volleyball as a whole coaches and athletes.  I also find that I learn lots from the younger coaches who have such a great passion for the game.

My volleyball-coaching career really evolved out of jasper.  I was here as an instructor for a better part of 10 years.  It was at Jasper where I was able to try out different coaching techniques and discuss coaching philosophies with other coaches.  I remember sitting in our dorm room planning practices as a large group.  We would share ideas of how we would go about progressing from basics to game play.  We would draw out plans on the chalkboard argue about key points in different techniques.  Play some card games.  Over all was an incredible experience. I also took my first level one course here.  It was a week long course with just volleyball coaches.  We were immersed in volleyball.  I was able to meet the provincial team coaches and found out about that level.  I set a goal of coaching at that level.  When I first told some friends one day in the next five years I would coach the provincial team they all laughed at me.  A hockey guy thinks he can coach provincial team. Now coaching with Canadian National Team and at Brandon University I am able to realize how lucky I am and how far i have come. 

The coaches get along with each other quite well at the camp. They also tend to find different ways to involve the campers in pulling pranks on each other.   It was here at Jasper that a lot of my friends were formed.  Rod Durrant Head Coach U of C, Shawn Sky Head Coach Mount Royal College, Dan Ota Head Coach Dalhousie University,  Dale Johns assistant coach U of A, Sylvain Loiseau Sherbrook College, Ron Thomson Head Coach GPRC, Keith Hansen RDC  and Shayne White Head Coach Wilfred Laurier, all worked here at different times with me. Mark Paas gave me a lucky rock here at Jasper as I was heading off to coach at GPRC (he also taught me to sumo wrestle).

The coaches’ sleep in classrooms on the floor. Taking turns sleeping in the dormitories and supervising the athletes.  They have a chance then to talk to the athletes and tell them about there experiences.  It is a chance for these coaches to help create a vision for the athletes.  At lunch they eat in a meeting room in the curling rink.  Shirley has catered the camp as long as I have been a part.  She makes great food and the campers really enjoy it.  Also at this time the coaches again mingle with different tables and tell volleyball or life stories.  I love sitting back and watching, this is truly a place where grass roots meet the mountains.