Next step: Canada’s volleyball team set to make World League Group 1 debut
Canada’s men’s volleyball team rose to unprecedented heights last year, making its first Olympic appearance in 24 years and finishing fifth in Rio de Janeiro.
Now, coaches Stephane Antiga and Dan Lewis are asking the players to forget about how far they went, and remember instead the years of hard work it took them to get there.
Canada makes it debut in prestigious Group 1 of the FIVB World League on Friday, which is the first important step on the road to the 2020 Games in Tokyo.
“I think there is a little bit of a (Rio) hangover,” said Lewis, who played libero for Canada before retiring to become an assistant coach last season. “We have to make sure that we have the same type of sense of urgency in order to get better, and grow. As great as it is to go back there and think about it, it’s ‘Really guys, it’s over and we need to remember the 10 years it took us to get back there, and use that as an understanding of what it takes to do this four-year process.’”