The Western Elite Championships is a premier volleyball competition for 16U and 17U aged athletes.
Athletes and their coaches representing the four western provinces come together, this year in Edmonton, and compete in a three day long tournament. The tournament ran Friday, July 18 to Sunday, July 20.
This year, the Boys Alberta 16U team welcomed Barrhead player Bryan Fountain to the court.
The team played five games over the course of the tournament, and won the first three against B.C. 17U, Manitoba 16U, and Saskatchewan 17U. After making it to the semi-finals, Fountain’s team took another victory against B.C. 16U.
In the finals, Alberta 16U found themselves playing Alberta 17U, and lost three out of the five matches.
The 15-year-old said he thinks the team did really well, especially considering the 16U teams found themselves playing against the 17U teams.
“It’s like when I played hockey, being a first year in an age group playing against older guys,” said Fountain. “Players that are bigger than you and have played longer.”
Fountain said Team Alberta was the best team experience he has had the opportunity of being a part of, and not just because of the volleyball.
“Even when we weren’t playing, just the team bonding,” he said. “We did some fun things.”
Team Alberta was made up of players from all over the province, including Barrhead, Edmonton, Athabasca, Sherwood Park, Calgary, Red Deer, and Lethbridge.
Fountain was invited to try out for the team in April. Scouts chose the top 30 U16 players and offered them a chance to participate in 10 days of training, which was held at the Go Centre in Edmonton July 4-13.
The 10 days act as a tryout, said Fountain, where the top 12 players are selected for the team at the end.
“Lots of volleyball,” said Fountain. “Lots of passing drills and game play against an older age group.”
Each day the athlete was up at 6:30 a.m. to get ready for practice at 8 a.m. Each day included four hours of intense training; a two hour training block, then a break, then another two hours of volleyball.
Fountain said the most challenging part of the training process was the amount of work he did.
“Usually a volleyball tryout, for school at least, is an hour and a half and then that’s it for the day. You can go hard for an hour and a half,” said Fountain. “But here, it’s hard to go all out for four hours.”
“I phoned him part way through and asked him if it was similar to other volleyball camps he had been at in the past, and he said it was way harder,” said his mom Krista. “The hardest thing he’d ever done.”
In between the volleyball training sessions were seminars, where the players learned about topics like sports psychology and nutrition. Fountain said he learned a lot of helpful tips, including information about hydration like what to drink and when.
Once Fountain was selected as one of 12 players to be a part of the official team, he returned to Edmonton July 14 for more practice. The team practiced for three days straight, two practices per day, to prepare for the tournament July 18-20.
Fountain first started playing basketball in Grade 7. He also played hockey until the end of Grade 9 but had to choose between the two, and decided to hang up his skates.
Last year Fountain played on the Barrhead Composite High School Junior Gryphon volleyball team. When that season ended in November, he started up with the club team in Edmonton in January after trying out in December.
Once he started with the club team, Fountain said it was then he started working towards being a part of Team Alberta. He was in Edmonton two or three times a week to play volleyball.
“Playing with Team Alberta, it’s kind of a goal I set for myself at the beginning of club season,” he said. “The club team I was on, it was the best club team in Edmonton. We got second in every tournament.”
Fountain said playing and competing with players of a high skill level helped him get a lot better at the game. Being part of a team, especially one he can learn from, is what he enjoys most about the sport.
“I like being on a team,” he said. “It’s really fun. You get a lot better playing with other really good players.”
“They’re all so driven,” added Krista.” They all want to be there and worked hard to get there. They have similar goals.”
Krista said Bryan has a very driven personality, and has shown a lot of determination while working towards his own goals. He even went as far as researching different kinds of exercises and training he should do during his own time when he wasn’t playing in Edmonton, she said.
“”He did a lot of that at home on his own time. Sports is definitely a passion of his,” said Krista. “I’m so proud of him. I can hardly wait to see where this goes next.”
