Carsten Bergeron, 17, won a bronze medal at the Canada Cup, held July 18-21, as part of Team Alberta.
Carsten Bergeron has had a summer on volleyball courts across the globe that he’ll never forget.
The 17 year old spent 10 days training in South Korea at the end of June with his provincial volleyball team and then took off to Nova Scotia July 18-21 for the Canada Cup indoor volleyball championships where the team netted a bronze medal.
“I dislocated my thumb so I wasn’t sure if I was even able to go this summer. At tryouts, I had this black cast on,” said Bergeron.
The timelines barely worked out, he said, so it was very lucky.
With team Alberta 17M, Bergeron spent 10 days in the Gangwon province in South Korea, training with a local sports school.
“Alberta Sport Connection hosts these foreign exchanges and 50 years ago the women’s volleyball team went. Then they did a full cycle of all the sports and then decided it’s time for men to go,” said Bergeron.
“We would have one cultural experience in the morning. … One night we lived in a traditional Korean village, and we slept on the hardwood floors.”
But afternoons were reserved for training, where Bergeron said he was impressed with the work ethic of Korean players.
“We ran the beep test for a warm-up and everyone on their team beat everyone on ours,” since the test is also a pre-requisite for making the team there.
When they played against one another, team Alberta didn’t have much luck, and went 9-0. “The closest set was 23-25 against their ‘B’ or ‘C’ lineup,” but that’s understandable since the boys only had one practice together before heading out, and the Koreans play together year-round.
“Our offence was so good against them, but we just couldn’t pass.”
The experience was invaluable though, since the Alberta boys spent time learning from and with the second-best team in Korea.
“It’s extremely hard to pick just one (experience) between visiting the DMZ, being on top of the tallest building in Seoul, and playing the highest level volleyball I have had the privilege to play,” said Bergeron.
Coming back, the advantage of that exchange was visible in the team’s defensive game at Canada Cup, even though for Bergeron it felt like they didn’t play as much as last year.
After Korea, there was training for the Canada Cup indoor volleyball championships, a week of which happened in Calgary mid-July.
July 18-21 Bergeron and the team were in Halifax for Canada Cup, where they made it to the semifinals after defeating Saskatchewan Youth White 3-2, Quebec 1 3-0, Atlantic 3-0 and Ontario Red 1 3-0.
In the semis, they played the toughest and tallest team in the country, the BC Selects, and lost 3-2, 19-17 in the last set.
“It was such a close game. It was the best game they’ve ever seen.”
For the bronze medal, Team Alberta beat Team Atlantic 3-0. Although they came home with a medal, Bergeron said they were hoping for better.
Bergeron also plays for the R.F. Staples School T-Birds where he’s going into his senior year.
Coach Kyle Beattie pushed him towards club volleyball when he was in Grade 9 and he plays with the Edmonton-based Fog Volleyball Club, which won nationals this year.
