Local spiker to play for Bisons

Siobhan Devlin is moving up the volleyball ranks.
Fresh from helping the Muskie senior girls’ volleyball team to the consolation crown at the all-Ontario championship in Sault Ste. Marie last week, Devlin recently accepted an offer to attend the University of Manitoba and play on their championship volleyball team.
Her tuition is paid in full, and she will receive a monthly allowance to live on.
“I am going for sure now,” Devlin enthused Tuesday morning. “I am really excited now.”
Muskie head coach Adrian Chapman wasn’t the least bit surprised by the news.
“I am not at all surprised, she is an awesome volleyball player. It couldn’t have happened to a better person,” he noted. “She is an awesome athlete and an awesome student from what I understand.”
Devlin admitted having most of her post-secondary expenses paid has made her mom happy. She also noted the coach even drove down from Manitoba to talk to her mom and make her feel more comfortable with her attending the U of M.
“The stuff he said he could have said over the phone. [Instead], he came down just to make my mom comfortable.”
Devlin stressed everything happened so quickly.
“It all went so fast. Mr. [Rick] Wiedenhoeft called the coach on a Wednesday [last month] and I went down that weekend to practice,” she recalled. “[The coach said] he wanted me on his team.”
Although she is a star player here, Devlin knows her playing time will decrease a lot with the Bisons, at least in her freshman season.
“[The coach] said I won’t play as much in first year but I will play more in the second year,” she enthused. “I am just happy I get to play there. Just being on the team [is exciting] because they won the nationals.”
Devlin noted if she hadn’t made the Bisons, she would have accepted an offer at another school. But she’s pumped because Manitoba has been her number-one choice since grade seven.
“I have always wanted to go there–the volleyball just helped,” she said.