Joey Payeur
They have won NorWOSSA and NWOSSAA gold together, and battled side-by-side against the best ‘AA’ high school teams in the province.
Through it all, they’ve remained loyal friends and now will stay teammates for the next two years.
Graduating Muskie senior girls’ volleyball players Chelsea Kabatay and Tanisha Boshkaykin won’t have to go far to continue their volleyball trek when they join the Rainy River Community College Voyageurs women’s team this fall.
“I think it will be easier having Tanisha by my side on this new journey,” said Kabatay, who signed her commitment yesterday and is a threat no matter where she is positioned on the court–from either the power, middle, or other spots.
“We’ve talked about going to college volleyball for as long as I can remember,” she noted.
“I’m so excited to be doing this with her.
“I love being her teammate, and I’m really excited to have different teammates and learn along the way,” Kabatay added.
Boshkaykin, the starting setter for last season’s Muskies who signed with RRCC last week, was of a similar mindset.
“I think it’ll be easier to adjust to a higher level team with Chelsea because we’ve always been on the same volleyball teams since Grade 4, and we’ve always helped each other adjust to the different obstacles of new teams and drills,” she reasoned.
“She’s helped me a lot with my social anxiety, and I don’t think I could’ve done this without having her by my side as she is one of my biggest supports,” added Boshkaykin.
“I think the transition to college ball will be easy with her.”
RRCC coach Mel Millerbernd approached the pair about becoming Voyageurs after the Muskies downed the Westgate Tigers in the NWOSSAA final back in February.
“Chelsea is so versatile,” Millerbernd lauded.
“She can hit, serve, set and to me, she’s going to be a really nice utility player that can play more than one position.”
As for Boshkaykin, Millerbernd said, “I liked that she did a lot of setting and she’s got a heck of a serve that really caught my eye.
“We graduated our setter this year so we’re going to need one,” Millerbernd added, though she made no guarantees Boshkaykin would be a starter at this point.
The looming void at the setter position wasn’t really a factor in Boshkaykin’s choice.
“I really didn’t know they were graduating their setter until I was registering for classes at RRCC,” she noted.
“It helped me choose to go to RRCC because I quite enjoy playing setter, and it would be nice to continue playing setter as it’s the only position I’ve ever really played.”
But Millerbernd said there is one area of improvement both players need to address before the college season rolls around.
“Both need to get physically stronger to be able to play a lot of games in a row–you know what a competitive league this is,” she warned.
“But I’m so happy they chose to stay local and that I’ll have the opportunity to coach them.”
Kabatay said she was caught by surprise when Millerbernd showed an interest in having her join RRCC.
“I was shocked and excited because I never thought I’d be asked to play college ball, and I am honoured that I have this opportunity to go for this,” she enthused.
Meanwhile, what the two learned in their time wearing the black-and-gold will come in handy when they hit the court for the Voyageurs.
“The lessons I can take from high school ball to college ball is how important it is to be on good terms with your players, and also being comfortable enough to communicate with them in a way that the team will benefit from,” said Boshkaykin.
“Also, helping support each other when things are difficult also really helped us in our season this year and helped us become better as a team.”
Kabatay agreed.
“I think that I will take the lesson of how important it is to be committed to a team and working together,” she said.
“And throughout all I learned in my high school years, [that] will help me be able to understand different plays and just how important it is to work together and try build relationships with each player.”
