Joey Payeur
Volleyball obligations have had Amy Wilson-Hands going to so many different places, she could have sold tour T-shirts.
The head coach of the Fort Frances Fire ‘n Ice volleyball club and Muskie senior girls’ squad has experienced quite the life on the road of late with a variety of touring partners along the way.
First up was a March Break visit to Port Saint Lucie, Fla. with her youngest daughter, Adyson, who took part in the Team Ontario High Performance Beach Volleyball Camp.
“I was there to further my coaching development for my Aboriginal Apprenticeship and was asked to bring Adyson along,” noted Wilson-Hands, who watched Adyson and her newly-assigned teammate win silver in a tournament held as part of the camp that featured international competitors.
“She was extremely pleased as this was her first time playing actual beach volleyball and was competing against beach teams that are part of the full-time training centre [in Florida], National League Volleyball,” Wilson-Hands said.
“It was such a great opportunity for her,” she added. “She is a natural athlete so she took to the beach game very well.
“She learned how different indoor and beach really are, as well as the game’s strategies.”
In fact, the younger Wilson-Hands impressed Ontario Volleyball Association senior beach development director Angie Shen enough to have Shen invite her to train at the Ashbury Bridges Bay Beach Volleyball Centre in Toronto this summer.
“She will train full-time and be partnered up, and she and her partner will then have the opportunity to compete at the Ontario provincials, as well as at the nationals,” Wilson-Hands explained.
“We will see where this journey will take her.”
The mother-daughter duo then met up with Muskie senior girls’ co-coach Terry McMahon in Toronto to take in the U Sports (formerly CIS) national women’s university volleyball championship.
“Terry and I were also asked to attend by the Region 1 president, as we will be coaching the Region 1 team in the next Ontario Summer Games,” noted Wilson-Hands, who attended a coaching symposium in the daytime with McMahon before taking in the competition in the evening.
“It was truly amazing to watch the quick pace of the university level,” she remarked.
Wilson-Hands and McMahon also had the chance to attend a Team Canada coaches’ panel with former and current national team players Adam Simac, Heather Bansley, and Dan Lewis.
“We heard what needs to happen in the younger development to help Volleyball Canada become better and start producing bigger results at the national level,” Wilson-Hands said.
“The most important thing I took away from the symposium was definitely from Kyle Paquette, a sports psychologist with the national volleyball teams, as well as Team Canada’s curling teams,” she added.
“He made me think in a different way about coaching and how to get where we want to be. It was enlightening.”
Then this past weekend, Wilson-Hands travelled to Sault Ste. Marie to coach the Treaty #3 Tigers and Treaty #3 Junior Tigers at the Ontario Native Invitational Volleyball Championships.
The event was the last identifier to make an impression on Team Ontario coaches selecting players for this summer’s North American Indigenous Games in Toronto.
The senior Tigers consisted of both Adyson Wilson-Hands and her older sister, Avery (representing Manitou Rapids First Nation), Chelsea Kabatay and Tanisha Boshkaykin (Seine River), Victoria Kelly and Felicity Kelly (Ojibways of Onigaming), Chelsea Samain (Shoal Lake 39), and Kyra Morrisseau (Fort William).
After pool play victories over Whitefish River First Nation (25-12/25-13), New Brunswick 16U NAIG (25-12/25-18), and NWO Nitro (25-15/25-23), Treaty #3 split with the eventual champion Garden River Braves (25-23/16-25) to finish second in their pool.
In the quarter-finals, the Tigers swept the Garden River Juniors 2-0 (25-13/25-11) but then were ousted in the semi-finals by the Braves (25-19/25-21).
Redemption came in the form of a bronze-medal game win over Whitefish Bay (25-16/25-18).
“The Tigers had a great weekend of ball,” lauded Wilson-Hands. “It was incredible to see their play on the court.
“They were running plays within their offensive system, which created huge gaps in the other team’s defence,” she noted.
“They had the crowd roaring on more than one occasion when one of our big hitters would slam down a kill or someone would make a huge save or put up a big block,” Wilson-Hands added.
“It gave me goosebumps.”
The Junior Tigers, meanwhile, featured Abby Roach, Emma Mainville, and Kaylyn Levesque of Couchiching, along with Angel Medicine and Andie Hunter (Manitou Rapids), Samara Jones (Red Gut), and Hayden Paul (Big Island).
Competing against more experienced rivals, the Juniors lost to Whitefish Bay (25-5/25-9), the North Shore Stars (25-13/25-14), the Treaty #3 Titans (25-16/25-23), and the Southwest Eagles (25-16/25-23).
In the sixth-place final, the Juniors fell 25-23/25-20 to Whitefish River.
“Considering we had six Grade 8s and one Grade 9, they played their hearts out,” said Wilson-Hands.
“We came to this tourney to develop these ladies and as the weekend went on and their confidence grew, develop they did while having a lot of fun,” she added.
“I cannot wait to see what these seven will do year after year at this tourney.”
