The Camosun Chargers men’s and women’s volleyball teams are getting ready for their season to begin. The men’s team has four consecutive Pacific Western Athletic Association (PACWEST) championship titles to their name and are aiming to win their fifth consecutive championship. Head coach Charles Parkinson laughs when asked how he plans to fit six new players into the roster to keep their successful streak going.
“If I knew the answer to that early on, I’d be a genius,” he says. “It’s like anything. It’s a puzzle where you try to look at what you have left after the end of a season, and then look at where you need to be doing your recruiting to fill in those gaps.”
Parkinson keeps a healthy mix of rookies and vets on the team. He says that the shorter length of some of the programs at Camosun means that the annual turnover on the court is higher.
“If you want to have continuity, have a mixture of guys at various years. You want to have a group of first-years and some guys that are going into their second years. If you’re blessed with guys that stay four or five years they can anchor the group,” he says. “The trick is to make sure you have that combination and that mixture, because if you don’t, then you have one good crop of guys and once they leave you’re sort of back to square one.”
But as more colleges offer four-year degrees, the nature of college volleyball has changed, says Parkinson. He says that skill levels are on the rise as longevity at the colleges increases, because the players are able to dedicate more time to their athletics.
“What you’re seeing is more and more players that are actually electing to play their college career and spend five years doing it, and are very happy to do so,” says Parkinson.
Over on the women’s team, Camosun second-year Athletic and Exercise Therapy student Katie Wayling says she functions better academically when she is also playing volleyball. Working with head coach Brent Hall has been incredible, she says.
“He’s not too far out of the game, so he’s been able to relate to a lot of things that we’re going through as student athletes; he’s a super fun coach, but he can also lay on the hammer when he needs to,” says Wayling. “He keeps the intensity up.”
Last year was Hall’s first year coaching; from Wayling’s point of view, it was more about connecting with each other and having fun with the game. Now, the intensity is rising; Wayling says she loves it, adding that it was hard for the rookies to settle down last year with fewer vets on the team. This year, people have become more established in their roles, she says.
“We have a couple more second-years on the roster,” she says. “It’s been a lot easier to raise the expectations; I think Brent’s pretty happy with it.”
Hall says that the training environment has been productive so far.
“Having more depth in training has made for a little bit more healthy competition, and I think we’ve been productive pretty quickly as a result,” says Hall.
Before becoming a coach, Hall played for the Chargers. He says his mentality had to change when he went into coaching.
“Being an athlete gives me a good background in understanding what it takes to compete at this level, but there’s certainly been a learning curve to picking up the skills that it takes to be a coach,” says Hall.
As an athlete you’re not overly concerned with the intricacies of motor learning, he says.
“In many ways it’s been a full restart,” says Hall, adding that he got into coaching to stay involved in the sport. “The mentality that I had as an athlete was much different than what I have now as a coach, and maybe part of that is being a male athlete and working with female athletes. It’s a little bit different.”
Wayling says that Hall is working on keeping the athletes a little bit more accountable; Hall says that having more depth to the roster this year helped with that.
“One of the biggest differences is just having the chance to do a little bit more recruiting,” says Hall, “Bringing in some people that really fit well with our team culture, our ideals.”
Wayling says the foundation of team culture comes from a place of love for each other.
“Having that support, the trust, and being able to hold each other accountable,” says Wayling, “those are our foundations.”
Parkinson says what counts is the relationships he forms and the joy everyone gets from playing, no matter the skill level. The success is icing on the cake, he says. After many years in the industry, the notion of perspective means a lot to him. He says even if he has the worst day ever, he goes to practice, “bathes in testosterone,” and focuses on helping the guys become better players.
“That has nothing to do with winning and losing,” says Parkinson. “It’s about helping people realize their potential, and being able to show them a path that they can walk down. Whether or not they go down that path is entirely up to them. You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make them drink.”
First-year Business Administration student Carter Karpenko plays on the men’s volleyball team; he says that he hits the gym every chance he gets.
“I’m always trying to get in the gym, work out, get stronger,” says Karpenko, “because I’m just like a boy in this league, basically, with all these men.”
Karpenko says you can’t hide anyone on the volleyball court; you can’t have a weak link. He says that Parkinson has shown him areas to improve where he never thought he could.
“Charles is a really good coach,” he says. “At this point in the game, you don’t think you’re gonna learn new things, but Charles keeps on teaching you plenty of stuff and helping me work on my game.”
Karpenko says the team is like a family.
“It’s been awesome, being a first-year, to really push myself, because I’ve never been able to play at this level before. [Charles] still pushes me to try harder and to do things perfectly because in a game you want to be perfect.”
The Chargers’ volleyball teams’ next home games are Friday, October 26 for both teams.
See camosun.ca/sports/chargers for a full game schedule and other information about all the Chargers teams.