Elite coaches head to Cambridge Bay to teach volleyball

After the final Cambridge Bay clinic on Dec.11, student participants received Volleyball Nunavut t-shirts and posed for a photo with Scott Schutz, left, back row, and Larry McKay, back row, middle, before thanking them for passing on their volleyball skills and expertise. (PHOTO BY KELCEY WRIGHT)

Adam Komaksiut, 12, bumps the ball during a volleyball skills drills on Dec. 11 in the Kiilinik High School gym. (PHOTO BY KELCEY WRIGHT)

Special to Nunatsiaq News

CAMBRIDGE BAY— Bump, set, spike!

No, it’s not a wrestling match.

That’s the sound of Cambridge Bay students learning to play volleyball this holiday season.

“Volleyball is growing hugely in Nunavut,” said Scott Schutz, the executive director of Volleyball Nunavut. “We really want to drum up as much interest in [the sport] as possible.”

Schutz, who has coached at the university level and national team level, along with Larry McKay, who is currently the assistant coach of the Canadian men’s national team, ran a week-long high performance volleyball clinic for youth in Cambridge Bay.

“Our clinics are open to everyone,” said Schutz, who often brings up current national team players to help with the clinics. “We [would] never turn anybody away.”

Each year Schutz travels from his home in Kelowna, B.C., to visit three or four Nunavut communities to teach the students how to play volleyball.

This year, the former national team player visited Pond Inlet, Arviat, Iqaluit, and for the first time, Cambridge Bay, from Dec. 8 until Dec.11, working with kids from kindergarten to Grade 12.

Each morning, the two men held basic skills drills with elementary school students. Then, in the afternoon, they held mini-clinics for high school students. And each night was open gym clinics for anybody who wanted to play more volleyball.

“Volleyball is my second favourite sport now,” said 12-year-old, Adam Komaksiut, who attended all four after-school clinics. “[This week’s clinics] were really, really fun. I want to try to play volleyball at university now. I like it.”

And Komaksiut wasn’t the only kid who enjoyed the after-school volleyball; over 30 kids showed up at the Kiilinik High School gym each night to learn to pass, hit, serve and dig the volleyball like professionals.

“It would be great if we could get a team [from Cambridge Bay] to go to territorials this year,” said Schutz, who says it’s hard to compete with basketball’s popularity in the western Kitikmeot town.

“In Cambridge Bay we’re really just trying to get some interest in the sport,” said Schutz. “Just like we have in a lot of other communities.”

In 2012, during Schutz’s first year touring Nunavut with his clinics, nine teams went to volleyball territorials. Last year, 17 teams went to the tournament and this year, more than 30 teams plan to attend the biggest volleyball tournament in Nunavut from May 9 to May 12.

Already this year, Schutz organized for a boys team and a girls team to go to both the North American Indigenous Games, where the boys team won a silver medal, and the Arctic Winter Games, where the boys team won a bronze medal.

“I love the grassroots part of the game. I love developing raw skills,” said Schutz, who also puts on coaching clinics and refereeing clinics. “I really do like doing these things.”

And in February 2015, Schutz will take 20 young volleyball players — 10 girls and 10 boys — to Iqaluit to compete in the Iqaluit Open Volleyball Championships and to help with one of his coaching clinics.

“I planned it so it will take place at the same time as the teachers conference,” he said. “Hopefully we will get some teachers to come and learn the systems and take that information back to their communities to help their teams.”

Schutz’s job never seems to end, and he’s always looking for ways to further promote volleyball.

“We want to see as many kids as we can [when we tour Nunavut],” said Schutz. “We want to get more and more kids in the territory playing volleyball.”