Hawkin Paleczny signs with Brock
Hawkin Paleczny had decided to pursue his post-secondary volleyball career close to home.
The Grade 12 student at Sir Winston Churchill had interest from Trent and Western before ultimately deciding to sign with Brock at the end of February.
He chose the St. Catharines university for a variety of reasons.
“I saw great potential in the team, my main focus was not going too far away for university, Brock is a great school, my program is great and I really like the team and coaches,” the 18-year-old said. “I thought Brock was the best fit for all that.”
He worked out with the Brock team last summer and liked what he saw.
“I trained with a bunch of different universities in the summer and this was the one where I felt like I fit in the most.”
There were also financial considerations.
“I also wanted to stay close to home so that I didn’t go too much in debt,” he said with a laugh.
Training with Brock in the summer gave him a sense of what he needed to do to play at the university level.
“To take my game to the post-secondary level, I definitely have to get my hops (vertical jump) up,” he said. “I notice all the guys are touching way above 11 feet and I also have to work on my volleyball IQ.
“I think I am physically where I need to be but I have to keep practising the game and figuring out ways to make my game better.”
As for the hops, he can already touch 11 feet, but a number of his team favourites have taken up residence at the 12-foot level.
He is excited about the entire Brock experience.
“I am looking forward to playing on the team,” he said. “Volleyball is my favourite sport and I’m excited to graduate high school, go to university and play the sport I love. And it’s good volleyball too.”
The 6-foot-5 middle and right side was a member of the Sir Winston Churchill Bulldogs senior volleyball team that went undefeated in Niagara play and then ended up tied for fifth at the Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations AAA championships. He’s also in his fifth year of playing travel volleyball with the Niagara Rapids.
He started playing the sport in Grade 5.
“The thing I love about volleyball is that I have played many different sports and I found that volleyball has a little bit of everything,” he said. “You have to be good at jumping, you have to be fast and agile and you need to be strong mentally.”
This past fall, Paleczny had a busy schedule at Sir Winston Churchill, competing for the school’s football and volleyball squads.
“I love football too —that’s one of my other favourite sports — but I do feel volleyball is the best choice for me.”
This winter, he also played basketball at Churchill.
Brock coach Doug Hanes is excited to welcome Paleczny to Brock.
“His best attribute is that he is a hard-working guy with decent size and has been successful on all the teams that he has played for,” he said. “All the teams that he has played on have been in the top eight in the province and he has been their best middle.”
Middles with the ability to play at the university level are a hard commodity to find.
“He is obviously a good team player and a good team guy who is going to help us as far as maintaining team culture.”
Hanes also likes the local connection with Paleczny.
“There’s always the value of having local players because we don’t have that many,” he said. “He’s from the Rapids and we would like to engage the Rapids more and more and have more local kids make the team.”
Paleczny will have work to do to earn playing time.
“He wil have to work on leg strength so he can play higher because he is used to playing against 17- and 18-year-olds and now he is playing against men and, in some cases, they can be up to 25 years old in the prime of their athletic careers,” Hanes said.
It’s an adjustment all young players have to make.
“Kids come into the league and they’re not used to the speed and the power of the game at our level,” he said.
