Pollock selected for NextGen program
Jenna Pollock has been working her way through the ranks of Volleyball Canada’s women’s program for a number of years.
The 18-year-old St. Catharines native was an alternate with Canada’s under-18 national team in 2017 before being selected for the team in 2018. She played for Canada at the world championships in 2019 in Egypt. As a member of the under-20 team in 2020, the COVID 19 pandemic cancelled on-court play but Pollock was involved in virtual training and then was in Richmond , B.C., from September until December, training with Volleyball Canada’s National Excellence Program.
Home since Dec. 19, the Grade 12 student at Sir Winston Churchill was biding her time until heading to Boston College this fall on a scholarship, never thinking that Volleyball Canada had plans for her this summer. It does.
The 6-foot-2 middle has been selected to be a part of the Women’s NextGen Program, hosted at the National Training Centre in Richmond, B.C. The 10-week session, which runs from May 24 to July 30, provides the invitees with a full-time training environment, focusing on technical and tactical development in line with the women’s senior A team.
“It was a complete shock,” she said. “Since it is a senior program and it is called the senior B team. I signed up thinking it would be cool if I made it but I wasn’t expecting to make the senior program, especially this year. I was hoping maybe for next year.”
Pollock was informed of the selection in a phone call from national team head coach Shannon Winzer, who coached Pollock in the National Excellence Program. She couldn’t immediately say yes to the offer.
“With me going to Boston College in the fall, it was just figuring out if I could actually go because reporting days (for universities) are different.”
The coaches at Boston College and the national team discussed the opportunity and agreed it was a good move for Pollock.
“It ended up working out great and I will be able to go for the full two months.”
She will have six days off from when NextGen ends and when she is expected to be at Boston College. A summer of training should bode well for her first year of university volleyball.
“I am going to be the youngest one there and the only one just graduating high school so I am going to be surrounded by university athletes and even some who have graduated university already,” she said. “It is definitely going to be a lot of learning for me and it will prepare me for what I am going to be experiencing in Boston. I am going to be the youngest one there too.”
She is looking forward to improving her game at the camp.
“I want to learn from the athletes I am training with. A lot of them have had senior experience with the NCAA and I want to soak up as much as I can from them and work on my footwork, making my movements a lot more crisp and also getting information on how they read setters.
“Going against great setters, it is hard to read them so any insight in that is going to be great.”
She can’t wait to get started.
“I’m excited to get back on the court and represent Canada at the senior level,” she said. “That is something that I have always wanted to do.”
Pollock had a few practices with her travel team, Defensa, in December before the lockdown hit in Ontario again.
“It was difficult not being able to be on the court but I have been spending time with my family and working out and stuff just to keep in shape until I get back on the court.”
She has been following on-line programs, but there’s only so much she can do.
“Having this really long break, I don’t really know what to do with all my free time now,” she said. “When I got back and had a few weeks off around Christmas, it was kind of nice but after a week it was ‘Can we get back on the court?’ ”
She will now get that chance at a high level.
“The NextGen program is a gateway for the senior national team and is an extremely important part of the women’s national team framework,” said 2021 NextGen head coach Gina Schmidt on the Volleyball Canada website. “I am very excited to have the opportunity to work with this talented group of athletes we have selected to this year’s team.”
The NextGen focus is clear.
”The aim of this program is to create a sustainable podium pathway for indoor women’s volleyball by developing world-class athletes, who will help propel Canada beyond the current successes, to Olympic qualifications and podium performances,” Winzer said on the Volleyball Canada website.
The NextGen camp will follow strict COVID-19 protocols.
“We have to do a five-day isolation before we start training and then on Sunday the 23rd we get COVID tests to make sure we are all negative,” Pollock said. “Once that comes through, we start training on the Monday and we have to wear masks when we train, keep safe and follow all the rules that British Columbia has in place.”
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