Smrek excels on the court
When Team Canada volleyball coach Dale Melnick saw Anna Smrek walk into her gym four years ago, she nearly jumped out of her shoes in excitement.
The daughter of former National Basketball League centre and Port Robinson resident Mike Smrek possesses her father’s athletic ability, not to mention his height.
“I used to run the Volleyball Canada Centre for Excellence and she walked into my gym and never played the game of volleyball and I looked at her and said, ‘Oh my gosh. Who are you? Are you ready to start playing volleyball?’
“You can’t teach height but you can turn a great athlete into a volleyball player.”
Smrek didn’t pick up her father’s love of the hardwood.
“I never really cared for basketball,” Smrek said. “I danced all my life.”
That dancing it turns out helped the 6-foot-8, 15-year-old Notre Dame student on the volleyball court.
“It helped so much with the way I moved and normally when someone is so tall they have kind of a hard time growing into such a tall size,” Smrek said. “I never felt out of place. I was able to move the same as everyone else.
“Nothing was ever awkward for me. That first year I had no idea where volleyball was going for me. I was just trying it out and the next year when I started training it took off from there.”
Smrek, who joined the Niagara Rapids before moving on to the Defensa Volleyball Club in Burlington, quickly picked up the game and last season represented Canada at the U18 NORCECA (The North, Central America and Caribbean Volleyball Confederation) Girls Continental Championships.
“She’s a pretty special character,” Melnick continued. “One thing led to another. She has just progressed year over year. Every time she touches the ball, she gets better.”
Smrek, along with Jenna Pollock of Sir Winston Churchill, are two local players who will represent Canada at the World Championships in Egypt Sept. 3-15.
“I was on the team last year and going into it, it felt good,” Smrek said. “I still had to work for that spot again. I went in with a good mind set, to train hard and play your best. There’s nothing else you can do. Play how you know and what you’re trained to do.”
Smrek feels her experience last year will be a big edge this time around.
“Just from the experience of such a high competition level, you kind of get an idea of what other countries train like and the training environments and having so many people watching you,” she said. “You have to come together as a team and support each other. With a lot of new girls on the team, I think it’s really cool to see them doing it for the first time and helping them through the process.”
Even though she is only about to enter Grade 11, Smrek already has a full athletic scholarship lined up for the University of Wisconsin for 2021 where she plans to study sports physical therapy and kinesiology.
“The recruiting process was really exciting but just committing to a school — especially such a great school like Wisconsin — was very exciting,” she said. “Even when you get update calls from school it’s so exciting talking to them knowing what I will have in the next few years.”
Melnick has no doubt Smrek has big things in store for her on the volleyball court as well.
“There’s no question she’ll be on our senior women’s national volleyball team one day and she’ll hopefully one day participate in the Olympics,” Melnick said.
The team spent the last week working out at Laura Secord Secondary School and Niagara Sport and Social Club, located at Rex Stimers Arena, at the suggestion of Pollock.
Nathen Jensen of Fonthill is also a member of the coaching staff.
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