Kim Bolin a leader of Griffins women’s volleyball team this season
Todd Pruner
sports editor
Just a couple years ago, Kim Bolin wasn’t thinking much about college volleyball.
She was finishing up Grade 12 at Notre Dame High School, one of Calgary’s newest, opening in 2005.
However, during the 2008-09 school year, she got an offer from the NAIT Ooks to join their team. But even then, she didn’t consider it too much at first.
She was used to playing high school volleyball, where her team played in division two in the Calgary league, and she had just recently begun playing with the Canuck Stuff Volleyball Club.
“Playing club and stuff, it became, ‘Oh, I can play with these girls that are going to college. Okay, maybe I can do this thing,’” Bolin said, now nearing the end of her second year in the management studies diploma program at Grant MacEwan University.
“Throughout Grade 12 was when I decided to go on.”
Bolin finished fifth at the Alberta Colleges Athletics Conference provincials last season with the Ooks before transferring to the Griffins.
She said it was difficult at first getting used to the difference in age between new players like herself and established fourth- and fifth-year veterans.
“You have to earn that respect,” she said. “As you get experience, you’re kind of known to be a leader or whatever, but you have to earn that coming in, so it’s a different dynamic and you’ve got to learn different people’s perspectives.”
In her first year at MacEwan, Bolin helped the Griffins to an 11-9 record this season, but they were able to just win one game at provincials en route to a seventh-place finish.
The six-foot middle was tied for first on the Griffins with 13 aces this season, was second on the team to Kaylene Ehret with 96 kills and led the team with 39 blocks.
“Because she’s such a physical girl, it’s just getting the understanding of the game, the timing,” said Griffins head coach Ken Briggs. “As a middle, your timing is so different, because everything’s so quick . . . Playing with (setter) Katelyn (Melnyk) for a full year obviously makes a difference with the timing between the two of them.”
Briggs added that confidence likely played a big part in Bolin’s development with the Griffins this year.
Bolin said it was the confidence that Briggs demonstrated in her was what inspired that confidence in herself.
“It helps to know that someone else has confidence in me because you never know what other people’s perceptions are and being put on the court is the biggest way of showing that confidence,” she said.
“Someone can always say it, like, ‘Oh yeah, I think you can do that,’ or whatever, but actually getting that opportunity shows it the best, right? It really helps me know that I have that ability.”
Bolin began playing volleyball in junior high, but it wasn’t until a few years later that she was able to take her game to the next level.
“I played junior and high school, but for me those levels were like gym class. There wasn’t the skill,” she said.
“For me to say when I started playing volleyball, I would say Grade 11 would be when it actually started being something worthy of being (called) volleyball.”
Bolin will be back at MacEwan in the fall to complete her management studies diploma and transfer into the bachelor of commerce program, and she said she’s already looking forward to getting back on the court.
Also coming back will be much of the core of the team, except for Ehret who will be moving on from MacEwan. Bolin will once again be playing with Melnyk, fellow middle Melissa Van Yken and libero Kendra Huculak.
“We’re veteran at some positions,” Briggs said. “I think we’re still trying to find that identity on the outside, and that’s where a lot of our recruits will be is on the outside. We know we need to be stronger.”
Two of the three players already committed to join the team next year out of high school could end up playing on the outside, Tyra Adamic and Corri Caouette.
Going into next season, Bolin said in order to be successful and have a longer run at provincials the Griffins need to keep their intensity up the whole season and can’t take anything for granted.
“I think we just have to believe in ourselves,” she said. “I’m not saying we didn’t do that this year, but I think after a shaky year like this, we didn’t excel like we wanted to, so just believe that we can do it, whether it be at practice or a game (and) know that we have to work for it. We can’t let down.”
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