Swift Current’s Braedon Friesen may get a chance to represent Canada on the world stage for a second time.
Friesen, 19, was named to the 17-man roster for the Junior National Men’s Volleyball Team on Thursday. Friesen will now train in Gatineau, Quebec until the program selects a traveling roster for the Men’s U21 World Championship in Manama, Bahrain on July 18-27.
He won bronze with Canada’s Junior National Volleyball Team at the NORCECA U21 Men’s Continental Championship in Havana, Cuba last summer.
“Yeah it was great last year and looking forward to it again this summer,” said Friesen.
Friesen is already benefitting from training with the top players in the country.
“It’s great. It brings a lot of competition every practice playing with the best guys in Canada. It’s never easy, but it’s definitely a lot of fun competing at such a high level.”
He is hoping that his previous national team experience will help him this time around.
“I definitely learned last summer about taking care of your body in between sessions. It’s a long summer and it really wears down on you, so I think I’ve matured a lot with just taking care of my body on a day-to-day basis.”
The graduate of the Swift Current Comp Colts and Swift Current Junior SunDogs volleyball programs recently completed his first season with the University of Alberta Golden Bears, who finished third in Canada West with a 17-5 record before being eliminated in the quarter-finals by Thompson Rivers University.
“I think it was good. It was definitely a learning curve, definitely a big step up from playing club and high school. It was definitely a fun challenge. It was a great year and looking forward to start up next year,” said Friesen.
PHOTO COURTESY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF ALBERTA GOLDEN BEARS
The 6’6’’ left side was named to the Canada West All-Rookie Team after finishing with 52 kills in 49 sets.
“It was a big honor. They don’t pick a lot of guys to be on that Can West All-Rookie team. It was definitely great to get the award, just a big honour.”
Read the full story in next week’s edition of the Southwest Booster
