EMERGENCY Team Canada Beach Fundraiser

May 16th, 2012 | By Mav

As our National Team funding continues to be delayed, now putting us at the 6 month mark without funding – having traveled around the world already (Brazil, USA, China, Europe, and back to Canada) with zero funding has been unbelievably difficult and if it weren’t for friends I would not have been able to compete and push for London 2012 simple based on lack of funds. We still have a few trips to Europe for many more events as the season continues. These competitions are crucial for many reasons; entry points, prize money, and London.

It’s with loads of relief  and pleasure to announce that the CAN Fund (Canadian Athletes Now Fund) has launched an emergency fundraiser in effort to bridge the gap between our lack of funding and our international competition expenses.

To donate to the Canadian Beach Volleyball team and help the Canadian Beach Volleyball program qualify for London go here: http://my.e2rm.com/personalPage.aspx?registrationID=1446366

Message from CAN Fund:

CANADIAN BEACH VOLLEYBALL EMERGENCY TRAVEL FUND

For the past 6 months none of our Canadian Beach Volleyball players have been receiving their carding, as it has been put on hold by their federation Volleyball Canada.  Carding is the government funding that is allocated to each federation to be distributed to the top athletes in Canada.  It’s a complex story as to why their carding is on hold but it has been a re-occuring issue for the past few years.  The important part of the story is that our athletes live and rely heavily on their carding income to cover their basic living expenses, to eat properly, to afford to travel to important international competitions.  Each team is also paying for their own travel, equipment, coaching and food as Volleyball

Canada does give them money to compete for Canada.

Both our Men’s and Women’s Beach Volleyball teams have only a few international competitions remaining for their final chance to qualify for London and to realize their dream of representing Canada.  They are the best in Canada, competing against the rest of the world’s best and many cannot afford to buy a plane ticket to get to their remaining competitions which are in the Czech Republic, Russia and Italy.   They are scheduled to depart this Friday May 18 to compete in these tournaments which are essential to their Olympic qualification process.  London is a dream that has been an 8+ year journey for most of these athletes.   From now until Friday May 18, when you donate to CAN Fund you will be helping our national beach volleyball athletes compete in their Olympic qualifiers

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Thanks CAN Fund – you guys are truly all about the athletes and we are extremely grateful for everything you do!

Please spread the word! Tweet, post, share, pin, tag, publish, email, do whatever you can to share this with your networks! Oh, I guess you could even phone people, if you still use that ancient method of communication, haha.

Much appreciated!

-Mav

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Help Me Help a Friend!

May 10th, 2012 | By Mav

If you attended our fundraiser at Dave&Busters earlier this year I want you to know that we were given that room at no charge and their event planner, Mary Patrick, helped us so much with prizing and kept our costs at a minimum.

Mary has been nominated for the “BizBash
Reader’s Choice Awards Special Events Venue Manager of the Year”

The winner is based on voting so PLEASE help us in helping her win this awesome award by voting for her here: http://www.bizbash.com/toronto/votes/voterschoice.php. Scroll down to CATEGORY 11 and vote for MARY PATRICK!

We thank you very much. Mary is an awesome event planner and an even better person. She is extremely deserving of this award. You can vote once every 24 hours if you like, but all we ask for is one!

Here is Mary’s bio from the BizBash website:

To know Mary Patrick is to know the wow factor. This multidimensional energy ball is the life force of Dave and Buster’s. She has been the Special Events Corporate Sales Manager for over 11 years. She and her team have been the top sales volume team in North America while also being the winner of the VCC Hospitality of the Year Award for the last five years running. Mary was also recognized as one of the top businesswomen in Vaughan in 2011. Her ability to build her client list is based on integrity, professionalism, creativity, and elbow grease when it’s required. What satisfies her most is the firm handshake from a client for a job well done the smiles that overwhelms her heart from the numerous charities she works with and contributes her time for.

Thank you so much for your help with this!!

-Mav

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Beijing Arrival and Shanghai Follow-Up

May 5th, 2012 | By Mav

I didn’t think it was possible, seeing the sky on a regular basis due to the thick coverage of smog but I was definitely judging the book (China) by it’s cover (Shanghai) as Beijing is clear, smokin’ hot, and from the small area I can see from my hotel window, looks quite nice.

We’ll be heading out shortly to adventure and most likely hit the courts later on once the heat diminishes.

Before we head out I wanted to thank everyone for their positive, encouraging words following my last blog. It’s always helpful and humbling to hear such kind words spoken and written from friends, fans, and family. Of course I was bummed about the outcome of Shanghai but I think I failed in expressing just how optimistic my thoughts were about Shanghai’s performance, and, are heading into Beijing.

We’re playing quite consistent, and Shanghai being just our seventh FIVB event, makes me extremely happy with our performance and progress thus far. Keep in mind we do expect to qualify and are in no way satisfied with the results we’ve started with but we are able to build with the positive things and look forward to another opportunity here in Beijing.

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Coaches always say you learn more from a loss then you do from a win, and I agree. It’s a great opportunity for reflection, if you can do so without a clouded mind. I am extremely critical of myself, my game, and expect a, what some would think, unattainable level of play on a consistent basis. I’m a firm believer in setting realistic, yet difficult to obtain goals and have done so for my entire volleyball career. This sometimes yields a high level of disappointment when I fail to achieve said goals but at the same time it’s what continues to drive me, and to be resilient.

One of the most important lessons I’ve learned to date came from, what I thought at the time to be an unlikely source. When I first started playing beach volleyball on kits beach I was extremely excited to win the consolation final – and that was due to my partner carrying me to the win. When I finally won my first beach tournament, years later, a guy who had bowed out on the consolation side came to me after the players meeting and said this:

“I’m not the best player out here but if I had one thing to pass on to you it’s to listen to everyone’s advice, without prejudice, and try it for yourself. Learn from everyone and you’ll be ahead of the game.”

Back then, I did just that, and I truly believe that played a big part in my progression in the sport. To be honest, I’ve forgotten that over the past couple years but had recently revisited this piece of advice. The reason I’m sharing this with you is because the few people who have taken the time to send me personal messages the past few days have only made that lesson ring truer and louder. It’s a good lesson that many up and coming youth can take for themselves and hopefully implement in their own athletic careers and lives.

There are many things one can learn from a loss. There are even more things one can learn from listening. It’s all tough to do but then again, anything of significance (in any aspect of life) will be tough.

Time to hit the town!

-Mav

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The Stages of Dealing With it All

May 3rd, 2012 | By Mav

Shanghai, China FIVB Grand Slam:

We lost 12-15 in the third set to a Great Britain team that stepped up at the most important time of the match in order to walk away victorious. Immediately after the loss I went through a mess of emotions. The first stage of dealing with the loss was support; I was deeply disappointed at our inability to finish out the third set but we’ll be going to the same qualifier again next week so the most important thing is support after something like this. After a brief gaze, zoning out for a moment, I turned to Sam before acknowledging anything or anyone else.

The next stage was pure frustration, with the added thought of last week’s similar experience in the back of my mind, which I tried to suppress as I slowly gathered my things and walked off court. Other then an aggressive grasp of my water bottle I didn’t really show too much frustration, there was no point – I beat Sam back to the room and immediately sat down and started playing loud music. The playlist I landed on was littered with an artist from back in the day when I would listen to when my frustrations were running high – ‘Killswitch Engage’ – there’s something about heavy (real heavy) metal that helps me relax.

As I showered away the dirt and sand I began the reflection stage. Certain aspects of the match, area’s that I could have performed better in and others that I felt I performed quite well in. This was the first tournament of the season where I clutched up and bombed a few serves late in the match when we needed them – unluckily landing right in the opponents bread basket, so I guess it didn’t really matter that I was hitting them with quite a bit of pace.

Sitting down to change the music as the heavy metal was now overwhelming, I began skimming through the video of the match we just lost – something that many people would disagree with seeing as how we had just lost and accurate evaluation is something tough to achieve in that state. Whatever though… I wasn’t really looking to break it down or evaluate the game; I just sat there skipping through plays seeing the good and bad. I skipped to the end of the third and saw the score 11-11 with us siding out, then saw Great Britain up on the switch 14-11 and shut it off – back to the frustration stage…

It was soon forgotten, or at least put on hold, as a crew of us arrived at Pizza Hut for dinner – I kid you not, some of the best food we’ve had since being here. After that I came back to the hotel and laid in bed thinking about the day that had just passed.

There have been so many positive things in the past two tournaments; it’s impossible to let the result of not qualifying overshadow them. That’ll be key moving forward. Beijing is up next, another Grand Slam event.

We leave for Beijing tomorrow and will begin training shortly after. A little more prep in every aspect and we’ll be in a better spot next time – wish us luck!

-Mav

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Poland – A Two Point Heartbreak

April 29th, 2012 | By Mav

18-16 in the third – that close to qualifying last week in Poland. The Ces brothers of France, who ended up walking away with a 9th, prevailed with a three set win after beating us badly in the first set and us answering back in the second to push it to a third.

Previous to that we had two good tough matches. Our first match was against a young Italian team – in no rhythm at all we managed to win in two straight sets but bonus points were needed in the second set. Our second round opponent was Jennings/Strickland of USA – we were staying with them for almost the entire first set, I think the biggest lead they had was 3 points. At 17 all Sam was back serving and he made a dig and transition to be up on the side change 18-17. After a US side out, we answered back then ended the game on two straight blocks, 21-19, or 22-20?

Sorry, I’m on the plane and have no internet to confirm.

Going into the second we were really fired up having battled hard in the first. They took an early slim lead and although we were staying with them early they ended up pulling away and ended it 18-21.

Our first third set of 2012 – I can’t count how many three setters we played last year having both won and lost the first, so we were definitely comfortable going in. It was pretty tight the whole way, both teams siding well and getting steals. Late in the set, into bonus points yet again, we were going side out for side out. And when we finally managed to gain the advantage we let it slip away after Jennings made a great dig and transition to steal it back.

I couldn’t believe my eyes on the next play – Strickland was back to serve and popped a float to me, I passed it low to the right side of the court and Sam, backpedaling, chucked up what was clearly a double contact – as numerous people watching the game let out the standard “ohhhhhh” sigh (normally only heard on clearly poor sets) after the set was made. As I approached, praying the ref would not call it – the score now 16-15 for USA (match point) – I got into a joust situation with Strickland and won it, the ref whistle unheard – Jennings, rightfully furious, letting out a very warranted yell. We got away with one there. The next play added to our luck and USA’s woes as my serve hit the net and rolled over for an ace. The score now 17-16. Serving again Sam made two digs back to back and on the second attempt tooled Strickland for the win – our toughest battle so far this season. On to the third and final round.

You already know what happened against France. They beat us 16-21 in the first, exclusively serving me and getting a bunch of stops. Into the second set I found my rhythm and with a few key plays by Sam and some big blocks we won 21-19. We were up 12-10 in the third as well, not making any points on our serve but siding out well. Another fortunate ‘no call’ on a set by me (again the sigh was heard from onlookers in the stands) kept us in it but we couldn’t capitalize this time around and shortly after, Kevin Ces made two fantastic defensive plays in the final rally putting Andy right on the net – Andy poked it over my block landing just passed the diving outstretched arm of Sam, game over.

Opportunity missed! A valuable experience though, and some fuel leading into our first ever Grand Slam events. By the time this is posted we’ll have had checked into the hotel here in Shanghai, on the beach.

A few days of training before the qualifier begins…

-Mav

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