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Chasing Gold: Leading The Next Generation Into The Canada Summer Games

The last time that Evelyn Kampen was representing her province it was 2006 and the former River East Kodiak left-side was competing for Manitoba in the Western Canada Games. Fast forward to 2017, and the third-year CMU Women's Volleyball head coach is right back at it but in a very different role, assistant coaching with Manitoba's under-18 Canada Summer Games Team who are scheduled to take the court for the first time on August 7th in Pool D action against Team Yukon.

"The opportunity came about through the Volleyball Manitoba Executive Director, John Blacher, who was seeking a few strong female coaches to join the Canada Games coaching staff," said Kampen who is assistant coaching alongside Jayme Menzies who recently returned from head coaching Team Manitoba at the North American Indigenous Games, under 18U Girls Head Coach Josh Thordarson.

Kampen and the team have spent the last week in Florida competing in the USA High Performance Girls Volleyball Championship's International Division with teams coming from as far away as Peru and New Zealand. Joining Manitoba in the Florida pre-competition test were two provinces that the Kampen-coached girls will be competing against in the Canada Summer Games; British Columbia and Saskatchewan.

The Girls Volleyball portion in the 50th Anniversary of the Canada Summer Games will run from August 7th to 12th at the University of Manitoba's Investors Group Athletic Centre. With success in pool play against BC, Saskatchewan, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and Yukon, the Manitoba Girls could face two very powerful and dangerous opponents likely to come out of Pool C, in Team Alberta and Team Ontario.

"We all believe that we have a good shot to advance past our pool and qualify for the medal round," said Kampen, "and from there, with all the support that comes from being the host province and city, anything could happen."

For a complete list of Canada Summer Games events and the Girls Volleyball schedule, visit www.canadagames.ca/2017

 

 

 

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