Landon Shannon has spent many hours on the road this summer.
The native of Chetwynd has travelled eight hours between his hometown and Prince George every weekend since early June when he cracked the Zone 8 Cariboo Northeast 15 and under boys volleyball lineup for the 2012 BC Summer Games, July 19-22, in Surrey.
Shannon is only one of two players on the 12-player roster put together by head coach Glenn Wong and assistant coach Linden Smith that are not from Prince George. The other out-of-town member is Joshua Calvart of Quesnel.
"My teacher said I should come down and try out because she thought I could really improve from it," said Shannon. "This is really fun. I love volleyball."
Shannon said the learning curve has been steep compared to volleyball at home but he's learned a lot which could help him transfer his skills from the junior game to the senior game in the fall when he returns to high school play.
"It's pretty difficult compared to Chetwynd," said the power hitter, adding the coaching methods are different. "We don't really have that many coaches that help out in Chetwynd."
He said he's impressed with the number of drills the coaches have put the Zone 8 team through and the different warm up routines he's learned.
Eight members of the Zone 8 team have experience playing with the Prince George Youth Volleyball Club Kodiaks, but for Shannon and three of the others the summer games experience will be the first they'll have at an elite level. All 12 members of the boys team are 15 years old.
Wong said the experience in Surrey will give the boys an opportunity to play against the best players in their age group in the province.
"I need them to get the experience because we don't get the competition up here," said Wong.
The team has practiced together four times a week in the last month.
The other members of the boys volleyball team that will head to Surrey on Wednesday night are: Thomas Anton, Matt Janzen, Keiran Leboe, Colby and Joel Molcak, Eric Murphy, Brady Patterson, Jared Pritchard, Landon Vy and Brylee Teschke.
