Mark LaFleur's abilities as a volleyball coach are becoming known throughout the province and because of that, he'll have less free time on his hands this summer than most teachers do.
Volleyball BC has taken notice of what the Prince George coach has to offer and has named LaFleur head coach of the 15-and-under girls provincial team.
"It's my fourth year with the [provincial] program and my first as a head coach so I'm very excited," said LaFleur.
LaFleur spent the past two summers as an assistant with the 16U girls provincial team and in 2008 worked as an assistant with Chris Dahl on the 16U boys team. The 41-year-old social studies teacher at Duchess Park is a graduate of the now-defunct O'Grady Catholic high school, where he played with the Totems until he graduated in 1987. LaFleur has been coaching volleyball from the time he turned 21 and has spent hundreds of hours in the gym coaching girls volleyball at John McInnis, PGSS and D. P. Todd schools.
"I've worked with a lot of cool people who have been a big influence on me, people like Gordon Hay, Chris Dahl, John Glass, Sue Steel and Mike Sookochoff," said LaFleur. "I've been very lucky to be surrounded by good people over the years and I've worked with some fantastic kids in Prince George. I just enjoy it."
LaFleur, a Duchess Park social studies teacher, is a fixture in the Prince George Youth Volleyball Club. Two weekends ago in Burnaby he teamed up with Sookochoff to coach the Prince George Kodiaks 18U club team to a seventh-place finish out of 17 teams at a Super Series tournament.
The Team B.C. 15U girls will be made up of the top players picked from a series of regional camps in May. The Team North tryouts will be held in Prince George, May 28-29. The regional teams from the North, Okanagan, Vancouver Island, the Kootenays, Fraser Valley and the Lower Mainland will then play each other in the Baden Cup tournament in Kelowna, July 1-3.
From that tournament, the 12-member provincial team will be selected for a three-week training camp in Kamloops, where they will be practicing with the two provincial 16-and-under teams, as well as the 17-and-under team that will represent B.C. at the Western Canada Summer Games in Kamloops, Aug. 4-15.
"It's going to be a sea of volleyball in Kamloops for three or four weeks," said LaFleur. "The whole idea behind this is to accelerate their development. All these kids (on the 15U team) we hope will play CIS or, potentially, national team."
The ultimate goal this summer for the 15U team is the Western Elite championship in Kelowna, a 16-and-under tournament, July 22-24.
LaFleur is working on attaining his Level 3 credentials in the National Coaching Certification Program and spent weekends this winter working with CIS teams at Thompson Rivers University and UBC.
n Erika Morris, a Grade 11 student at PGSS who was coached for three seasons by LaFleur at John McInnis junior secondary school, is a strong candidate to make B.C.'s team for the Western Canada Games. Morris played on the 16U team last year with LaFleur as an assistant coach.
Mackenzie Bouchard of Duchess Park and Brooklyn Seamann of PGSS are also trying out for the 17U provincial team. Mitch Duthie of Kelly Road and Trevor Zemlak of D.P. Todd hope to use their experience as 16U provincial team members to lock up positions with the 17U team for Western Canada Games. Also in the mix for the 17U team is Nic Balazs, a Grade 12 D.P. Todd student who has signed to play at TRU next season. David Robertson of Duchess Park and Wayne Woyciehouski of College Heights are also trying out.
