Colin Carson is back on the Team Canada trail.
Carson, a 19-year-old setter from Prince George, will try out for Volleyball Canada's junior national team, May 17 to 21 in Gatineau, Que. If he makes the squad -- as he did last year -- he'll have a busy summer ahead of him, including playing in worlds, July 31 to Aug. 10 in Brazil.
Carson has never before competed in a world championship.
"That would be a huge honour," said the 2009 graduate of Duchess Park secondary school. "Last summer, representing Canada, in Canada, was really cool -- having the home crowd and stuff. But I think going to another country would be a huge accomplishment and really cool to do."
As a Team Canada rookie last August, Carson helped the squad to a second-place finish at the Norceca championship, held on friendly turf in Gatineau. In the tournament final, Canada lost 25-14, 25-19, 25-16 to the United States. The silver-medal result, however, qualified the Canadians for these worlds.
Other stops on Team Canada's schedule this summer include Slovenia for a training camp and Argentina for a pre-worlds tour.
At the upcoming selection camp, Carson will try to lock up one of two available roster spots for setters. His main competition is expected to come from TJ Sanders of McMaster University and Jarron Mueller of the University of Alberta. Sanders, like Carson, will be trying to make the club for the second year in a row.
Even though Carson should have an inside track on a job, he'll be taking nothing for granted.
"I wouldn't say I feel great about my chances because there are lots of good players from everywhere in Canada," he said Friday night from Kamloops, the home base of his club team, the Thompson Rivers University WolfPack. "But, yeah, I'm trying to be confident, so we'll see.
"[Sanders and Mueller] are both really good players so I think it will be a good, intense camp. Hopefully I can make it but, either way, we should be well-represented in that position."
To help prepare for the Team Canada tryouts, Carson spent a good chunk of this week in Langley, training with members of the Trinity Western University Spartans. He'll return to Langley this coming week for more court sessions with those players.
"[The Spartans] have quite a few guys that are either trying out for the junior national team or for the World University Games team so they still have quite a few of their guys here," Carson said. "It's good -- pretty much full practices."
Coincidentally, the Spartans knocked Carson's WolfPack out of the Canada West playoffs in February. Carson said he hasn't been taking any ribbing from the guys who ended his season.
"It's a little bit tough to see them, especially considering they ended up winning nationals," Carson said. "But they're all really nice guys so it's not that big of a deal."
Carson said next season's WolfPack should be strong.
"I think we're returning most of our team and we've got some really good recruits coming in," he said. "We'll just continue to build and hopefully get more experience and make a good run next year."
One of the recruits for next year is Nic Balazs, a middle blocker from Prince George. The WolfPack also have P.G.'s Spencer Reed, a libero, on their roster.
