Tyler Dahl ready to dig for volleyball gold

Sixteen-year-old Tyler Dahl stands five-foot-nine in her bare feet.

By most comparisons, that’s considered quite tall for a girl her age.

But not in volleyball — and not compared to her teammates on the BC 18U provincial volleyball team, which will represent the province at the 2025 Canada Summer Games in St. John’s, N.L.

“I’m the shortest on my team, other than our libero,” said Dahl. “A lot of them are six-footers. One of them is six-foot-three and one is six-foot-two. It’s hard for me to block sometimes because my arms are half the length.”

The BC 18U team will tune up for the Canada Summer Games at the Canada Cup tournament in St. Catharines, Ont., July 22 to 27. Dahl leaves Prince George on Sunday, July 6 to begin two weeks of training in Kamloops before the team flies to Ontario.

“I’m expecting a lot of hard work, especially because a lot of the girls on our team just won club nationals with one of the Vancouver teams — at least three that I know of played on that team,” said Dahl, who turns 17 in December.

She earned her spot on the provincial team after a three-day tryout in late May. Dahl was on the drive back to Prince George when she received the email confirming she’d made both the Canada Cup and Canada Games rosters.

“Crazy me, I did not think I was going to make it because I was one of the shortest and one of the youngest girls trying out,” she said. “So I was really surprised.”

Based on her track record, she shouldn’t have been.

At the 16U Canada Cup in Calgary, Dahl helped Team BC win gold while playing alongside Prince George teammate Delaney Turner. Dahl was named the tournament’s most valuable player. She was also MVP for her Prince George Kodiaks 16U club team that won the Best of the West tournament in 2024.

An offside (left-side) hitter, Dahl just completed Grade 11 at Prince George Secondary School and has been on the provincial team’s radar for several years.

“Her speed on defence is ridiculous,” said Polars head coach Jasen Florell. “She gets to balls you wouldn’t think anybody’s getting to. She’s not a big kid, but on offence her speed and transition going to the ball gives her so much power. Her jumping and speed make up for what she’s lacking in height.”

Dahl was one of three club volleyball players on the PGSS senior team last year and was a major factor in the Polars’ strong showing at the Quad-A zone tournament at PGSS. The team pushed the North Peace Grizzlies of Fort St. John to five sets in the final. North Peace went on to finish sixth in the province.

Dahl started playing volleyball six years ago when she joined the Prince George Youth Volleyball Club. She’s had the same club coach, Mark Lafleur, for the past five seasons.

Before discovering volleyball, she spent a decade in gymnastics. Those years helped develop her strength, flexibility, agility and body awareness — all skills that now make her a standout defensive player. She trained with the Prince George Gymnastics Club and competed at the second-highest level for her age group before quitting at age 12.

“I think it really helped my athleticism. I loved it — it made me really flexible for volleyball and I’m not afraid to throw my weight around,” said Dahl. “In gymnastics they teach you a lot about how to be safe and land safe — it’s the most important thing. I tell my sister, you can get any ball if you just go for it. I never miss a ball I’m really committed to. I just tuck my head in and roll.”

Volleyball runs in the family. Her second cousin, Chris Dahl, is a former coach at Kelly Road Secondary School who led the Camosun Chargers women’s team to a Canadian college national championship in 2017. He also coached the 16U national team for Volleyball Canada. Her grandfather, Glen Dahl, is a Kelly Road graduate who played for the College of New Caledonia.

The Canada Games run Aug. 16 to 25 in Newfoundland, and Dahl said she’s excited to learn more about the game while competing against the country’s top under-18 players.

At the last Canada Summer Games in 2022 in Niagara, Ont., Macyn Unger of Prince George — a Duchess Park grad now playing at Simon Fraser University — helped BC win bronze in women’s volleyball.

Dahl hopes her parents and two siblings will be able to travel to St. John’s to watch her compete. But it’s a costly trip, and accommodations and rental vehicles are hard to find with thousands of people descending on the city in August.

Her father, Cassidy, is still amazed at how far his eldest daughter has come. College scouts are already talking to Tyler about scholarships that could help her pursue studies in kinesiology after graduation.

“I feel like she’s an anomaly — competing against the top players in Canada. Who gets there?” said Cassidy Dahl. “What amazes us about her is the average hitter at this level is six-foot or six-foot-one — minimum.”