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Hunt bags role as top volleyball player

In 2009 Taylor Hunt arrived at RDC with the ability to be one of the premier players in the Alberta Colleges Men’s Volleyball League.

In 2009 Taylor Hunt arrived at RDC with the ability to be one of the premier players in the Alberta Colleges Men’s Volleyball League.

Two years later the native of Brooklin, Ont., is the premier player in the league and in the running for the player of the year in the Canadian Colleges Athletic Association.

Hunt, who played one year with the University of Manitoba prior to coming to RDC, believes the college has played a major role in his development as a person as much as a volleyball player.

“This college changed my entire outlook on life, in terms of volleyball, teammates and schooling,” he said. “The experience has taken me to a whole new level in sense of being a person, player, teammate and student. It’s been an unreal experience.”

Hunt was a major factor in the RDC Kings strong season that saw them finish second to the Briercrest Bible College Clippers and earn a berth in the national finals, which open Thursday in Sherbrooke, Que.

Hunt led the ACAC in kills and aces during the season and was first in kills in the playoffs.

For his outstanding season he was named to the All-Canadian team as well as being the ACAC player of the year.

Hunt also finds himself among an elite group of RDC grads, who were named the ACAC player of the year and later won the CCAA player of the year honours.

Mike McPherson (1999), Nicholas Cundy (2002), Brock Davidiuk (2003) and Mitch Irvine (2010) have all won the CCAA award once and Joey Martins did it in 2005 and ‘06.

“It’s a nice group to be in, I’m pumped about it,” said Hunt.

The award will be announced during the banquet Wednesday.

Hunt came to RDC as a power hitter, but switched to the right side this season when Darcee Froese injured his shoulder early in the season.

“I did what I had to do to help us win,” said Hunt. “I haven’t played the right side since Grade 12, but I got used to it quickly and Nick (setter Nick Bell) and I have a good connection going.”

It seemed only appropriate that Hunt would play the right side as he follows in the footsteps of a number of the outstanding players such as Cundy, Schmitt., Dallas Soonias and Irvine.

“I can’t compare myself to those athletes,” said Hunt. “They’ve done so much for this school and the sport. I do what I can to help us win.”

Hunt will attend the University of Alberta next season and play for the Golden Bears.

“It’s taken me a couple more years to get there than I expected, but it’s been all worthwhile and I’m going to a good program,” he said.

The Kings, who are returning to the nationals for the first time since winning in 2007, open Thursday at noon (MDT) against Ontario champion Humber Hawks.

“They have a lot of big boys and they played well at the Mount Royal tournament at Christmas,” said Hunt.

“I know I’m looking forward to playing against my home province.”

The Kings have been watching tape on the Hawks, who impressed Kings head coach Aaron Schulha.

“They have size and won’t be any pushovers,” said Schulha. “They have about the same size on the outside as we do, but Taylor will be the x-factor. We have a tough draw, but then you expect that at the nationals. I know Briercrest comes in ranked second and they’ll have a tough draw as well.”

Briercrest will face Limoilou College of Quebec City in the opening round while top-ranked UBC Okanagan of Kelowna takes on the University of Kings College of Halifax and third-ranked Sherbrooke meets Columbia Bible College of Abbotsford.

The Kings will likely be without middle blacker Sean Tuff, who is out with an ankle injury.

“There’s a chance he may be able to play, but we’re not banking on it,” said Schulha. “Trent (Schmidt) did a good job at the provincials and while he’s not the offensive threat that Sean is, he’ll do a good job blocking.”

• When Mary Smith decided to attend RDC at Christmas it proved to be a major boost to the badminton team.

Smith not only finished second in the ACAC women’s singles and third in women’s doubles along with Paige Currah, but joined Keelan Stefanik to finish second in mixed doubles and earn a berth to the nationals, where they placed fifth.

The resident of Olds could have played in singles, but decided to go in the doubles.

“This way it gave Keelan a chance to go as well” she said.

The team beat Atlantic Canada in the fifth-place match.

“Overall we played well. I was pleased with my play, but Keelan suffered a bit of an injury and it hurt his mobility a bit. But still we were competitive with the other teams.”

Smith attended RDC to take accounting and will be back next year.

“I’m looking forward to that,” said the 29-year-old, who has four children and helps run In House Specialties in Olds with her husband.

Smith grew up playing badminton, although she never played at a major club level.

“I try to attend the Badminton Alberta series of tournaments every year, which is a good learning experience, but other than that I just play at the local places,” she explained.

• The men’s curling team of skip Evan Asmussen, third Dawson Abraham, second David Senft and lead Matt Brassard received the Boston Pizza RDC male athlete of the week award after winning the ACAC title over NAIT.

The women’s award went to lead Miranda Andreas of the mixed team that won bronze.

drode@www.reddeeradvocate.com