LANGLEY — Hard to believe that so much time has gone by since we announced our first B.C. senior boys Grade 12 high school volleyball Player of the Year back in December of 2009.
In case you don’t remember, he stood 6-foot-4 and was a dynamic outside hitter from Surrey’s Fleetwood Park Secondary.
Nick Del Bianco turned out to be a very fine first-year winner.
In fact he was later named U Sports (then-CIS) national Player of the Year as a fifth-year senior with the Trinity Western Spartans.
Ever since, as we did that first year, we have asked our B.C.-based U Sports men’s volleyball head coaches to cast their votes for B.C.’s Top 15 Grade 12 players.
This season, our winner is Abbotsford Christian’s UBC-bound outside hitter Cole Brandsma who was still early in his elementary-school days when Del Bianco got our parade of stars underway.
Today we welcome our 10th class of B.C.’s best:
1 Cole Brandsma
(click here to read our feature story on B.C.’s No. 1 player)
School — Abbotsford Christian
Height — 6-foot-6
Position — OH
Poll points — 45
Freshman’s Future — UBC
2 Lachlan McBride
School — Van Tech
Height — 6-foot-6
Position — OH
Poll points — 42
Freshman’s Future — Queen’s
3 Matt Shand
School — College Heights (Prince George)
Height — 6-foot-2
Position — OH
Poll points — 33
Freshman’s Future — Douglas
4 Luke de Greef (30)
School — Lambrick Park (Victoria)
Height — 6-foot-5
Position — OH
Poll points — 30
Freshman’s Future — Undecided
5 Nick Prokopich
School — Earl Marriott (Surrey)
Height — 6-foot-4
Position — middle
Poll points — 29
Freshman’s Future — Undecided
6 Caleb Kastelein
School — Langley Christian
Height — 6-foot-4
Position — OH
Poll points — 26
Freshman’s Future — Undecided
7 Aaron Voth
School — Windsor (North Vancouver)
Height — 6-foot-6
Position — OH
Poll points — 22
Freshman’s Future — UBC Okanagan
8 Luke Tiegen (20)
School — MEI (Abbotsford)
Height — 6-foot-8
Position — middle
Poll points — 20
Freshman’s Future — UBC Okanagan
9 Ted Graveson (19)
School — Moscrop (Burnaby)
Height — 6-foot-1
Position — OH
Poll points — 19
Freshman’s Future — Undecided
10 Rhys Matheson
School — St. George’s
Height — 6-foot-1
Position — LS/libero
Poll points — 16
Freshman’s Future — Undecided
11 Jordan Simpson
School — Mt. Baker (Cranbrook)
Height — 6-foot-8
Position — middle
Poll points — 14
Freshman’s Future — College of the Rockies
12 Bailey Burdick
School — Summerland
Height — 6-foot-5
Position — middle
Poll points — 13
Freshman’s Future — Undecided
13 Dayton O’Neill
School — College Heights (Prince George)
Height —Unavailable
Position — middle
Poll points — 11
Freshman’s Future — Undecided
14 Logan Wenzel
School — Gulf Islands
Height — 6-foot-3
Position — setter
Poll points — 10
Freshman’s Future —Undecided
15 Connor Piers
School — Abbotsford Christian
Height —6-foot-4
Position — OH
Poll points — 9
Freshman’s Future — Undecided
Others receiving votes
Leonard Tesarik
School — Burnaby South
Height — 6-foot-6
Position — middle
Poll points — 8
Freshman’s Future — Undecided
Jackson Klassen
School — MEI (Abbotsford)
Height —Unavailable
Position — OH
Poll points — 7
Freshman’s Future — Undecided
Karsten Nielsen-Roine
School — Van Tech
Height — 6-foot-3
Position — outside hitter
Poll points — 4
Freshman’s Future — Undecided
Gavin Payne
School — Delta
Height — 6-foot-1
Position — left side
Poll points — 2
Freshman’s Future — Undecided
Kris Laguardia
School — Vancouver College
Height — 5-foot-6
Position — libero
Poll points — 1
Freshman’s Future — Undecided
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