A Vernon volleyball player is leaping from the high school court to the national level.
Liam Remple turns 17 today (July 4), and as an early birthday present he recently received word that he’d been named to the U19 Men’s Team Canada Volleyball roster.
“I was super excited and still kind of can’t believe it,” Remple said.
The six-feet-eight-inches middle blocker has a 40-inch vertical and has been a key component of the dominant Vernon Christian School Royals boy’s volleyball team, which was recognized in June with the North Okanagan Team of the Year award.
Back-to-back winners of the B.C. high school single A division championships, the Royals are undefeated at the provincial tournament over the past two years. In 2019/20 they finished with a record of 44 wins and six losses. Remple was named a fist team all-star at both championships.
Joining the U19 national team in 2020 is an entirely different prospect than any other year. Remple says the team won’t be training in-person, as the program has been shifted online because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It’s an online program this year instead of in the gym,” Remple said. “There’s two phases where we have four days in a row of just a lot of Zoom calls, and we’re just doing technical, more classroom learning instead of on the court.”
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According to Remple, there is still a slight chance that the team could come together in the fall for the Pan American Games in Honduras.
Remple has been a member of the Team B.C. program for the last four years and joined the U18 Select Team B.C. program last summer, winning a gold medal at the Canada Cup in Halifax. This year he’s once again been named to the Select program, which is gearing up for the Canada Games in 2021.
Remple has also received a scholarship offer to play for the reigning and six-time national champs, the Trinity Western Spartans, in 2021.
Remple said he’s excited to join the highly successful Spartans program led by Ben Josephson.
But heading into Grade 12, he’s also not looking past his time at Vernon Christian School where he’s been able to learn what it takes to become the team to beat.
“Back-to-back provincial championships, a second-place provincials, winning all the big tournaments in B.C., beating almost every school—it’s just been everything I could ask for.”