Calgary volleyball club raising funds to help national team go to Olympics

Kayla Vickers, 16, has a passion for volleyball.

She practices every day at Centennial High School and three times a week with her club at Ace Volleyball in southeast Calgary.

Her goal is to compete in the Olympics one day.

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Kayla and her teammates look up to the current members of Canada’s national team. They’re also holding a fundraiser to help them achieve their Olympic dreams.

“Volleyball is my passion and volleyball is their passion,” Vickers said. “To know we’re kind of helping them is just a cool feeling.”

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Between now and next March, Ace Volleyball is holding a fundraiser where it hopes to raise $20,020 to go towards the national women’s team goal of competing in the 2020 Olympics.

Kayla’s teammate Kristin Gretener is also highly motivated to help Team Canada.

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“I look up to a lot of them because I want to be able to play at that level and play on the women’s national team,” she said. “Being able to fundraise for them and help them get there is really cool.”

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Jessie Niles was a star with the University of Alberta Pandas and now plays professionally in Austria and is a member of the national team.

She’s very thankful for what these young volleyball players are doing to help her and her teammates.

“Funding is always an issue,” Niles said. “Having a community behind us and supporting us to reach those goals is so key to actually reaching them.”

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David Wildman is the technical director at Ace volleyball and is thrilled the girls in his program as so eager to support their role models.

“We felt this would be a great opportunity to empower our players and empower women in sports,” Wildman said. “This fundraiser supports the role models that they look up to and hope to be one day.”

Team Canada will start the Olympic qualifying process in 2019 and Niles says all the girls that help the team will be on their mind.

“Thank you so much for your support… I hope to see you in my shoes in a couple years.”

For more info, check out Acevolleyballclub.ca