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OTTAWA, Canada,
May 20, 2021 - Head coach Glenn Hoag and the
senior men’s team are set to resume
international competition and are heading to
Italy for Volleyball Nations League.
The roster
includes several veteran 2016 Olympians (TJ
Sanders, Gord Perrin, Steve Marshall, Nick Hoag,
Jay Blankenau, Dan Jansen Van Doorn, Graham
Vigrass and Blair Bann) as well as several
athletes who played in the Olympic qualifier and
a few relatively new faces.
Carrying on from
the successful 2018 and 2019 competitions, 2021
Volleyball Nations League (VNL) continues in the
same format of 12 core teams and four challenger
teams per gender with each team playing against
every other – though in view of the
ongoing pandemic all matches of both genders
will be played in the Italian city of Rimini.
The men's core
teams are Argentina, Brazil, France, Germany,
Iran, Italy, Japan, Poland, Russia, Serbia and
USA. They are complemented by the challenger
teams from Australia, Bulgaria and Canada, plus
newcomers Slovenia, who won the 2019 FIVB
Volleyball Challenger Cup and are replacing
Portugal who were relegated that same year, and
the Netherlands, who are replacing China.
The 2021 VNL is
set to start on May 25 for the women and May 28
for the men with the preliminary round completed
on June 20 for the women and June 23 for the
men. The 2020 event was cancelled due to the
pandemic.
The men’s team
is qualified for Tokyo 2020, based on its early
2020 win of the NORCECA zone tournament. The
2020-1 Olympic roster will be released at a
later date.
Athletes:
TJ Sanders
Gordon Perrin
Steven Marshall
Nicholas Hoag
Jordan Pereira
Stephen Maar
Jay Blankenau
Ryan Sclater
Daniel Jansen Van Doorn
Lucas Van Berkel
Sharone Vernon-Evans
Eric Loeppky
Graham Vigrass
Blair Bann
Arthur Szwarc
Brett Walsh
Danny Demyanenko
Staff:
Head Coach:
Glenn Hoag
Assistant
Coaches: Daniel Lewis, Gino Brousseau
Physiotherapist:
Tracy Blake
Strength &
Conditioning Lead: Michael Cook
Statistician:
Lionel Bonnaure
Physiotherapist:
Melissa Healy
Team Manager:
Julien Boucher |
