Volleyball Canada is pleased to announce that Jeff Smith of Grande Prairie, Alberta, has been appointed the National Men’s Sitting Volleyball coach.
"We are really excited to bring Jeff into our men’s sitting volleyball program as we continue to work towards building a team that consistently competes on the international stage," said Volleyball Canada’s sitting program High Performance Director, Ian Halliday. "Jeff understands the challenges of building a strong program and creating a winning culture, and he has really embraced that opportunity. His willingness and openness to learn more about sitting volleyball and applying this to building a strong Canadian style of play is really exciting for our program moving forward."
Smith is the current head coach and mentor coach for Velocity Volleyball Club and head coach - Peace Wapiti Academy Women’s Volleyball (both based in Grande Prairie).
Smith has extensive experience in the development of the sport in Alberta. His past accomplishments include coaching the ACAC and CCAA silver medal winning Grande Prairie College Wolves Women’s team. He was also Team Alberta Provincial Team Coach (16U - 19U); winning gold at the Western Elite Championships and gold at the National Team Challenge Cup
Smith will be a part-time coach for the men’s program. He currently also works as a Commercial Lines Account Executive with Prairie Villa Insurance in Grande Prairie.
The men’s and women’s sitting programs, based in Edmonton, Alberta, are working toward qualifying for the 2020 Paralympic Games. This year in October, Canada will host the ParaVolley Pan Am Zonal Championship, which is a qualification event for the 2018 World Championship – the highlight of this year’s international competitive calendar.