Canada benefit from roster depth in the VNL

With 15 Preliminary Round matches per team scheduled to take place over the course of a month in the secure ‘bubble’ in Rimini, Italy, roster depth is a must for the 16 national teams in each gender which are competing in the 2021 FIVB Volleyball Nations League.

Probably more than at any time in the past, Canada’s men’s team can feel really comfortable about that as head coach Glenn Hoag has a big and talented squad to manage during the tournament in Italy.

The abundance of options available to him is brought about by several factors such as the increased number of Canadians playing in the best club leagues in the world and the return to form of players like setter TJ Sanders and middle blocker Daniel Van Doorn, who had to deal with physical issues in the past.

“I think we have a good and deep roster here,” team captain and outside hitter Gord Perrin, who spend the last season in Russia, said. “We have several Canadians playing professionally in Europe now and that’s where the best volleyball is. That’s really helping our country and we’re starting to see a big improvement in that regard.”

Hoag is currently working with a 17-man roster in the VNL and he has already benefited from that depth in the tournament. The coach made several lineup changes from the team’s debut against the United States to its second match against Argentina and had positive answers from some of the players he brought it, including opposite Ryan Sclater and outside hitter Nicholas Hoag, who scored 14 and nine points respectively.

Player rotation is something to be expected from Canada during the VNL as besides winning matches, the North Americans are also looking forward to finding their best squad for the Tokyo Olympics, to which Hoag will only be able to take 12 players.

“We haven’t submitted our roster for the Olympics yet and everybody is competing for those 12 spots,” Perrin commented. “We haven’t played together in a long time, so the coaching staff is experimenting and trying to find out which combination of players works best at this point. We’ll keep trying with different lineups to see what the best option is.”