Brooklyn Grobb-Prins already possesses the physical ability to be a force on the volleyball court at the next level, and now she’s added some valuable experience to draw on when she gets there.
The 16-year-old from Selkirk recently returned from her first international business trip, as a member of the Canadian U21 team, at the inaugural Shanghai Volleyball Future Star Championship, held at Fudan University.
The Canadians played teams from China, Brazil, France, Serbia, Thailand and Vietnam. Though Grobb-Prins didn’t see much action, the mental reps proved to be just as important as she watched the foreign opposition do things she had never seen before.
“I’ve never played a game like that in my life. The speed of the game was super fast and the other teams ran interesting plays that I’ve never seen so it was a really good experience to see that and play against that, and I’m definitely very happy that I went,” Grobb-Prins said recently.
“I knew all the girls there were in their last year of university — they all have so much experience — so I was just gonna go and just see how much I could learn. We did have practices too so I got to practice with them and see what they do.”
Grobb-Prins’ invitation to the Canadian team should not have come as a surprise. The 6-3 Lord Selkirk Royals star has become one of the finest players in the province over the last couple of years.
But even with her spot secured, she wasn’t always sold on going. In fact, she was dead set on staying home due to prospects of flying across the world without a friend or family member to lean on.
Grobb-Prins was the youngest and the only Manitoban on the team, which added ambiguity to the trip. But as the event drew closer, the fog cleared from her mind. She understood the experience was in her best interest long-term.
“I was worried to go at the start because it’s across the world and I wasn’t with anyone I really knew. But once I got there it was way better than I thought and everyone was super nice and I made a lot of new friends on the team,” she said.
It wasn’t all business either. The Canadian team was invited to a local school in Shanghai to interact with students, participate in traditional activities and play volleyball with them. Before she knew it, the worries had faded away and the chance to be immersed in another culture was worth the trip alone.
“We all stayed in the same hotel, so we would see all the teams all the time and it was super fun because we would search up on Google, ‘How to say hello,’ in their language and then walk around the hotel saying, ‘Hi’ to them,” she said. “It was really interesting.”
Grobb-Prins has done her fair share of travelling across Canada and the U.S. as a member of Team Canada’s U19 program and for personal training.
Last October, she went to Richmond B.C. for the first semester of her Grade 11 year, where she trained with Volleyball Canada’s National Excellence Program. She was the only Manitoban there too, training five days a week with the women’s national team coaching staff.
Next fall Grobb-Prins will leave on a more permanent basis as she attends the University of Texas at San Antonio, an NCAA Division 1 program. She is verbally committed to play in Texas currently, but will make it official later this year.
One more season with the Junior Bisons volleyball club and a highly-anticipate Grade 12 season with Lord Selkirk is all that remains before Grobb-Prins graduates to the next level. She agreed that she’s better prepared today than she was before her trip.
“It’s different to see it, but I think one I go to university that’s kind of how it’s gonna be,” she said of the international competition. “It was really inspiring to see it and it makes me excited for when I get to play higher volleyball and start running plays like that.
“I feel like I know a lot more about the game. My mental side of volleyball, I feel like I know a whole bunch more and I can bring that back to the people here.”
Record Photos Submitted
