WATERLOO — Sarah Lynch has decided to stay at home.
The fifth-year student at Kitchener-Waterloo Collegiate has passed on opportunities in Canada and south of the border and will instead play volleyball at the University of Waterloo in September. Lynch said a pair of factors weighed heavily in her decision to forego her dream of playing NCAA volleyball in the United States and accept UW’s maximum annual athletic scholarship of about $4,000.
“I was completely set on going to the States and then recently, the past few months, I decided I wanted to stay here and focus on academics and be close to my family,” said Lynch, 18, who will study biomedical science.
“Once I started to realize that I would only see my family twice a year during the school year, I didn’t like that . . . at all.”
The six-foot-one Team Ontario member also has a history with Warriors volleyball coach Gabriele Jobst, who has helped train her as a beach player in the past. Knowing Jobst’s coaching philosophy and passion for the game was another factor in her decision to sign at UW, where she’ll play middle blocker and outside hitter.
“Gabby’s been coaching me for quite a few years now and I love her . . . she’s an amazing coach. She has the same passion for the sport that I do and she really pushes me,” she said.
Lynch, who has also been instructed for many years by Paul Pavan of the K-W Predators, followed a non-traditional path to UW, starting way back in Grade 8.
“My mom (Mary) forced me to play. I didn’t want to play at all but I’ve always been tall and she though I’d be good at it,” said Lynch.
Mom, as she usually is, was right.
Lynch would play four years of high school volleyball at KCI before trying out for the senior boys team this past September. Not only did she make the team, she earned a starting spot and played setter and libero for the Raiders, two positions she had never played before. Suiting up for the boys squad was an amazing experience, she said, because of the faster pace and higher calibre of play that caused her to learn new skills and improve her game as a whole.
Her teammates welcomed her with open arms — “They actually wanted me to play,” she said — and she also didn’t hear any negative comments from KCI’s opponents.
There was, however, the odd wink sent her way.
“The occasional guy hitting on you at the net, but it was all fun,” she laughed.
The only letdown was not playing against her younger brother, Grant, who attends Sir John A. Macdonald Secondary School and plays for the senior boys team there. The Raiders and Highlanders simply didn’t meet during the course of the regular season or playoffs.
Lynch also has a younger brother, Bruce, who plays junior volleyball at SJAM, and an older brother, Scott. Her father, Gary, completes the family photo and has been a big supporter.
Lynch was prohibited from playing for the girls team at KCI during the ongoing winter season because of a recent provincewide policy that prevents a student from playing the same sport twice in the same school year. No big deal, said Lynch, as she’s leaving school at the end of January and hoping to find a full-time job to keep her busy until September.
In the meantime, she works as a referee for the Ontario Volleyball Association and can be seen officiating at various levels locally, including high school and university matches. She’s been officiating for a couple of years now and it’s given her a better appreciation of what the person in the referee stand is up against.
“Officiating is fun, but only if you have nice coaches. I ended up crying once in my first year of reffing because an under-15 coach was really unhappy when his team lost at provincials and criticized me,” she said.
“So I have respect for the refs because it’s hard, everything is up to you. And really there’s no point in trying to change a ref’s mind because they won’t change their mind.”
The money she earns between now and September will come in handy for Lynch. As much as she loves her family, she plans on living in residence during her first year at UW before returning home for her second year.
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