OVA News

Tori Cowley serving at U21 Worlds and coaching at the Etobicoke Titans Beach Club

You can’t control a lot of things in sports, but there are two things you can control; how hard you work and how much fun you have doing it. Few people demonstrate this as well as Tori Cowley. Like most volleyball players Tori started playing indoor then transitioned to beach.

Once she started playing beach she was hooked.
“I love the atmosphere and being able to play outside where you are not stuffed up in a gym all day, the people that you get to know and the system of playing this sport. You are what you make of it [and] you will only do as well as you push yourself to. It’s only two on two. There are no substitutions or any place to hide, and you have to bring it every time you step onto the sand.”

Over the past few summers Tori Cowley’s list of accomplishments has been consistently growing. She represented Canada in Brighton England at the U21 World Championships and was a gold medalist at U21 Provincials and U21 Nationals. Tori is also a member of the Women’s Beach Provincial Team and starter on the Laurier Women’s Volleyball Team.

We asked Tori what he secret was to reaching the next level.

“Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. I stand 5′7 tall and still to this day I have people telling me that I am too small to make it. It just pushes me that much harder to work to beat anyone else and prove to myself, that yes, I deserve to be here. It won’t come easy to you, you are going to have to work for every single inch. But, it feels amazing when you accomplish small goals along your path to representing your country.”

Beach continues to grow every year, but the indoor game still remains the more popular sport. We asked Tori what she would change to help grow the sport in Canada.

“I wish we had the opportunity to train for beach volleyball full-time. We have indoor OUA leagues that run while we are at school, but I think it would benefit our country huge if we had beach volleyball leagues that ran at schools and you could get scholarships for.”

Tori started her coaching career by running the Etobicoke Titans beach club this past summer. The Titans ran an eight week program for athletes aged 9-11. Tori’s first club coach David Pagniello presented her with the win-win situation.

“I get to coach the girls and get them excited about playing, and David gets them back in September not as rusty as they would have been, not having touched a volleyball since their indoor seasons ended.”

“One of the main goals of me starting these camps, was to get the awareness level out to families in my area about the sport. Not many people knew how to get involved, where to start, or if there were even any coaches. I want to try and get kids developing younger in this sport and to spark an interest so that hopefully they will come back to play again next summer!”

We would like to thank Tori for her insights. We wish her the best of luck with her playing career and hope to see her back with the Titans next summer getting more young athletes involved in the sport.

JN