Seven years ago, Braden O’Toole was identified as a raw but promising volleyball talent at Canmore Collegiate High School.
Today, he’s the best college player in Canada.
O’Toole was named tournament MVP after helping lead the Red Deer College Kings to a national title at the Canadian College Athletic Association National Championships on Saturday (March 8) in Caronport, Sask.
“I was named MVP, but it could have been any one of us. All of us were playing our best game all at once. We’ve been waiting for that to happen, and it came out in the final,” O’Toole said.
O’Toole moved to Canmore at a very young age when his father was hired as a principal in the Bow Valley. At six-foot-five, he always split his time between volleyball and basketball.
“When I was young, I always played basketball. It was my thing. I played high school basketball and club volleyball,” O’Toole said.
Whenever he gave up on volleyball to focus on basketball, something “wasn’t quite right” he said, so he gave it another go.
“Carole Nelson (CCHS teacher) kept telling me I was a volleyball player,” O’Toole said.
He attended college on Vancouver Island, but as a raw hoops talent didn’t receive much playing time. He switched to Red Deer College in his second year to play basketball, but again didn’t land on the court. By the second semester, he was back on the volleyball team and his career took off. Playing right side, he lit it up for the Kings.
The 21-year old said the path to his first national title was a tough one, but it went “exactly as planned” in the final tournament.
Red Deer hadn’t lost a first set all season long, and they easily defeated eighth-seeded St. Jerome in three sets to begin the tournament. They got a scare against number four ranked Columbia Bible College, which took the first set and pushed Red Deer to five games before the Kings prevailed.
In the final, O’Toole and the Kings faced off against the hometown Briercrest Clippers of Saskatchewan. More than 1,700 screaming fans filled the arena, nearly all eagerly awaiting a Clippers win.
“We’ve had good games against them all year. Always close games, so we knew it would be a battle,” O’Toole said. “It was in front of the loudest crowd I’ve heard in my life.”
Red Deer won the first game 25-20, then went on a huge 10-2 run in the second game before winning 25-19. By the third set, St. Jerome were beaten and fell 25-19 to give Red Deer their title and O’Toole the MVP award, which shocked the Canmore native.
“That was a big confidence boost and I have to credit the coaches. They made me 100 times better and we have an amazing group of guys to play with. I couldn’t ask for a better team.”
The win also allowed him to reflect on the influences that turned him into the player he is today – his encouraging mother, his volleyball coach father who made him tag along to CCHS volleyball games and practices when he was young, Nelson who always encouraged him to pursue the sport, and PJ Robertson, who also coached and befriended O’Toole. They gave him the raw talent, which was refined in Red Deer.
“All of the credit goes to our team and coaching staff. It’s really special to win this for our coach Aaron Schula, who now has his first national title. This has been one of the greatest years of my life,” O’Toole said.
He’s got one more year of volleyball eligibility left and plans to play for the University of Calgary next season and wants to play in Europe before attending firefighter college – again eager for the next challenge.
“I’m athletic and I love to train. U of C will be a higher level, and I fee I can play at that level. In Red Deer, I got a taste of that size, and I liked it.”
