CANADA WEST ANNOUNCES ALL-STARS-Rogalsky named to second team

Steve Rogalsky

Men's Volleyball (Announcement)
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Canada West All-Stars

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CANADA WEST ANNOUNCES ALL-STARS
-Rogalsky named to second team

EDMONTON - Canada West is proud to announce the 2008 men's volleyball individual award winners and All-Stars, as selected by head coaches across the conference.

Fifth-year Winnipeg Wesmen middle Ben Schellenberg has been selected Most Valuable Player for the 2007-08 conference season. Schellenberg, a 6'6'' Psychology major from Winnipeg, captained his team to a 14-4 record, and this past weekend help them earn a berth in the Final Four at Edmonton and a guaranteed spot at the CIS Tournament. The 22-year-old finished among the conference leaders in numerous categories this season, placing fourth in kills (238), third in points (290), seventh in hitting percentage (.347) and ninth in digs (119). Last season he was a CIS Tournament all-star for the Wesmen as they won a national title. Schellenberg, also a four-time academic all-Canadian, was a Canada West all-star in 2006-07, an all-Canadian in 2005-06 and was named to the CIS all-rookie team in 2004.

"Ben is a well rounded player. Strong defence goes along with his serving, blocking and spiking. He has been a team captain for the last two seasons. Ben is a four-time academic all Canadian with a GPA of over 4 (A)," said Wesmen men's volleyball head coach Larry McKay.

Eighteen-year-old freshman Gord Perrin, of Thompson Rivers, is the second straight member of the WolfPack to claim Rookie of the Year honours, following in the footsteps of teammate Robin Schoebel. A 6'6'' left-side hitter, the Youth National team member finished the 2007-08 conference season with 170 kills (2.74/set), a .458 kill efficiency and 0.97 digs/set. Perrin, who hails from Nelson, B.C., is in his first year of the Arts program at TRU and this past weekend helped the WolfPack to an upset of the Brandon Bobcats to earn a spot at the Final Four in Edmonton and the right to attend the 2008 CIS event.

UBC's Blair Bann is the Libero of the Year. Bann, from Edmonton, was second in digs this year, averaging 2.30 per set over 73 sets. In his second year of eligibility, the second-year Human Kinetics student-athlete was an integral part of the Thunderbirds team that went 13-5 before sweeping past Calgary to earn a place at this weekend's Final Four and a trip to Nationals.

Coach Richard Schick said of Bann, "Blair is an outstanding passer and an amazing defender. He has provided us that level of consistency in our passing rotation and has played every single set since coming to UBC in 2006."

Honoured by his colleagues as Coach of the Year is 19-year Winnipeg bench boss Larry McKay. The defending CIS champions had another solid season under McKay, going 14-4, then taking a best-of-three conference quarter-final from Trinity Western in two straight matches, thus qualifying for the Final Four and a trip to CIS Nationals.

McKay has coached Winnipeg to six CIS/CIAU medals: gold in 1997-98 and 2006-07), a silver in 2001-02 and bronze in 1992-93, 1996-97 and 1999-2000. He is also a two-time CIS men's volleyball Coach of the Year (1992-93, 2001-02).

"Larry McKay's teams are consistently year by year challenging for a National Championship. He shows great composure in tight matches and is a great teacher to all his players. He deserves any and all accolades that come his way", said University of Winnipeg Athletic Director Bill Wedlake.

Following is a breakdown of all individual award winners and All-Stars:

Awards

MVP: Ben Schellenberg, Winnipeg

Rookie of the Year: Gord Perrin, Thompson Rivers

Libero of the Year: Blair Bann, UBC

Dale Iwanoczko Award nominee: none

Coach of the Year: Larry McKay, Winnipeg

All-Stars
First Team
Ben Schellenberg, Winnipeg
Brock Pehar, Alberta
Dustin Addison-Schneider, Winnipeg
Matt LeBourdais, UBC
Paul Sanderson, Brandon
Joel Schmuland, Alberta

Second Team
Steve Rogalsky, Trinity Western
Robin Schoebel, Thompson Rivers
Omar Langford, Calgary
Jared Krause, UBC
Drew Venables, Manitoba
Joel Small, Brandon

Major award winners will automatically become finalists for national awards, to be handed out by Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS) at Université Laval later this month.

This weekend the Final Four takes place at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, with the host Golden Bears, Winnipeg Wesmen, UBC Thunderbirds and Thompson Rivers WolfPack taking part; all four schools have been guaranteed a spot at Nationals, Feb. 29-March 2.

Please direct questions to the Canada West office: sportsinfo@canadawest.org, or contact any of the Canada West men's volleyball schools. Contact information for all conference schools can be found at: the www.canadawest.org Members page.

David Bandla
Canada West Communications
www.canadawest.org

Last Updated: 2008-02-21
Author: Scott Stewart
Email: ssstew@twu.ca