The Pro
Josh Howatson is on Skype when he interrupts our conversation politely and begins speaking Spanish. Quickly. And with enthusiasm.
He spends a lot of time on Skype recently. Living the life of a volleyball pro in Spain and engaged to TWU basketball player, Katie Haworth, he has probably spent hundreds of hours logged in over the last couple of months. At the moment he’s kindly giving me a long distance interview at something like midnight Central European Time, and his teammates just walked in. After a few moments of fluent, animated conversation that I don’t understand in the least, despite my past efforts at Spanish 101, he returns apologetically.
I tell him how impressive it all sounded and he laughs. “That was really simple Spanish. But you know, I aim to impress.”
He seems to succeed. The volleyball setter from Victoria blazed through his career at TWU with a legendary string of awards and accolades. A very condensed list of his honours includes CIS Tournament All-Star 2006 and 2007, CIS Player of the Year 2007, and CIS BLG Award Winner 2007. In his four years at the University he also gained a reputation for excellence off the court, as a solid student and inspiring leader among TWU athletes.
“TWU was great for me,” he remembers. “They make sure you have all the resources you need to be a good student and a good athlete.”
Josh is more than a good athlete, he’s among an elite group who can actually make a living at volleyball, playing in Spain’s top professional league, “Superliga.” During the season he lives in Almeria, a city of 200,000 on the southern coast of the country. Volleyball is a popular sport in Europe—the home game Josh played earlier in the night drew 1,500 fans.
"I didn't start out wanting to play pro, I started out just wanting to be on the team."
“I like it over here,” he says. “I’ve been lucky, growing up in Victoria and then moving to Spain. It’s definitely hot and sunny, and the food is amazing here.”
He’s currently on a two-year contract to Unicaja Almeria, and he plans on staying in Europe into the future, as there’s no equivalent league in North America. Thankfully, the eight-month season allows Josh to come home in the summers. He’s particularly looking forward to this coming summer, when he will marry Katie in Portland. “As long as we’re both happy in Europe, we’ll probably be here for a while,” he says, listing countries he’d still like to play in, or visit.
When asked if he has any advice for younger players who would like to… say…live in southern Spain and play pro volleyball, he pauses thoughtfully. “Try to set goals as often as possible, and try to make them achievable,” he says. “I didn’t start out wanting to play pro, I started out just wanting to be on the team. Life’s a process. You find what you like and you take small steps towards it.”
by Veronica Collins '06
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