As the school year comes to a close, RRC celebrates student athletes.
BY Cassidy Dankochik
Red River College celebrated student athletes on March 22, at the Prairie Lights Dining Room. Eight athletes were honoured for their efforts.
Among those chosen was Josh Goosen, a Creative Communications student. He was named the MVP of the men’s volleyball team, despite only joining the team in the middle of January.
“They needed an outside hitter, and that’s something I’ve always been,” Goosen said a few days after the ceremony. “I never passed for them, I didn’t play a lot of defense, I just swung at the ball.”
Goosen said the key to his effectiveness as a hitter was his size and court presence.
“It really comes down to knowing where the defense is going to be, even if they are not in that exact place,” he said.
Before joining the Rebels, Goosen was playing in a senior men’s league in Winnipeg, and had to temporarily quit that league to play for Red River. Goosen has previously played for the University of Manitoba and Columbia College in B.C.
Goosen said there was a tough adjustment period with the Rebels.
“It was not pretty at the beginning,” he said.
Eventually he found his stride.
“If the rest of the entire team was the body, I was solely the arm,” he said with a chuckle. “That is it. That is all I was there for.”
Goosen isn’t sure he’ll be back for next year, as it would be his fifth and final year of eligibility for playing in a post-secondary league.
“I’ve always had a dream of going out West,” he said. “I’d love to spend my last year at Camosun and taking a couple joke classes to playing out there.”
