Launched in the fall of 2004 by founder Michael Margarit and friends Craig Thompson and Eric Laberge (and others), the Northern Chill Volleyball Club is now a far cry from the modest three team offering that first took to the court nearly twenty years ago.

Currently 18 teams strong and with an array of squads for both the guys and the gals, the Chill enjoys the benefits that come with that kind of expansion over time, but also faces the challenges that come part and parcel with exponential growth.

With names like Michelle Claveau, Alex McInnis, Allison Adams, Trina Czerkas, Shawna Metcalfe, Katrina Hickey, Kayla Cargill, Samantha McLelland and Melanie Fenton dotting those original rosters, the group that is now more than two hundred athletes strong features a pretty much annual exodus of Chill representatives making headlines at a provincial scale or beyond (more on that in a moment).

While the pending departure of club president Jason Evans (at the end of the 2023-2024 season) and some vacancies at a director level suggests that work remains to be done, bringing in the likes of Richard Faucher (Technical Director) and Patrick Gervais (Director of Admin and Media) to complement core mainstays such as James Schweyer, Carrie Walsh, Melissa St Onge and others was critical to movement forward.

Case in point: the Chill are hosting no less than seven different OVA (Ontario Volleyball Association) tournaments at the Laurentian University fieldhouse this winter, including three in November alone, raising the bar from a previous club high of five (to the best of my knowledge).

And while the group continues to provide a wonderful feeder system on a local level to coach Dale Beausoleil and both of the Cambrian College programs (men’s and women’s), it’s also nice to see NCVC alumni cracking lineups from one coast to the other in Canada – and, from time to time, south of the border.

With older sister Alexia Lemay-Evans already in her second year with the Acadia Axewomen, it was anything but a given that Mia would follow and become a token Maritimer. "I wasn’t sure, at the beginning, if I wanted to play with my sister or not – whether to do my own thing or follow her,” said the grade 12 senior at Collège Notre-Dame.

“At the end of the day, I love playing with my sister – and being away from her is hard – so if I get to play volleyball with her AND I get to be with her more, it’s the best of everything.”

And the Lemay-Evans parents are definitely not about to complain.

Having cracked Team Ontario rosters throughout her high-school career, the 6’2” middle certainly had options at her disposal before finally settling on Wolfville, Nova Scotia. “It’s a really, really beautiful province,” said Lemay-Evans. “The town where the university is situated is small and homey, which I really like.”

Initially contemplating post-secondary destinations a couple of years back, the resident of Rayside-Balfour admitted that she really did not want this hanging over her head throughout her final year at CND.

“I was ready to make a decision because it had been two years of this whole recruiting thing,” said Lemay-Evans. “I knew I wanted to make my decision early in grade 12; now I can relax and not worry about that.”

Beyond the sibling reunion, there was much to like about the team itself as the local talent begins her studies next September. “The year I am coming in, a lot of their middles are graduating,” she said. “There’s a good chance that I earn some court time. That was important because if you are able to play right away, it’s really nice.”

In order to do that, Lemay-Evans must continue to hone her skills – and specifically work on those elements most critical to transitioning to the next level at one of the most defensively demanding positions on the floor.

“My blocking – and specifically my speed with blocking, reading the setter and everything – that’s where I lack the most,” she said. “If I don’t read the set, I won’t get there fast enough. Once I get good at reading the setter, the footwork will come with it.”

Mind you the cat and mouse being played out with all U Sports teams sees her opponents looking to make things increasingly difficult for university freshmen and vets alike. “Some setters, when they set backwards, will lift their leg a little more, small things like that,” noted Lemay-Evans.

“But the really good setter, you have no idea. They will try and make every set look the same so that it’s really hard to tell who they are setting. You just try and see it and go.”

Northern Chill U18 Sub Zero teammate Olivia Nicholls still has a full year to improve this ability – and many more – before graduating from Ecole Secondaire Champlain. In the meantime, she remains busy with club and school and the recent Canada Summer Games (2025) tryouts, after being named to a provincial team for the first time this past summer.

“I find it helped that I worked with some more really good coaches and teammates – and that helped my volleyball get better,” said Nicholls, a 16 year-old grade 11 student in Chelmsford.

In contrast to Lemay-Evans, Nicholls finds that her reads that require more work often are a product of receiving tough serves, a responsibility she often tackles when making the move from middle to left-side.

“It’s tricky to read some serves,” said Nicholls. “It’s everything. Some people have a float serve that moves a lot in the air and is trickier to pass. It’s touches – really just practice – that makes perfect in a way.”

And for as much as she understands that every single technical aspect of her game must be as refined as possible in order to compete with the truly elite in the country, Nicholls also knows that team chemistry at short-term tournaments is never overlooked.

“I want to show good communication and being kind to others,” she said. “Anyone can have a bad passing day, but how you show yourself is important. You need to be able to overcome.”

Nicholls was one of forty or so grade 11 students (or younger) who attended the “by invitation only” Team Ontario sessions in Niagara Falls earlier this month.

Closer to home, the Northern Chill Volleyball Club is hosting a U15 boys tournament on November 4th, the U14 girls on November 18th and their U13 counterparts one day later. For all club updates, visit the revamped website at www.northernchillvolleyball.com.