Their minds will be focused on winning the Canadian Colleges men’s volleyball championship in Quebec this week.
But the UBC Okanagan Heat men’s team’s collective heart will be with a fallen teammate.
Jordan Young, 18, from Vernon, a first-year outside hitter with the B.C.-champion Heat, was killed early Saturday morning in a single-vehicle crash on Commonage Road.
“It’s going to be rough for sure,” said Heat coach Greg Poitras Monday as the team was preparing to leave for the national championships. “A lot of players on our team have probably never dealt with death like this, or even under any circumstances. Every guy is going to deal with this differently, so it’s important for us to nurture and support each other through this.”
Vernon RCMP report Young was the lone occupant of a 1999 Saturn that was travelling on Commonage Road when the vehicle left the road and struck a power pole at 2:30 a.m. Saturday
The Jaws of Life had to be used to extract Young from the car. He was taken to Vernon Jubilee Hospital with serious injuries, then transferred to Kelowna General Hospital where he passed away.
Police indicate speed and alcohol may have contributed to the crash.
Heat players were informed of Young’s death Sunday.
“We were pretty shocked, to say the least,” said Vernon’s Greg Niemantsverdriet, like Young, an outside hitter with UBCO.
“We all hung out yesterday (Sunday), stuck together, did a little practice and tried to stay positive getting ready for nationals.”
UBCO won the men’s provincial title on their home court Feb. 27, defeating the Columbia Bible Bearcats of Abbotsford three games to one in the gold-medal match.
The Heat will be among the favourites at this week’s Canadian championship tournament in Sherbrooke, Que.
The team will wear Young’s “JY” initials and his No. 5 on an embroidered patch during the Canadians.
“We’re dedicating the tournament to Jordan,” said Niemantsverdriet. “He’d definitely want us to win the gold and we want to do that.”
Poitras described Young as a happy young man with a lot of promise.
“He was just ecstatic to be in university, to make the varsity team and, you know, to get his life going,” said Poitras.
“As a rookie we had to support him from day one, we treated him like a brother. And I think Jordan always felt a part of our family.”
Young helped his high school team, the Fulton Maroons, to a top-10 finish at the B.C. AA high school championships in 2009 at UBCO. Young was given an honourable mention to the tournament all-star team, and finished third in the spike competition.
The support and emotion given Young’s immediate family has been helping them cope with his death.
“The outpouring we’ve received from Fulton students and alums, volleyball players across B.C., his UBCO community and the sporting community of Vernon in general has been incredible,” said Young’s uncle, Jim Inglis, the senior girl’s basketball coach at Fulton. “Jord was one of those kids who just loved life and life loved him back.
“From all of us who loved Jord, family and otherwise, we would like to thank people for their thoughts and prayers. It is remarkable how it helps to know how much he was loved.”
---With files from Warren Henderson, Kelowna Capital News.