Tyler Boychuk of the Yorkton Regional High School is one of a handful of students who goes from one sport to another during the course of the high school year.
Just coming off another successful run as a member of the YRHS senior boys volleyball team this season, the Gr. 12 student went through a transformation on the volleyball court.
It supposedly helped the team make its way to the 2011 provincial volleyball championships which were held last month in Prince Albert.
Boychuk was formally recognized for his efforts when he won the Most Valuable Player award by coach Dion Pfeifer.
"I coached Tyler for three years on the senior (YRHS) team," explains Pfeifer. "He was my starting setter in Gr. 10 and 11. He became a power hitter in Gr. 12 instead of setter."
Pfeifer added that the move ended up working out quite well.
"I wanted to use his great athletic (and jumping) ability to help us solidify another position we needed filled in our line up this past year."
Boychuk, who will be one of the half of players from Pfeifer's club who will not be returning to YRHS territory next season, said he's been playing the sport since Gr. 9. He played before that, in elementary school at Columbia School in Yorkton.
Along the way to where he is now, he's added badminton and track and field to his list of sports.
"It's a toss-up," he said when asked of his favourite, between volleyball and basketball.
He told the paper that this year and last year were the best he's had in terms of a team game in volleyball.
He added that it wasn't a huge surprise that the team didn't achieve better results after the round robin for provincial volleyball in Prince Albert last month.
"There were some solid teams there."
The YRHS volleyball senior boys team has made the provincials in eight of nine years under Pfeifer. Boychuk added that part of the success of the team is likely due to that some of them have been playing together for upwards of five years and more.
"Just playing with the same guys since Gr. 7," Boychuk said, adding that "Me, Jason Blommaert, Stephen Hutton, and Kostas Karachalios" have been playing together since their days at Columbia School.
Boychuk also took it one step further having played club volleyball in the Bongo tournament.
He said he opted to stick with it because it's "fast paced".
This past season, he saw his biggest transformation of skills on the volleyball court when coach Pfeifer had Boychuk switch from setter to power hitter.
According to both player and the coach, that is not an easy thing to do.
"I started setting in Gr. 9," he said, but "switched to power hitter this year."
It's a complete total switch," he confirmed.
Overall, he said everything went "pretty well".
He also credits coach Pfeifer, whom Boychuk says is a "good guy".
His knowledge of the sport of volleyball is probably second to none, adds Boychuk.
"He's a very coachable individual, he's very competitive. I like that," adds Pfeifer.
"That guy knows more about volleyball than most in the province."
Despite appearances in the provincial tournament, Boychuk says that there's not much in the way of competitive volleyball planned once graduation rolls around in the spring/summer.
He did say there's high hopes for this year's basketball season in regards to hoopla.
