Cameron Chadwick got a chance to play on the international beach volleyball scene and he likes it.
The Georgian College student just returned from the 2021 FIVB Beach Volleyball Under-19 World Championships in Phuket, Thailand after being called up as a replacement player when another Team Canada member pulled out due to injury.
The six-foot-five Barrie teen, who had been playing court volleyball with the Georgian Grizzlies — where his dad, Robin Chadwick, has been serving as assistant coach for the past four years — had two weeks to make all the arrangements and find his beach legs just as winter was starting to set in here at home.
“It was really crazy,” he told BarrieToday.
Chadwick was a competitive swimmer, but switched to volleyball four years ago playing on the court. Two years ago, he added competitive beach volleyball and knew he found his sport.
And when the pandemic interfered with indoor team sports, the transition to beach volleyball outdoors was a natural one. This past summer, he worked during the week and travelled to Toronto during the weekends to play tournaments with his partner and work on his game.
“It didn’t feel just like volleyball, it was our community. We would all play in tournaments and all go out after,” he said. “It was just as social as it was competitive, which is part of the reason I love beach volleyball so much.”
Earlier this year, he and his partner applied to go to the Thailand competition. A pandemic-era application process replaced a qualifying tournament. They were selected as the third team. Because only two teams could go, they became the back-up.
When he was alerted that a spot had suddenly opened up, Chadwick and his current partner agreed he should go and join University of Toronto student Martin Licht on the Can2 team in Thailand.
He left home on Nov. 30 and after transfers and two layovers, along with a 12-hour time change, he arrived in Thailand on Dec. 2 for a 10-day sojourn.
Practice began the day after arrival, which included adjusting to the extremely high temperatures.
“You can’t do anything in Canada to prepare for the heat here, it’s so hot. And it’s so humid. It’s so hard to breathe,” he said. “We were doing basic, basic stuff, just like jogging, and we were so out of breath. It was exhausting.
“After a couple of days of getting used to that it was better.”
Four days later came the unforgettable qualifying match, one that Chadwick calls “perfect volleyball."
“It was point-for-point, going back and forth. The normal volleyball set goes to 21 points and it’s win by two. We went up to, the final score was 34 to 32,” he said.
That was followed by three other matches leading them to a playoff match in which they were eliminated. That puts the team into the top 17 in the world for their age.
Chadwick’s first chance to play beach volleyball outside of Canada proved to be an unforgettable experience, one that he is hankering to repeat.
“I loved it here, it’s paradise. I don’t want to come home,” he said during a Facetime interview from his beachfront hotel room. “It’s living a dream. It’s Thailand, one of the nicest places on the planet, playing a sport that I love. It doesn’t get better than this.”
Beach volleyball is his passion and he’s finding himself drifting a little bit away from court volleyball, he said. And now he’s setting his sights on more international play.
Key for Chadwick though, is the experience — travelling and exploring different cultures, meeting like-minded people and making worldwide connections in a sport in which “everyone is nice."
Beyond that, though, are aspirations. The Olympics, for instance, would definitely be on the bucket list.
But time is on his side. Volleyball players hit their stride later in their 20s, so Chadwick figures there will be plenty of opportunity to hone his skills.
Now it’s back to the court for another season with the Grizzlies and a resumption of his studies, which he never did drop during his travelling. He has his eye on mechanical engineering and is currently enrolled in Georgian’s architecture technology program.
Exams for Chadwick started on Tuesday, hot on the heels of a magical experience.
