Sloane Bell competes at Ontario Summer Games, TORP development camp

Sloane Bell, pictured in the bottom row second from right, along with her teammates on Team E, which claimed the silver medal at the Ontario Summer Games.

By Spencer Seymour

Sloane Bell of St. Pauls enjoyed a week of high-level volleyball development and competition, attending the Ontario Volleyball Association’s (OVA) Team Ontario Regional Program (TORP) week-long development camp and the Ontario Summer Games.

Bell, who is entering her third season with the U15 Stratford Volleyball Club and will be attending St. Michael Catholic Secondary School this coming school year, detailed her experiences at the events, calling all of it incredibly memorable.

“It was really fun,” said Bell. “I met a lot of new people and I learned a lot of new stuff about volleyball and how to have high-performance habits – going to bed early, eating healthy food and not going on screens before you go to bed. (Experiencing the Ontario Summer Games and the OVA TORP development program) means a lot because I feel like I’m going to remember everything.”

Bell attended the TORP development camp hosted July 26-30 at the University of Guelph, where the athletes stayed on campus in the university’s residence for an intense week of development, coaching, indoor and beach volleyball and high-performance coaching. According to Bell, she had nerves entering the week that went away quickly.

“I was so nervous because I didn’t know anybody and I didn’t know if I was going to be the worst player or the best player there. But it ended up being really fun. I feel like the other people were really strong. Everybody there was so nice. I felt like I was friends with a bunch of people there. I loved it so much.”

Immediately after that, starting July 30, Bell travelled to Waterloo for the Ontario Summer Games’ volleyball competition, playing both beach and indoor volleyball over the three-day event. The competitors battled through extreme heat and sun, with play paused for about an hour due to several athletes experiencing heat exhaustion. Bell played on Team E and helped her squad emerge with a silver medal.

“The first day, it was beach (volleyball), and we got assigned partners, and then some of our beach rankings go into our indoor rankings,” Bell said. “And then, the second day, we had six games, and you get ranked based on how many games your team has won, and you have to be ranked in the top six to make it to the next day to be in the playoffs. We got third, and on the third day, we won quarters, we won semis and we got silver.”

Bell cited a couple of key factors in the team having success and leaving the Ontario Summer Games with the silver.

“I feel like our serve receive and our communication were really good,” said Bell. “I feel like if you don’t communicate, then it’s not going to work out because you have to be able to communicate on the court and off the court to be able to succeed.”

Bell also raved about the coaching she had at the tournament.

“We had really good coaching,” Bell said. “They were just so nice about everything. If you made a mistake, they’d just be like, ‘It’s okay, you can get the next one. We believe in you.’ Everybody was so supportive. I feel like I wasn’t in my head as much as I normally am.”