Krista Zubick is attacking the next phase of her volleyball career with power.
The former Alberta Panda and St. Albert Skyhawk is determined to leave her mark on the court as a coach after spiking the ball since junior high with the Vincent J. Maloney Marauders.
“I definitely want to stay involved by coaching,” said Zubick, the marquee volleyball instructor at the sixth annual Hawks Combo Camp at the SkyDome. “Everything I’ve done from junior high on has been based around volleyball, going from high school to making that decision to go to university and then past that playing a bit of beach and pro. Wherever it’s led me it’s shaped me entirely as a person. It’s part of my identity.”
Zubick, 25, will work on her masters in occupational therapy in Calgary after spending last season living the life of a pro volleyball player in France.
“I will still play a little bit, like co-ed or women, but nothing competitive. That is going to be the biggest change for sure but I’m still going to stay involved by coaching, which I did a lot of this summer,” said Zubick, who coached the women’s U18 provincial beach team. “That was really fun to coach an older age group.”
Coaching club and high school players is her main focus.
“I enjoy coaching I guess older kids who have basic technical skills and you can start working on game tactics and stuff like that with them,” said the six-foot left-side power on the Canada West second all-star team in 2012/13 in her fifth and final season with the Pandas.
On Monday morning, Zubick was back at St. Albert Catholic High School showing attentive youths between the ages of 12 and 15 a variety of drills. She also offered tips and answered inquisitive questions.
“She is pretty good. She is helping us a lot,” said Shea McCormack, a Grade 8 Richard S. Fowler Falcon who is perfecting his setting skills at the combo camp, which includes basketball in the afternoons.
Zubick was a pretty big deal in high school as a multi-sport standout. The senior volleyball team’s MVP all three years as a dominating middle also contributed to the basketball team winning the 3A provincial bronze medal in her Grade 12 season as the Skyhawks’ tallest player.
“It’s a really awesome opportunity to be able to give back to the program that I kind of grew up in,” Zubick said. “Having (John) Dedrick running these camps is awesome because he coached me in basketball for a few years. He was a really big influence for me in high school so it’s really cool to be able to give back to him and give back to the program that way. It just feels like home.”
Zubick spread her wings after five years with the Pandas by branching off into the beach volleyball scene. She hooked up with former teammate Jaki Ellis to win the selection tournament in Toronto for Volleyball Canada’s beach female team at the FISU 2014 World University Championships in Porto, Portugal.
They had also competed for the national indoor team at the 2011 FISU Summer Universiade in Shenzhen, China.
“I really enjoyed switching up from indoor and trying something different,” said Zubick, who played on the Alberta beach circuit this summer. “I love it. It’s definitely a different sport. It’s something you really have to train to be really good at. It sounds like the same sport (as indoor) but with very different tactics.”
Playing pro with the Laon Volley Club was another major milestone for Zubick.
“It was an amazing opportunity to kind of make some money doing what you love and being able to continue on with the sport past university. It was definitely a different experience than university, but I’m super glad I got to experience it,” said the multiple academic All-Canadian who won a Canada West championship and received a pair of CIS national silver medals with the Pandas.
“It was really good experiencing life overseas and experiencing different cultures. I was also doing an English language assistance position in Laon so it was a really cool experience to kind of indulge myself in the culture, learning the language a bit and I got to travel a ton,” added Zubick, who made Canada’s B team in 2010 and 2011 and the A team in 2013.
“The league I was in was really a good level. Our team was pretty small so it wasn’t a super strong team but we had really good international girls. I lived with three of them in an apartment and it was really great to play with them and also play in the French culture to kind of see how their volleyball worked.”
