Playing against giants

What began as a passing interest in social volleyball has quickly grown into a full- fledged passion for Year 13 student Jean-Luc Dewerse, who recently returned from his second tournament in Xiamen, China.

Due to the continued Covid lockdowns in his junior years of high school, the team he had joined up with 'just for fun' disbanded. He found himself unexpectedly stepping up to play with the senior squad, which helped him to up his understanding of the game.

By the following year, he started playing for the Waitakere Rebels club, and something clicked. He wasn’t just playing anymore—he was hooked. “I started getting addicted to it,” he says.

At the Auckland Champs that year, his team placed 12th. They packed up and left before the awards ceremony, not expecting to hear any positive results. But a week later, Jean-Luc got a message from Director of Sport Liz Page: he’d been selected for the New Zealand tournament team. “I couldn’t believe it,” he recalls. “That was when it hit me—maybe I wasn’t half bad at this!"

Last year's season was a really "tough" season with the national team, but it revealed to him just how deep his commitment ran and how far he was willing to go to keep chasing the sport he loves.

Competing internationally has brought a raft of new challenges—having to adapt quickly to time zones, different cultures, food, and training schedules.

Despite being 6 foot tall, Jean-Luc insists he's "short" in the volleyball world. In his latest tournament in China, the shortest hitter on the winning team stood at 6'6", and across the net, his direct opponent was 6'9". Many of the international teams have professional students who get paid salaries to train six hours a day. "Needless to say, we got smacked,” he laughs. "But it was still a fantastic experience."

Back home, he's deep in club season with beach tournaments lined up for summer. His sights for next year are on earning a scholarship to play volleyball in the US or Canada.