Danny Grant is not deterred easily, and that is probably a good thing.
Six years ago, Grant was participating in a Trinity Western Spartans adult summer volleyball camp.
The camp is for recreational players or those looking to learn the sport.
“I was the worst player at that camp,” Grant freely admits.
“I looked like I should be good at the sport; I had the height, but I was getting blocked by 40-year-old women and stuff like that.”
Grant was an 18-year-old, getting ready to embark on his collegiate career with Abbotsford’s Columbia Bible College Bearcats.
And while he stood six-foot-nine and looked the part of a volleyball player, that was not entirely the case.
While most players his age had years of club and school volleyball under their belts, Grant was raw.
His school in northern B.C., Chetwynd Secondary, didn’t have a coach so his high school experience consisted of his Grade 12 year and the team playing in just the zone championships.
But it was there that Grant caught the eye of a club coach in Prince George, and after training with that team, he met a coach from CBC, paving his way to a move to the Fraser Valley.
But despite his lack of pedigree in the sport, Grant aspired to play for Trinity Western, one of the premier programs in the country.
Attending the adult camp was Grant’s way of hopefully meeting someone from the program, as well as brush up on some of his own skills before attending a tryout for the CBC squad.
“He was awful, to be honest,” said Spartans men’s volleyball coach Ben Josephson. “He was getting owned by middle-aged women.”
“He could jump and he was super enthusiastic, but he had no idea how to do anything,” Josephson added.
“That was the last we thought we’d see of him.”
Grant went on to make the Bearcats team, and after playing sparingly in his first season, he was starting as a sophomore and helped the team win the Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association national championship.
After one more season at CBC — where he led the PacWest conference in blocks — Grant fulfilled his goal of joining the Spartans.
Grant, who plays middle, red-shirted his first season, meaning he could practice and work out with the team, but could not play. He played last season and this year, has taken his game to a whole new level.
The 23-year-old — who is set to graduate with a bachelor’s degree in business administration — tied the Canada West conference record for blocks in a season with 136. He also led the entire country with 1.46 blocks per set.
“It is an incredible story,” Josephson said.
“He is six-foot-10, which helps, but he has the most incredible work ethic … and is a sponge for knowledge. Every time we have a meeting, he always lingers after because he wants to ask questions and make sure he fully understands every little detail.
“That kind of attention to detail and work ethic, combined with his freaky physical talents, have produced the nation’s top blocker.”
Grant is just enjoying himself as his university career winds down. The Spartans are in Edmonton this weekend at the Canada West Final Four championships, needing a top two finish to advance to the CIS national championships.
“This is total bliss,” he said about making it this far.
“It has been incredible because for me it has been six years of wanting to play on Trinity and finally getting the chance when I didn’t know if I would. I could very well have played out all my years and never gotten to start.”
Josephson said great teams need players like Grant.
“All great teams have a few players like Danny on them,” the coach explained, using the New England Patriots and Julian Edelman and the Seattle Seahawks’ Richard Sherman as examples.
“Teams become really special when guys like Danny Grant emerge, almost out of nowhere and it just provides so much character to your group because they have earned everything they have got.
“They weren’t the big studs, they weren’t the alpha ones, they cherish what they have got.”
The game has taught Grant so much.
“A lot of the reasons I have been successful is because I have had a lot of good coaches, good teammates to help me out,” he said.
“Having good people around you is a key to success.”
And it hasn’t always been easy along the way, either, as Grant admitted he had doubts in his first year at Trinity Western.
It was hard not being able to go on the road with his teammates and it was also difficult not seeing improvement or results in his own game.
“I wasn’t really seeing myself get better or anything like that, it was definitely very discouraging,” he admitted, sometimes wondering if he had chosen the right path.
But a combination of friends, family and faith got him through the hard times.
And with his university eligibility up at the end of the season, the next choice Grant will make is whether to put his degree to use in the business world or attempt to play professionally overseas.
