In the past few years, participation in volleyball and membership within the Ontario Volleyball Association (OVA) has exploded, nearly doubling in the past decade.
Due to this unprecedented growth, the OVA and it's staff needed to grow and adjust to better meet the needs of its members. The following are the notable changes and what that means to members.
Congratulations to everyone on their new roles!
Carrie Campbell
Club Services Manager
After 20 years in Indoor Youth Competitions, Carrie is moving into a new Club Services Manager role.
This new position was designed to tackle needs that were expressed through our Club Survey feedback. Carrie will build and nurture meaningful relationships with stakeholders in the volleyball community across the Province of Ontario to help support their needs, manage the tryout window and athlete release process, manage new club applications as well be on site to support major event delivery.
She will be reaching out to all clubs over the next few months to obtain feedback and action items from her findings.
In the meantime if you need to reach out, contact Carrie at ccampbell@ontariovolleyball.org.
Mark Wiersma
Indoor Competitions and Special Events Manager
Mark is moving from the role of Youth Competitions Lead to into a managerial role.
An OVA staff member in Youth Competitions since 2016 when there were less than 350 tournaments, this new leadership role was developed as there were over 650 tournaments last season alone!
While he will still be involved in competition delivery by overseeing the 18U competitions as well as tournament hosting management, he will be taking on a staffing leadership role and helping shape the way forward to indoor youth competitions in Ontario.
As Special Event Manager, Mark will be the logistical lead for all convention centre events and Ontario Championships, managing venue assets and equipment allocation.
As always, he can be reached at mwiersma@ontariovolleyball.org.
Jacob Barker
Indoor Program Coordinator - aka "The New Mark"
Jacob has been with Indoor Competitions since spring 2022 following his completion of Brock University's Sport Management program. Still an active Badger, he is an Assistant Coach with the Men's Volleyball team.
He will be taking over the bulk of Mark's old responsibilities. This season he will be the lead for 15U girls and all 16U and 17U competitions programs. He will also assist with Convention Centre Events and Ontario Championships planning and delivery.
To contact Jacob, please direct your emails to jbarker@ontariovolleyball.org.
Claire Melanson
Indoor Program Coordinator
To help facilitate Mark's elevation into a leadership role, the Indoor Competitions team needed to grow.
OVA is excited to announce the hiring of Claire Melanson as a Indoor Program Coordinator for all Early Contact Initiative (ECI) divisions, and 15U boys competitions.
Claire is a graduate of Brock University's Sport Management Program, has coached in the OVA Club system and interned with OVA last spring with Indoor Competitions where she helped to deliver the largest Ontario Championships to date.
All emails for Claire can be directed to cmelanson@ontariovolleyball.org.