The Thompson Rivers University WolfPack have a tradition of developing excellent setters. They hope that trend will continue with the announcement of their second recruit for the 2020-21 Canada West season.

Head coach Pat Hennelly and the WolfPack are pleased to announce that  Jonas Van Huizen of Langley Christian Secondary school will join Thompson Rivers in September.
The 6'3" Van Huizen  helped Langley Christian to a silver medal at the BC "AA" high school provincial championships  He played club volleyball for Fraser Valley Volleyball Club and was recently ranked as the second best high school player in BC in the "Varsity Letters coaches poll."

"TRU is a great school with an awesome volleyball program, " stated Van Huizen who will be taking course aimed at earning a Bachelor of Arts degree at Thompson Rivers. He was looking at UBCO, Douglas College York and Trinity Western before deciding to come to TRU.

"There are a lot young players and some great talent," he says about the WolfPack.  We will be able to a make a few good runs at the playoffs in the coming years. I really want to continue setting in post secondary, and TRU gave me the best opportunity to do that and learn from some great players at the same time".

Van Huizen arrives at Thompson Rivers to find starting setter Anton Napolitano (Victoria, AUS) in his fifth year and Samuel Elgert (Athabasca, AB) going into his third. He says it is a good situation for him to learn. " It will be a great opportunity to learn from their combined experience. Both bring different skills to the table. I would like to play at both their levels'.
Brynden Mac Tavish has been Van Huizen's coach at both the high school and the club levels the last four years."  Jonas has continued to grow in his leadership over the past few years. He has begun the process of understanding what leadership is and how it needs to look in his actions and interactions with teammates. This is a continuing journey for him and I look forward to him learning more as he gets to play with older more experienced players. Over the years Jonas has worked in a reverse order then most setters would. He has always been exceptional at making the difficult high-risk plays, but we have worked a lot over the last couple years at identifying when and how to make the high percentage decisions. This has made for a very complete setter that is difficult to game plan for."
He adds, " Jonas is a fierce competitor, there is not a game or drill in practice where he is lacking the fire to compete, and brings a swagger and confidence to everything that he does. He is one of the most creative players that I have had the opportunity to work with. He sees the floor incredibly well and is not afraid to try and make plays that no one else can. Underrated for Jonas still is his overall control. He has great control over his body to make plays from different angles and he has one of the most natural hand contacts that I have worked with. "
Mac Tavish believes that Van Huizen is the best setter coming out of Western Canadian high schools this year.  Moving forward,  he thinks, " . I am looking forward to Jonas developing physically as an athlete going forward. He has been a gifted competitor so far and I think getting into the weight room to add some strength and explosiveness to his frame will only raise his ceiling. I think playing for Pat will be great for him in this way, and will add to what is already a mentally strong competitor. We will be working together this club season to also refine his footwork as a setter to get him prepared further."
 
Says coach Hennelly about his latest recruit, "Very happy to have Jonas join our program. He is proven he can excel at setting and outside hitting and that is a testament to his competitive spirit. He has a serve that will make an immediate impact and will add skill and volleyball IQ. He comes in at a time where he can learn from both Anton and Sam and the fact he has chosen to come with two older setters in our program shows his foresight and understanding of the process it takes to play in Canada West. I coached his aunt Danielle and her husband Jake at UBC and have known his uncle Rich (York University and an excellent beach player)  for a long time. His dad Eric has been coaching and bringing Langley Christian junior boys to our tournament for a long time. I know the family and the character and work ethic that the Van Huizen name stands for. This is a huge piece for our program.  "

Van Huizen becomes the second announced high school recruit for Thompson Rivers for 2020-21. The other is 6'9" middle/outside Reilly Podovelnikoff of Mount Sentinel Secondary.