Josephson making Trinity a strong program

Justin Seward
Times Reporter

 

Strathmore High School alumnus Ben Josephson’s volleyball passion started 20 years ago when he came to the school in Grade 11 and tried out for the team with limited experience in the sport.
Since then, the athlete has become instrumental in making the Trinity Western men’s volleyball team competitive.
“I went out and tried out for the high school team just to meet other kids and Randy Moncks was the coach and he asked who was a setter and a bunch of short guys put up their hand. I figured I got a shot,” said Josephson.
After graduating in 1997 from SHS, his strong quality of being a quiet leader with his play on the court earned him the chance to play five years with Trinity Western.
Upon his completion of playing, he became assistant coach for a year and now is in his ninth season as head coach, where he won back-to-back national titles in 2011 and 2012. He has stuck with placing an emphasis on making sure the players have communication on the court to succeed as players.
“Obviously it’s a fun game,” said Josephson. “But it’s a really great game for learning how to be with others. One thing I made a bunch of notes on is you can’t win a match by yourself. You can’t win a point by yourself … so that ability to communicate, stay together through tough times … we have some great lessons to learn. How do we manage our emotions, focus when things aren’t going smoothly? What we’re teaching is volleyball concepts and as they mature we’re trying to help them apply that off the court.”
Whether it’s spending six hours with the team in the gym or spending time with his two kids and wife, volleyball will always be a part of his life as he referred to it as his ‘dream-job.’
“When I’m tired of these boys I go to my little boys and play some more, it’s a good life,” he said. “It stinks when you lose. And this is the worst part of coaching is how to manage through poor performances.”
Josephson also got to coach against his former club coaches versus Mount Royal University’s mens team in an exhibition match earlier this month in Strathmore.
His former coach, Randy Moncks, thinks what Josephson is doing with the Trinity Western program has stemmed from his sharp volleyball sense and adaptability to the sport.
“It was through a series of other events that he ended up starting,” said Moncks.
“My setter, who I really focused on stopped coming to school and was asked to leave, and Ben stepped in. In his Grade 12 year, he just blossomed and a very hard worker, his volleyball IQ was great and he was just all off sudden blossoming into one of the better athletes we’ve had at Strathmore High School.”
Moncks thought it was a great surprise that Trinity Western had taken Josephson, but he turned out to be a worthy pick as he was recognized as a first-team all-star in Canada West and the first in any sport in Spartans athletics.
On a coaching level, he thinks the recruitment Josephson had done has played a big part in the program’s success.
“For us, we’re very proud of what had happened there,” said Moncks.