Howard of Merritt enjoying breakout season with TRU WolfPack

Flowerday graduated after last season, finishing his Canada West career in the conversation among the greatest players in program history.

Prior to his departure, the Australian outside hitter Flowerday mentored Howard, who played sparingly in his freshman campaign, a rookie who quickly realized his status as a blue-chip recruit and MVP of the 2023 AA Boys Provincial High School Volleyball Championship did not make him the big man on campus at TRU.

“Obviously, you come in with high hopes expecting to play, but then you realize there are levels to it and being a top recruit out of high school means pretty close to nothing when you go into U Sports,” Howard said. “Sam Flowerday and Rylan Ibbetson were just way better than me. I just had to accept that and learn from them.”

Howard played in four matches last season, tallying one kill.

Work ethic has never been an issue for Howard, who was among the strongest players on the team last season, and he accepted direction to better his physique this past off-season: More pistons, less guns.

“Physically, I think he had to make some changes,” Hennelly said, noting Howard is a proficient passer. “He really likes the weight room. We had to sort of change from the upper body stuff to a little more focus on explosiveness, lower body, and that worked on his vertical, which helps everyone in the sport of volleyball.”

Howard improved his vertical jump, but is likely nowhere near reaching his ceiling.

His first complete season of competitive volleyball came in 2021, when he helped the Merritt Panthers place third in the Okanagan junior boys championship, no small feat for a school of its population.

Howard moved to Kamloops in time for his Grade 11 campaign, playing at the club level for the Kamloops Volleyball Association and in the high school ranks for the South Kamloops Titans under coach Graham MacGregor.

The Titans became the first Kamloops team to win a senior boys high school volleyball provincial title in 2023.

After the season, Howard, libero Brandon Johnson and middle Keenan Brulotte committed to play for the WolfPack, while other team members signed elsewhere in the post-secondary ranks.

“It’s pretty robust right now for boys volleyball at South Kam,” Hennelly said. “Brandon Johnson has had a great year, too. It’s always nice when you can relate to someone directly and say, ‘They made it. I might have a chance to make it, as well.’”

Hennelly said Howard has room to grow, noting he is still adapting to playing in unfriendly environments against championship contenders and learning to embrace individual showdowns against top opponents.

“People are specifically game planning to stop Alex,” Hennelly said. “You’ve got to go through these processes. Given his work ethic and attitude, I think he’s going to keep climbing.”

Howard and Johnson are part of the young core that plans to compete among the top teams in the country over the next few seasons.

“Hopefully, in two years, we’ll be at the top of the U Sports leaderboard,” Howard said. “I see huge potential. I hope there is no end to where I can keep going.”

This season, TRU is 4-8 and tied for ninth in conference standings. The top 10 teams will qualify for the post-season.

The WolfPack have not reached the playoffs since 2022 and not since 2019 in a season in which the playoff format was not affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

TRU is slated to play a pair of exhibition matches this weekend at the TCC.

The UBC Thunderbirds of Vancouver will be in town on Friday, with match time set for 6 p.m. TRU will host Laval on Sunday, a 3 p.m. start.

Regular season play will resume on Jan. 9, when the Pack travel to Langley to square off against the Trinity Western Spartans (8-2).

by Marty Hastings

Howard of Merritt enjoying breakout season with TRU WolfPack

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