Pursuit is sports feature series highlighting athletes, coaches and staff and significant sporting events from North Bay and the surrounding area.
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Playing in her first full season in almost three years, it felt as if Océane Raymond-Leduc didn’t miss a beat. The outside hitter of the Nipissing Lakers capped off a spectacular first season by earning OUA Rookie of the Year honours in March, on top of being named the team MVP, Rookie of the Year, an OUA and USports All-Star, the Lakers Rookie of the Year and the Lakers Jack and Mary Ann Jones Female Athlete of the Year.
“I had no idea I was even being nominated for Lakers Female Athlete of the Year. It didn’t even cross my mind,” says Raymond-Leduc.
“It wasn’t until they actually announced the award that I knew I had won. I had gone up four times previously during the night as they were presenting OUA team awards and so I didn’t really process being named Nipissing's Female Athlete of the Year for quite some time. It was a really nice recognition.”
The Ottawa native says winning the Ontario University Athletics Rookie of the Year Award became a goal of hers during the season.
“I had some teammates mention to me that it was a possibility. I got OUA Athlete of the Week during the season and that’s when they told me ‘You have a really good shot at getting Rookie of the Year.’ I didn’t want to let my teammates down and I started to want that more than anything,” she says.
“When my coach called me to his office to tell me about it, I was just so relieved because it proved working hard does pay off. I never really had the experience to know that putting in all that work towards a goal like that can be achieved. Getting both of those awards is just a reflection of how much work I put into the year and it was still a big surprise and I was very thankful.”
It comes as a surprise as Raymond-Leduc had not played competitive volleyball since her U16 year almost three years ago.
“In my 17U year I was injured with a concussion and in my 18U year we were shut down by COVID so the last time I played serious club volleyball before coming to Nipissing was in my 16U year,” she says, adding the nerves got the better of her when OUA play began.
“It was a big jump, it was pretty scary to go from playing at 16U to then playing OUA. I was terrified. I didn’t know how to deal with my emotions. I was just all over the place. In the first game, I got subbed out in the first set, then was back in for the second set. I came out again, was sent back in later, and then I stayed in for the entire last set and I got better every time I came back onto the court and I started to get a little better mentally as well with what was going on,” she says.
“The second game I played the entire time, didn’t get subbed out and everything felt more under control. That's a huge part of the game is controlling your nerves. During those time-outs, you have one minute and in that one minute, you have so much going on. You’re focusing on what the coach is telling you, you're focusing on getting some water or something else in you to help recover and it’s a very fast-paced game.”
Raymond-Leduc overcame the nerves and settled in for her first year in the OUA - which started a season late as she dealt with an injury during her first year at Nipissing University.
“This is my second-year studying, but my first year of eligibility in OUA competition because I had to have surgery on my heel last year,” she says.
“I sprained it in my 16U year and initial tests didn’t find anything, but a few years later they called back and told me that I have a cyst and that it needed to be followed up on. They scheduled a surgery for me in September of 2021 to take it out which meant I had to make a decision; do I put it off to the summer or try to play through it? The danger of playing through it was that it could fracture and shatter my heel bone. Getting the surgery was the best decision I made. I went through a lot of recovery. I didn’t get to practice with the girls until the second semester.
With four years of OUA eligibility remaining, Raymond-Leduc says this is something she has been envisioning since she started playing volleyball competitively.
“I feel like I knew from that moment I started playing in grade seven that this is what I was going to be doing in post-secondary,” she says.
“I started playing in grade five in my elementary school, there were only about 200 kids in the whole school. I had a lot of fun with it and in grade seven I had to try out for the team and I remember that being something I really wanted and cared about. My coach that year really helped me build my self-confidence and believe in my abilities. I started playing club volleyball the next year and that was only because a friend convinced me to do it. I made the high-performance “B” team that first year, and after the first year I moved up to the “A” team and had been playing at that level ever since.”
Raymond-Leduc says playing at a high level throughout her high school and club conditioned her for the OUA style of play.
“My high school had a really good volleyball program, we were playing at the same level as the club team which isn’t always the case. But it was great for me because it helped get me more touches and improve overall by being tested consistently at that high level,” she says. “When I was in grade 11, we made OFSAA right before the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns started. I can’t even remember where we finished but it was a great time competing with other schools at that level and being able to see what kind of competition was out there.”
Raymond-Leduc says when it came time for her recruitment there were a few things that stood out about Nipissing University.
“My Head Coach Mark LaRochelle was very involved in recruiting me. He reached out many times and kept trying to get me to commit to the Lakers and it was nice to see that he would go out of his way to talk to me,” says Raymond-Leduc who is working towards a degree in education.
“It was down to Nipissing and McGill for where I was going to go, and it came down to Coach LaRochelle being more available to answer my questions and communicating better.”
Raymond-Leduc says LaRochelle also had a big focus on team culture.
“That was a huge part of my decision as well. I always wanted to be on a team where I feel comfortable with everyone and we can interact and talk without feeling judged and having open and honest discussions with your teammates. It’s something we worked on a lot this year and we were seeing a lot of improvements both on and off the court. Team culture is what Coach LaRochelle sold me on and it has come through already in just my first year.”
Raymond-Leduc says the team is excited about next season and has already been introduced to some of the new recruits for the 2023-24 year.
“We’re excited to welcome in the new recruiting class and we’re looking to build on this year which was a learning year for us. We found that we can compete with the bigger schools and there were a lot of close games throughout the year,” she says.
“We have a really good roster next year and I think we can have a long season. Adding new, competitive players to the team pushes everyone else to work hard and earn their spots and reinforces the idea that if you’re not willing to put the work in you are not going to get that chance to be on the court. I knew this year I was going to be in a battle for playing time and I had to keep working hard for that and earning that position.”
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