Pursuit is a sports feature series highlighting athletes, coaches, and staff and significant sporting events from North Bay and the surrounding area.
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With the regular season wrapped up, a six-year career as a Lakers athlete is coming to an end for Womens Volleyball Team Captain Shaelyn Francis.
“I feel like it has gone by so fast,” says Francis.
“In my first year, I remember the older players saying, ‘Four or five years will go by so quick,’ and now I'm sitting in my sixth year wondering where did the time go? I try to tell the new players to absorb these memories and take them with you.”
Francis adds, “Most of mine aren't even the ones where we’re playing games. It's being with the girls and on the bus trips and in the hotel rooms and all the team bonding stuff that we do. That's what I reflect on more than any specific game we played or won.”
Francis is part of a group of athletes whose varsity careers have faced some unprecedented challenges, including going through the COVID-19 pandemic. But through it all, Francis maintained a positive attitude and has been a supportive leader to all her teammates throughout her career and it was as if Francis knew she was going to be destined to have a fulfilling career as a Laker.
In an interview for the Lakers website when she first signed with the team back in March of 2018, she said, "I am a huge team player. I believe that everything that you do affects your team no matter if you're on the court or off it. I encourage and support my teammates no matter the circumstances of the match. Another way I would describe my style is being a leader. I understand what is necessary to be an effective leader.”
Flash forward six years and not only is Francis one of the team's captains but she’s also been a multi-time Lakers Pride Award winner at the end-of-year Athletic Banquet.
“I think I’ve won three years in a row now and, awards are great and all, but I don’t do it for that. Being a captain and being a role model for the girls and the team is the biggest thing for me and that’s where the pride comes into it,” she says.
“From a young age, my dad taught me what it means to be a leader and that means being somebody that someone's willing to follow and it starts with the fact that I care about others before I care about myself. I enjoy doing what I do and showing my teammates what it means to be a leader and what pride means for our school because pride is everything for the Lakers. It is definitely awesome to get recognized for it, but it's more about what you can give to others and that's what pride means.”
She says that Lakers pride is something they try to implement at every stage of the careers of these athletes.
“We really pride ourselves on creating a culture to be proud of,” says Francis. “Even when I first came here, there was a really strong foundation that was built beforehand.”
Francis says it’s one of the selling points to newcomers to the Lakers volleyball program.
“As an older athlete, we’ve been able to hone in on what that pride really means and make sure that every other girl who comes into the team has felt welcome. We feel like a family first, and teammates second. When people come to our team and come to our recruiting meetings they feel that right away.”
North Bay wasn’t a new city to Francis who is from a small town called Binbrook, just outside of Hamilton, Ontario. She has a familial connection to the Gateway City.
“My mom is originally from North Bay, so I have lots of family up here, and we have a cottage on Trout Lake on Four Mile Bay. I've been coming here my whole life so it's been a nice home away from home for me,” she says, adding that it made adjusting to North Bay a little easier. “Knowing I had a support system up here with my family, made it an easy transition so it was nice to be able to play my university years here.”
On the court, Francis is an outside hitter and says there is a lot they have to take care of on the court in that position.
“An outside hitter is a jack of all trades. You can pretty much do everything, which is great. We're involved in every play and our role on the back line is to defend the whole backcourt. We have to be able to read a play and react quickly and make sure the rest of the group is staying within the system, and if they aren’t we become the emergency backup to that play. There’s usually a lot going on and so our motto is calm within the chaos.”
Franics says, even after six years of playing at the OUA level the off-season training and the in-season maintenance never get easy.
“There’s more to it than people think. During the summer you build a lot of muscle, and you lift a lot more. Once you get into the season you’re doing maintenance, a mixture of weightlifting and cardio and conditioning – there's a lot of running involved. You’re really focusing on making sure you have full range of motion and taking care of joints because the season wears you down quickly and it doesn’t take long before everything hurts.”
Francis has already earned her undergrad in psychology, and is working toward finishing her Masters in Kinesiology, which she hopes to complete in August.
“I was always interested in the psych part because I always wanted to have an understanding of how the mind works. Now, the focus is on how the body works, and how the mind and body work together,” she says adding she wants to focus on a career that assists in improving employers' and employee's mental health in the workplace.
With six years of being an active and involved student-athlete, Francis says her message to new players at the varsity level is to have a routine that works for them.
“We're in the gym day in and day out, so you need to get a routine down of what you like to do. Figure out how your study methods work and get in contact with coaches as quickly as you can to build a good relationship with them. Let them know you understand that you are a student first and make that connection with your profs as well. Time management is huge and having those good relationships with your coaches and your profs will go a long way to helping you get through everything you need to get through”
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