The Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) is proud to announce its 2019-20 participants in the annual Female Apprentice Coach Program (FACP) for the sport of Volleyball.

Centennial Colts, OCAA
Apprentice: Emily Joe
Mentor: Adriana Bento

Throughout her playing career, Emily Joe grew accustomed to the demands of a varsity student-athlete. Now, the former member of the Centennial Colts Women's Volleyball team will get the opportunity to share her experiences with other players.

Joe will be mentored as an apprentice in the FACP by her former Head Coach, Adriana Bento, who encourages excellence on and off the court.

In three seasons with the Colts, Joe certainly excelled on the volleyball court and in the classroom. She earned Most Improved Player and Most Valuable Player honours as well as an Ontario Colleges Athletic Association (OCAA) All-Academic Award.

"With over 10 years of student-athlete experience I have grown and embodied the student-athlete model and would like to share my knowledge in all aspects of life with the next group of student-athletes," she said.

Joe has also been accumulating coaching experience since she was 16, when she first had an opportunity to coach young athletes. She was quickly drawn to seeing first-hand the improvement and development of athletes.

At Centennial, she gained more experience with Colts summer kids camp, where she created daily lesson plans for athletes of varying skills and abilities. And most recently, Joe took a position as an assistant coach for a 12U girls team, where she got to experience the development of athletes over a much longer period of time.

"Each coaching experience has left me searching for more coaching opportunities, because the success of athletes is something I am excited about," said Joe.

Bento, with her leadership and coaching abilities, has been preparing Joe for this role since her arrival at Centennial in 2018.

"Emily will be a tremendous value with her dedication and hard work to the team," said Bento, who previously coached at the University of Toronto and worked with the Canadian National Beach Volleyball team.

"She will work closely with me to understand the dynamic of coach and athlete, and to help us to define a better mutual vision and goal."

Source: CCAA Communications