Rustlers volleyball player Sarah Hogue became a celebrated guest at the Rotary Club of Lloydminster’s Monday lunch for helping her team win the ACAC title on the weekend to punch their ticket to the national championships in Red Deer from March 6-9. Hogue was also introduced as the founder of Girls Beyond Borders sponsored by Rotary. Geoff Lee Meridian Source
Lakeland College Rustlers women’s volleyball player Sarah Hogue leads by example on and off the court.
Her skillset as a player and a mentor for young girls earned a round of applause as a special guest at the Rotary Club of Lloydminster’s Monday lunch.
The 22-year-old is poised to help her team defend their Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) Women’s Volleyball Championship in Red Deer March 6-9.
Rotary celebrated her role in helping the Rustlers reclaim their Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference (ACAC) title in Lethbridge last Saturday with a 3-0 sweep over the Ambrose Lions, 25-18, 25-19, 25-18.
They went 9-1 in sets played over the weekend with Hogue playing middle blocker for the victorious Rustlers and captain Kaylie Lueck named player of the game.
“In just over one week, we head to nationals in Red Deer, which is extremely exciting for us,” said Hogue.
“We get to head back for the second year in a row to try to do what we did last year and defend our title.”
Hogue is also in the limelight as the founder of Girls Beyond Borders programs, sponsored by Rotary to empower young girls to become the best version of themselves.
The fifth-year Lakeland student-athlete is looking forward to her next workshop on March 14 at Startup Lloydminster, hopefully after hoisting another national trophy.
Hogue offered her take on how the Rustlers plan to prep for Red Deer.
“I think it’s just sticking to our training that we’ve been working through the entire year,” said Hogue.
“We know what we’re capable of as a group and it’s taken a long time for us to get to this point, but we’re really excited with where we’re at right now.”
Copy that, says team coach, Austin Dyer, who is stoked to get the chance to defend their national title with the key being sticking with what’s got them this far.
“I think we just gotta keep doing what we do. Once we have our opponent matchups and video to review on who we’re going to be facing, we’ll prepare the same way for the nationals we do every week for our league in the ACAC,” said Dyer.
The Rustlers expect to be game-ready when they square off against the Canadian Mennonite University Blazers in their first quarter-final game on March 6 with the rest of the matchups to be determined.
“For us, it’s about ensuring we remain consistent and ensure we’re playing at the highest level possible that weekend,” said Dyer.
“If we do all those things we’re going in as the favourite, we should have a pretty good opportunity to win the whole thing.”
Hogue says as a student-athlete, it’s really important to her to talk with groups of young athletes as well.
That means she provides information for youth sports programs that contact her at Girls Beyond Borders.
She started the program last May as a personal development initiative.
“As for right now, it’s just me. I built the program just from my own knowledge, through my own stuff I had going on in my own life in leadership and goal setting—all those things,” said Hogue.
“I’ve been putting on workshops in the community of Lloydminster for girls age nine to 14 in different topic areas, so some are confidence, self-esteem, goal setting and leadership just to name a few and it’s been going really well.”
The upcoming workshop in March will focus on writing and journaling with a few more workshops planned for the summer.
Rotary was a title sponsor for 2023-24 programming with a donation of $2,500 that Hogue calls amazing to get the program off the ground.
“We’ve done four workshops and they’ve all been delivered at Startup in Lloydminster, which is an awesome facility to use, but I think with our growth and the number of girls we are continually adding, I think we’ll have to move to a bigger location right away,” said Hogue.
