Vermilion native Will Reiniger didn’t look like a freshman in this past Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference (ACAC) volleyball season.
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Accordingly, the Medicine Hat Rattlers’ standout left-side hitter has been recognized as the rookie of the year in the ACAC’s South Division.
Reiniger, who turned 19 in February, was honoured last week during the ACAC men’s volleyball banquet, which preceded the conference championship tournament in Red Deer.
The Rattlers didn’t qualify for the playoffs, but Reiniger made an indelible impact just the same during his debut season at Medicine Hat College.
“Yeah, it feels good,” he said Friday from the Hat. “I pretty much started every set throughout the season.
“Right off the start, before (regular-season) games started, it was a battle between me and the other right-side (Cade Harrison) for the starting spot, and I felt I performed better at practice and in exhibition games, and I earned that starting spot on the right side.”
Later moved to the outside position, Reiniger didn’t look back the rest of the season, and his efforts took him all the way to the conference awards night. He and Rattlers coach Trever Turner made the four-hour drive Wednesday (Feb. 25) for the banquet in Red Deer.
“It was super cool seeing all the top athletes in the ACAC all in one room for a big ceremony,” said Reiniger, a 2025 graduate of St. Jerome High School in Vermilion and the Rustlers’ club volleyball program in Lloydminster.
Reiniger is in elite company, too, with a Rattlers team that includes his twin brother Brett and their older brother Landon. The hat trick of sibling teammates is unique in sport, let alone in the ACAC.
“I don’t think anybody looked too far into it, but I know it’s pretty, pretty rare just to have two brothers on the same team, let alone three,” said Reiniger, who represented Saskatchewan in the Canada Summer Games at St. John’s, N.L., last August.
“It took about a week, not even, just to get used to seeing older brother every day. But it was special to share a moment on the court with him every game this season.”
It appears the Reiniger reunion will extend to another season of collegiate volleyball, with Landon planning to return to Medicine Hat for a fifth and final year of ACAC eligibility.
With encouragement from his family, Landon has committed to one more season with the Rattlers, Will reported.
“Even mom was planting little seeds in his ear, telling him to come back, and saying how in 10 years he’d look back and say, ‘Oh man, I should have played my fifth year.’
“Brett and I are both coming back here again, and I convinced Landon to come back for his fifth and final year, so we’ll finish off his career playing all on the same team.”
The Reinigers’ volleyball lineage includes youngest brother Ethan, a Grade 10 student at St. Jerome and now in his club season with the 16U Gold Rustlers. The up-and-comer is back on the court, wearing an ankle brace, as he recovers from an injury in the high school season.
“He says it’s feeling good,” Will said about Ethan. “He’s had that (volleyball interest) for the last couple of years now. Only recently, he became super-serious about the sport. He definitely has that potential. He’s already six-feet-tall at 16 years old and still growing. He’s in the weight room and putting in the work, on and off the court. He definitely has a bright future.”
Likewise for Will, who was back in the classroom last Thursday on the same day he drove back to Medicine Hat, and back in the weight room Friday during his Meridian Source interview. He’s excited about the prospects for next season’s Rattlers, who were on track for a playoff berth this year but fell out of contention with losses in their final five regular-season matches.
“Oh, we’ll be much better,” said the six-foot-three, 175-pound Reiniger. “We have pretty well all of our guys coming back, and we’ve got some pretty solid recruits coming on the way, too.”
Similarly, he expects the Lakeland Rustlers will be a formidable opponent in the 2026-27 season. The Rustlers narrowly missed the playoffs this year, and next season they welcome the return of red-shirting veterans.
From his local roots and Rustlers club volleyball background, Reiniger knows multiple Lakeland players on a personal level. So, he did a double-take in January when the Rustlers and Rattlers faced each other on the court during a 3-0 Lakeland victory.
“It was strange, seeing some of the guys that I used to compete against when we were growing up,” he said. “They’d come and practise with us in club. Playing in ACAC, it was weird to see familiar faces across the net.”
Reiniger saw more familiar faces two weeks ago when he returned to Vermilion during the college reading week. While driving back to Medicine Hat, he received word that he’d been chosen as the South’s rookie of the year. The North rookie honours went to Arthur Silveira of the Keyano Huskies, who went on to lose 3-1 to the host Red Deer Kings in the ACAC final last Saturday.
Reiniger is a kinesiology student at Medicine Hat College, where he and brother Brett live with two of their teammates in relatively spacious quarters with four bedrooms and two bathrooms. The Reiniger boys have family living in nearby Redcliff, easing their adjustment to college life and Medicine Hat.
“The first couple of weeks were a little interesting to get used to, trying to cook for yourself and get yourself up in the morning for class,” Will said. “But living with my twin brother made it pretty easy. Then, after those two weeks, I figured out how the city was laid out and all that. My grandparents live 10 minutes away, and auntie and uncle live 10 minutes away, so if I was ever feeling homesick, I’d just stop in there and say, ‘Hey, what’s up?’ ”
Up next for Reiniger and fellow students is the home stretch of the school year. In the meantime, he and the Rattlers are practising a couple of times each week before breaking for summer training and employment.
“I’ve applied for jobs both down here in Medicine Hat and in Vermilion,” he said. “Just play it by ear and see which one sparks my interest the most.”
Last summer, Reiniger was extra busy with his Team Saskatchewan duties, including the Canada Cup and the Canada Summer Games.
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