Still a relative newcomer to volleyball, Lloydminster Comprehensive High School student Lennon Mari is in elite company — provincially and nationally — just the same.
Read more: Lloydminster’s Momentum Volleyball Club strikes gold
Next week, the 16-year-old Mari departs for Kelowna, B.C., to participate in Team Canada’s U19 men’s tryouts.
He’s among 20 finalists invited to the May 4-10 camp, after which 14 players will be selected to represent Canada in the Continental U19 championship later in May at Burnaby, B.C.
“I think I have the level of confidence, and I believe in my abilities enough, that I can definitely take it all the way,” said Mari, a Grade 11 student at Lloyd Comp.
“It just depends on if I can stay mentally focused the whole week.”
He expects the tryout camp to go beyond evaluation sessions and include practice preparation for the imminent international tournament.
“We have a few team sessions, going over stuff, practices,” Mari said about the format. “It’s built more as a practice (opportunity), considering the chosen travel team only has an extra week to practise before they leave for Burnaby for the Continental.”
Regardless of whether he gains a Team Canada berth, Mari is already on the volleyball radar far beyond his hometown of Lloydminster, where he plays with the 17U Rustlers during the club season and the LCHS Barons at the high school level.
For this fall, Mari has been selected to Volleyball Canada’s National Excellence Program. He’s part of an elite group of young players who will train in Winnipeg for the first semester of his senior year of high school.
“Yeah, it should be a really big developmental experience for me, and I’m hoping it can greaten my skills, push me to be the best player I can be, and get to experience what it’ll be like for college and university when I’m away from home,” said Mari, who turns 17 at the end of June.
Mari’s fast rise in volleyball circles included his selection to Team Sask’s 17U team for the Canada Cup last summer in Niagara Falls, Ont.
“The highlight of that was definitely earning the bronze medal,” he said. “That was a phenomenal experience, and I’ll never forget that. It was really nice to walk away with a medal from that tournament.”
Since turning his athletic focus toward volleyball in Grade 10, Mari has enjoyed the travel that comes with playing on competitive teams.
“I like being away from home,” he said. “I like to experience new things, and travelling with the team is one of the best parts about playing club sports and high-level sports, just being away, but being with your team.”
Mari shared one of those stories from life on the road.
“Last year during our Rustlers season, our team rap-battled another team at a hotel,” he said with a chuckle.
And who came out on top?
“Oh, us, 100 per cent.”
Even at the higher levels of volleyball, that same sense of team-bonding remains a big part of any club’s chemistry on and off the court.
“It’s definitely a big thing about growth and development as human beings and athletes,” said the well-spoken Mari, a towering six-foot-five and 190 pounds.
This weekend at Warman, Sask., he and his 17U Rustlers teammates will participate in their biggest tournament of the year, the provincial championship.
“Hopefully, we can come out successfully,” Mari said. “We’ve had some pretty good showings so far this season. Nothing to be overly upset about, I’d say.”
Immediately after that tournament, he’s British Columbia bound for the national team tryouts.
Mari usually plays left-side or power with his local teams, but he’s open-minded about where he might fit into the Canadian prospects picture.
“With the Lloyd teams, I definitely have a bigger role,” he said. “I’m hoping to take on some sort of big role on provincial and national teams, but I’m willing to do whatever the coaches or players need me to do for us to be successful. So, we’ll see where that leads.
“I would say a lot of physicality has gotten me this far. I’m fairly naturally athletic. It fits in well with the systems on our team. We’re fairly successful in the offensive end, because we have a few athletic guys on our team.”
Mari’s athleticism extends to his decade as a basketball player, going all the way back to when he was five or six years old.
“Yeah, I played basketball for the majority of my life, and then I just recently switched to full-time volleyball about last year,” said Mari, who was a Grade 10 rookie with a Barons team that included current college volleyball players Rylan Smith (Lakeland) and Kolton Wildeman (College of the Rockies).
“I just had a really great first high school season (in 2024). My coaches and my teammates really changed my perspective on the sport, and I found myself enjoying it a lot more than I did basketball.”
Now, he’s already hearing from university coaches at the U Sports level throughout Canada. That interest from scouts aligns with Mari’s long-term projections for his volleyball career.
“I mean, hopefully, best-case scenario, I’m playing a four- or five-year university career, and then moving overseas to play some professional volleyball for as long as I can.”
Ever the athlete, Mari has participated in track and field tryouts this week at Lloyd Comp, even though he might well be out of town for most of the competitive track meet season.
Read more: Net gain for AJHL goalie prospects like Merk
