Leo van Dam

Leo van Dam got involved with volleyball in Saskatchewan when his daughters fell in love with the game in the 1990’s. Leo’s first involvements were to be a team manager for club teams, and to organize club tournaments that his girls were a part of. He quickly expanded his role and in 1999 he took on a Board Position with the host committee when the Worlds Junior Volleyball Championships were awarded to Saskatoon. Leo continued his board work as he joined the Sask Volleyball Board of Directors and held all positions on the Board, including President of Sask Volleyball.

In the early 2000’s Leo helped Bill Fong develop the Prospects Camp in Assiniboia, which at the time, was one of the largest recruiting camps in Canada for athletes to play post-secondary.

Leo was also a huge supporter of volleyball in Indigenous communities. He ran the Tony Cote Winter Games indoor volleyball championships several times. He was instrumental in the lobbying for Beach Volleyball to become an official sport of the Tony Cote Summer Games. Leo would drive out to many FSIN meetings, with plans and documents in a briefcase, outlining the proposal, but all it really took was one of Leo’s classic speeches, with the deep voice and hands waving in the air to get buy in from all.

He was instrumental in developing the beach volleyball courts at the SaskTel Sports Centre in Saskatoon as well as in Ochapawace, Prince Albert and Swift Current. He became the expert in Saskatchewan whenever anyone wanted to develop beach courts. He took his passion and skills and learned how to make beach courts around the province.

He started Volleyball Saskatoon, and through this organization he developed many programs that residents of Saskatoon were able to enjoy, such as DIGGIT, and overnight week-long camp for over 300 youth. Junior Sand, a youth beach volleyball program, Dynamo Club volleyball, Cool Moves Volleyball, and he was the first to organize the Smashball development program. Leo volunteered thousands of hours at the Saskatoon Henk Ruys Soccer Centre to develop their facility, from adding sprung floors, to adding netting around each court, to the latest projects of new post holes and gates. Leo also made sure team pictures were taken and archived for Sask. Volleyball at all Provincial Championships.

His goal for volleyball was a simple phrase….Grow The Game.It’s amazing what can be accomplished when nobody cares who gets the credit – Leo van Dam