Jelle Kooijman realizes dream as coach of the Wolves men’s volleyball team

Almost a decade ago, volleyball wasn’t yet the centre of Jelle Kooijman’s world. In his hometown of Doetinchem in the Netherlands, soccer dominated his childhood and teenage years, shaping much of his early identity as an athlete. But life has a way of throwing unexpected curveballs or, in Kooijman’s case, volleyballs.

Now, Kooijman is the head coach of the Algonquin Wolves men’s volleyball team. He is also working as the technical and coaching director at Maverick Volleyball.

It all began with a simple suggestion from a roommate during his university years. “Why don’t you just come to volleyball practice with me,” Kooijman’s roommate asked him. “You’re tall, you can probably play,” he said.

Kooijman went to the practice and said that what attracted him to the game besides the game was the environment. “The environment is really friendly,” Kooijman said. “You will compete on the court and then afterward you shake hands, and you can have a good time, and I find that’s really nice.”

Kooijman’s volleyball career as a player was short-lived, just four years, but it gave him clarity about where he truly excelled: coaching.

Arriving in Canada, Kooijman quickly found his place in Ottawa’s volleyball community, joining the Maverick Volleyball Club. The club, one of the largest in Canada, gave him the platform to work with athletes of all levels, from six-year-olds holding a volleyball for the first time to national-level competitors.

Kooijman’s dream was to combine his love for sports and his passion for his studies in sports and exercise psychology and human movement science.

“I think what is interesting about it is that, when you start a career, but especially if you do it in a new country, you apply to so many different positions and so many different things,” Kooijman said.

“I always wrote down that I want to combine my interest and love,” he said. It was a couple of years ago he realised that he had done it.

“I suddenly looked at my schedule and stuff and think to myself that’s what I’ve done,” he said. “I wake up and I think about volleyball and I think about sport and then I go to bed and I wake up the next day and I do the same thing.”

As Maverick’s technical director, Kooijman became a key figure in shaping the club’s programs, ensuring every athlete received quality training and a positive introduction to the sport. His work there has not only cultivated top-tier players but also created a steady pipeline of talent for Algonquin College’s volleyball teams.

Kooijman joined Algonquin in 2019 as the head coach, just before the world turned upside down due to COVID-19.

“We have so many of our current players, on both the men’s and the women’s side, that have come through the club here in Ottawa,” Kooijman said. “They got to play post-secondary here at Algonquin, but also across Ontario and Canada.”

Kooijman is also involved with the men’s national team. He works in so many roles, but he has never let the Wolves feel they aren’t worth his effort.

“He does so much coaching for so many high roles, he works with Team Canada. He works and coordinates for Ottawa Maverick, he coaches with us,” said Ryan Lincoln, an outside on the team.

“He spends so much time watching games and somehow in all of that we never feel like we’re not an option,” he said. “We never feel like we’re being sacrificed for it for another group. It’s always that we know that at the end of the day, he’s going to give us as much as he can.”

Kooijman’s coaching style reflects his view of sports as a means toward personal growth.

“I really care about autonomy. People have to make their own decisions and have to understand why they make decisions, and my job is to show what the right values are and what you should look for,” said Kooijman.

“But I don’t ever want to have to make decisions for people. You are your own person and don’t figure it out. And then if I did my job well, that decision you make will be in line with what I would expect from you. “

The experiences of Kooijman living in Greece, Finland, and Canada have been very influential in his approach. He admired the strong sense of community in Greece, while in Finland, he saw the value placed on individual excellence. These insights have helped him navigate the cultural nuances of coaching a diverse group of athletes in Canada.

“I think what those experiences taught me about coaching is I need to figure out what the cultural background of everyone is that I work with,” said Kooijman. “What’s important to them because, we all say we’re all Canadian, but we all have our own kind of unique backgrounds in terms of parents, friends, school, all that kind of stuff here in Ottawa.”

Kooijman knows what type of encouragement the team needs after tough games.

“I think a lot of that comes down to internally having discussions and getting players to respect others having one-on-ones or team chats,” said Lincoln. “Just like, ‘hey we appreciate what you’re doing’ or ‘we don’t think that this is being handled well’ and very open to making those adjustments.”

Despite this being only his furth year of coaching at the Algonquin College, the Wolves think that he has changed the team a lot and for the better.

“I’ve only ever had him as a coach here,” said Mahmoud Abdelaziz an outside hitter. “I know from the program history that since he’s taken hold of the program, we’ve been extremely successful.”

Kooijman knows that hard work is important but that does not always get success and that’s what he wants his team to always remember.

“If you don’t work hard, you definitely won’t get success,” said Kooijman. “I would want people to know that, ‘Hey, I’m going to work really hard, and I believe that that’s going to give me success, but it might not, and I’m okay with that.’”

Algonquin Wolves men’s volleyball team’s cheer and slogan is “put the work in” and they do just that with the help and guidance of head coach Kooijman.