Sudburians love celebrating the accomplishments of their homegrown heroes. We love it so much sometimes the hero being celebrated isn’t so homegrown.
Case in point is volleyball player Toon Van Lankvelt, who hails from Manitoba but lives in Sudbury. Wed to accomplished NCAA volleyball star and Lo-Ellen Park graduate Kristina Fabris, Van Lankvelt married into one of the city’s most well-known sporting families. Case in point, his now father-in-law, Lucio Fabris, is a Commonwealth Games silver medal winner and inductee into the Sudbury Sports Hall of Fame (Class of 2009).
That said, Van Lankvelt can more than hold his own when it comes to his athletic prowess on the court. A member of the Canadian men’s national volleyball team program for more than a decade, he’s the fourth of six children to parents who immigrated from the Netherlands to Rivers, Man., with his three older siblings (Van Lankvelt and two other siblings were born in Canada).
This month, Van Lankvelt was inducted into the Manitoba Sports Hall of Fame.
Fittingly, he shared much of the credit for the athlete he would become with the farming community located some three hours west of Winnipeg.
“Growing up in small town Manitoba, it was just natural for me to play every sport,” the 38-year-old father of three (all boys) noted this past weekend.
“Our teams relied on that same group of kids playing baseball, basketball, volleyball, soccer and hockey.”
Naturally athletic but located far from the settings that could provide some perspective to his talents, Van Lankvelt would initially become aware of the scope of his abilities in the summer of Grade 11, courtesy of the gym teachers at Rivers Collegiate.
“I happened to see a bulletin about Canada Games tryouts in Winnipeg,” he recalled. “I hadn’t really thought much at that time about anything extra for volleyball. But then I made that team with predominantly age groupers two years older than me.
“That first summer of training with the older players that were already playing at university was the first time I realized that maybe there is something here.”
Inheriting the family genetics in the height department — Van Lankvelt would top out at 6-6 — the future volleyball pro would circle back to his small hometown to capture another differentiator.
“There were definitely other kids who had a similar advantage as far as the height, but I had the athleticism to use that height to my advantage. I think that came largely from playing every sport growing up.”
Recruited by many of the top university volleyball programs in the country, Van Lankvelt would settle on the Manitoba Bisons, home to national team coach Garth Pischke and the Team Canada training facilities. “It was a great situation for me at U of M,” he stated. “My first year there (2002-2003), I was able to start and we ended up winning CIS nationals (now U Sports).”
It was also his indoctrination into yet another developmental step in his pathway to the upper echelon of volleyball in the country.
“Growing up in a small town, I didn’t really have huge aspirations as to what I could really do past this (high school),” he said. “It wasn’t until that first year, seeing the national team in a similar training facility and having success that year, that was really a launching pad for me.”
Though he would not claim another CIS banner during his time with the Bisons, the program provided everything else Van Lankvelt needed to continue with the game beyond university.
“I had five years to get stronger, polishing the skills,” he said. “You can get away with a lot when you are younger and athletic and tall.
“Having the right coaching environment around me helped to develop the tools so that once university was done, it was a nice transition into the national team program and professional volleyball overseas.”
In fact, with club team stints in Greece, Cyprus, Romania, Austria, Belgium, Italy, France, Poland and South Korea, not to mention all of the travel that comes part and parcel of the time he spent with the national program, Van Lankvelt has logged more than his fair share of air miles.
“Italy – that was the pinnacle of pro leagues in the world,” recalled the powerful left-side hitter. “The day in and day out training with those individuals helped me realize that I could compete in the biggest and best leagues. I just loved Italy in general, the culture, the food. I lived about an hour south of Turin, in a beautiful area of the country.
“There were a lot of highlights for various reasons that help Italy stand out as the one that I really regard highly and think of often.”
Topping that list was the beginning of a long-term relationship with Kristina Fabris.
“I was in the west part of Italy and she was in the eastern part of France. I realized that she was close — the beauty of social media — and we would make the three-hour trip back and forth.”
Having now settled down with the family business (Med-I-Well Services) in Sudbury, Van Lankvelt was thrilled with his recent trip back to Winnipeg.
“You have memories but you don’t spend a lot of time thinking about them,” he said. “But going back and seeing old coaches and teammates – it was really great to see a lot of familiar faces.”
“To get that call was pretty cool,” said Van Lankvelt. Sudbury thinks so, too.
Randy Pascal is a sportswriter in Sudbury. Pursuit is made possible by our Community Leaders Program.
