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[3]By Rebecca Bartlett [4]
BELLEVILLE – Loyalist College named its first athlete of the week for the new year.
Jodie Mitchell is a dual athlete for the Lancers [5]. She started her year playing on the 2-2-7 women’s soccer team. She practiced a couple of times with the volleyball team during the soccer season, but Mitchell said she found she couldn’t do both sports at the same time. The soccer season squeezes 11 games into a season that lasts just over a month which she said put too much strain on her muscles to practice volleyball as well.
Mitchell didn’t even know she was named athlete of the week at first. She was in a meeting at her part-time job as a campus residence assistant and one of her bosses showed her the post on Facebook.
“I was kind of satisfied. I worked my butt off on the weekend before, and I was like, ‘It all kind of paid off,’” she said.
Co-head coach Amy Hoskin [6] said that Mitchell is the kind of player that every coach wants on their team.
“She is tough as nails, she is passionate, she is the kid that never ever quits. She can be injured and most of the time I don’t know if she’s injured, because she doesn’t let it show, she doesn’t tell me, she just keeps fighting through and supports her team 100% of the time,” Hoskin said.
Hoskin couldn’t stop praising how well Mitchell played the entire weekend at a tournament [7] hosted by the Durham Lords [8].
“She was dynamite this weekend. She was so good. She was a tournament all-star and in my opinion, hands down one of the best players in the gym all weekend. She passed unbelievably, she throws herself at the floor all the time, she just goes full out 100% of the time. I can’t say enough about the way she played this weekend, she was unbelievable,” said Hoskin.
Mitchell said it was a good weekend for the team, and she noticed a big change in the team’s attitude in the first tournament of the new year.
“Our team’s dynamics mentally changed this weekend. It was great, everyone was happy. We could be down 10 points and we’d still be giggling on the court to each other,” said Mitchell. She added that instead of getting frustrated and blaming one another, the whole team stayed level headed, which paid off with a second place finish in a 12 team tournament.
Both Lancer volleyball teams kicked off the second half of the regular season Wednesday night against the Centennial Colts [9]. The women lost 3-1 and the men won in three straight sets.