When Volleyball Canada called, Lennon Mari didn’t have to think twice about what it meant.
“I was very surprised – happy, excited, and surprised.”
He had made it. All the way.
Mari, 16, has been named to Volleyball Canada‘s National Excellence Program (NEP) – a program that identifies the top 20 male youth volleyball players in the country. He is the only athlete from Saskatchewan selected this year.
What the NEP means
The National Excellence Program is Volleyball Canada’s pipeline for elite youth development. Selection signals that an athlete is operating at a level that warrants national attention – and national investment.
For Mari, it also opens a door he intends to walk through.
From May 4 to 10, he will travel to Kelowna, B.C., to try out for the Team Canada U19 Boys program. Fourteen athletes from that evaluation will be selected to represent Canada at the Boys U19 NORCECA Continental Championship in Burnaby.
When asked what that week in Kelowna trying out for Canada feels like in his mind, Mari didn’t hesitate.
“Pure excitement, honestly.”
Not just a volleyball player
Mari’s path to the national stage wasn’t a straight line – and it wasn’t always about volleyball.
He picked up the sport in Grade 7 as a way to stay active between basketball seasons. A coach at the time, Diane Gow, saw something in him and encouraged him to try club volleyball with the Lloydminster Rustlers.
It stuck. But it wasn’t until Grade 10 – back with Gow, and alongside coach Doug Smith and a new group of teammates – that Mari made the shift from hobbyist to competitor.
“Grade 10 was my turning point to make volleyball more than just a hobby,” he said.
Outside the gym, Mari works part-time at May Cinema 6, keeps his grades up for university applications, and tries to carve out time with friends when the schedule allows. Volleyball, he notes, is a year-round commitment if you want it to be.
Most days, he wants it to be.
The cost of the climb
Reaching this level requires sacrifice. Mari is clear-eyed about that.
“My friends are going out and having fun at night and on weekends, and I’m going to bed and maintaining a routine because I have a practice, or the gym, or a tournament the next morning,” he said.
He doesn’t frame that as a complaint. It’s the deal he made with himself.
Mentally, he prepares for high-stakes evaluations the same way – by reminding himself why he was invited in the first place.
“You have to understand why you’ve been invited, and why you’re going,” he said. “That should be enough to motivate you, and make you believe that you belong with that calibre of players.”
Harder than it looks
The part of the game he’s had to work hardest on isn’t a serve or a spike. It’s leadership.
“It’s easy to have fun with your team when you’re winning, and it’s easy to be a good teammate when everything is going well,” Mari said. “But what matters most is being a good teammate and leader when things are going wrong.”
He said he’s seen that improve over the last few tournaments this season.
Representing more than himself
Mari is not the first Lloydminster athlete to earn provincial recognition. But he may be the first local men’s volleyball player to reach beyond it.
“I’m not aware of any recent men’s volleyball players from Lloydminster that have gone beyond a provincial team,” he said. “This is a chance for me to set up a belief in our younger volleyball players here, that even coming from a smaller community, you can go anywhere.”
He’s also the first volleyball player in his family – something he notes, given how many elite athletes come from multi-generational sports households.
When asked what he’d say to a younger kid in Lloydminster who doubts whether a small city can produce athletes at this level, Mari offered the kind of answer that doesn’t need a rewrite.
“Don’t let your environment shape your goals and aspirations – let your aspirations shape your environment.”
In five years, he plans to be finishing his university career and looking at professional play with a European team.
For now, he’s packing for Kelowna and a chance to represent Canada at an elite level.
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