Indocan Toronto Volleyball Team to be first Canadian Team to join Volleyball League of America

The Volleyball League of America (VLA) has a new team – and this time it will be from north of the border. The Indocan Toronto Volleyball Team will be joining the VLA. The VLA is an effort to further develop adult volleyball in the United States. The teams feature former NCAA / NAIA Collegiate standouts and domestic as well as international professional players that have previously been competing overseas.

“It was extremely important for the VLA to expand into Canada. There are so many great players and clubs that the inclusion of the Canadian volleyball community will create substantial growth for the professional level game in North America,” says Vince Zanzucchi, Director of Digital Operations for the VLA.

How the VLA works

The VLA is divided into two tiers, with all teams including Indocan, starting in Tier 2. Tier 1 has 8 teams and they are from across the United States and are divided in to 3 Division – East, West and Central. Most of the play is in a tournament format featuring at least two Tier 1 teams and the rest Tier 2 teams. High finishes in each tournament earn a Tier 2 team points and if Tier 2 team beats Tier 1 teams they get extra points.

A special tournament is the VLA Cup (formerly the Lloy Ball Classic) in which all Tier 1 and 22 Tier 2 teams play against one another for points.

All these points are to try and finish Top 4 in Tier 2 division play for a chance to play in the VLA Championship in Phoenix in July. The team that wins the Tier 2 VLA Championship advances to Tier 1 next year. Tier 1 has their own championship each year.

“We are hoping that Indocan Toronto sets a precedent and encourages more Canadian clubs to participate in the League, particularly the East Division Cup in Buffalo, NY April 9-10th. The East Division Cup is the only open registration event available until September 2022. It would be great to have a Canadian Tier 2 team earn promotion into Tier 1 within the next few years,” says Zanzucchi.

Why join the VLA?

In speaking with Sukh Singh, Co-Founder and Manager of Indocan Toronto, he said “with COVID restrictions, we can’t play anything here in Canada so we looked for alternatives. Indocan has a great reputation and the VLA welcomed us.”

Indocan Toronto will not only be the first Canadian team in a VLA tournament, but will compete in multiple tournaments trying to win the VLA Championship and advance to Tier 1. The plan for the team is to compete in the Central Division Cup in March in Chicago, the East Division Cup in April in Buffalo, and the VLA Cup in May in Angola, Indiana. With enough points at these three tournaments, they hope to qualify for the Tier 2 VLA Championship in July.

History of Indocan

Indocan Volleyball started in the early 1990’s by Sukh Singh and Sucha Randhawa in community volleyball tournaments around the province. They started by playing mostly outdoor on grass and it wasn’t until the early 2000’s that they eventually shifted indoors. “I would look for people playing high level volleyball and try and get them to play. I would just be sitting at home looking at University and College rosters – oh there’s an Indian kid, I’ll get in contact with him,” says Singh. The plan worked and soon there were athletes that wanted to play together with other Indians on the squad. Singh says, “there were some real trail blazers like Jessy Satti, Jay Basu, Sean Panchal, Sholan Trivedi and Terrance Singh that were playing at a high level and wanted to play with us.”

As the team became more successful there was more support from the Indian business community helping to fund training and travel for the athletes.

The team started expanding into American tournaments hosted by other Indian communities. There are multiple clubs in the US that host large community event with multiple sports and will invite teams to play from across North America. These are sporting events, but also a celebration of culture.

Sholan Trivedi, who played with Indocan from 2010-2019 said, “it’s rare to travel across North America to play the sport you love and I am thankful for that opportunity. The events are difficult to describe and something you need to witness first hand. Amazing cultural dances, food and of course the trash-talk between rival community teams.”

One annual tournament, KLAP held in Baltimore each year is the largest prize money tournament in North America. Indocan Toronto became so successful winning in 2013, 2014, 2015 that other teams starting flying in Indian National Team players to complete against them.

In 2018, tournament organizers changed the rules to allow two non-Indian players to compete on each team. “What we really understood was to win these tournaments you needed to have the best Indian players. Volleyball is a complete team game and finding two stars will not beat having 6 well rounded players” commented Singh. The team went on to win again in 2018.

A Community Connection

Although not formally affiliated, 90% of the players that are on the 40-45 man rotation for Indocan Toronto come from one club – Pakman. This gives the players a familiarity with one another even if they haven’t been able to practice all that much. It also gives the youth something else to strive for. “Representation is key. I have heard from younger plays ‘I want to be like them,’” says Singh, when referring to players on his Indocan roster.

That representation has grown the sport with Indian players currently on U Sports rosters including McMaster, Guelph, Ryerson, York, Dalhousie, and UBCO. Former UBC star Irvan Brar is playing with Middelfart VK in Denmark and led them to the Danish Championship last year.

Preparations slowed by COVID, but underway

This current closure of gyms and fitness facilities in Ontario it will undoubtably put a wrinkle in the training for the team, but Singh is hopeful that they can get back to training. They were supposed to play in a tournament on Jan 23^rd in Vancouver hosted by an IndoPak club that had to be cancelled. During warming months, they even held training outside on grass courts to be able to get even more contacts in. “I just want our guys to play really high level volleyball,” says Singh.

Although the team will be called Indocan Toronto, the team will be open to anyone wanting to represent Toronto and the community. Tryouts will begin as soon as it’s safe to do so, to allow training to begin on the road to what we hope will be a successful first year in the VLA. Trivedi now retired remembers, “it was an amazing experience playing for Indocan for almost a decade, but I’m excited for Indocan’s next chapter and can’t wait to connect with the brothers again.” Zanzucchi echoes that sentiment, “Its a very exciting time for professional level volleyball in North America.”