Sanders Finds a Home in the Far North

A chance encounter took T.J. Sanders to Canada’s high north.

A welcoming community has kept him there.

Sanders, the top setter on the Canadian men’s national team, has been involved with an organization called the Nunavik Volleyball Program since 2018. It all started after Sanders was forced out of the World Championships in Bulgaria and Italy with a serious back injury.

He had moved back to his home in Calgary to recover. With little to do other than doctor’s visits, Sanders boarded a flight to Kelowna, B.C. to visit some family.

“On that flight from Calgary to Kelowna, the guy that sat beside me was a guy Fraser (McIntosh) who had worked in the volleyball community. We kind of started chatting about that and he had just come not too long earlier from Nunavik,” Sanders told Momentum Volleyball over the phone while in Arizona. “He had done some camps up there and he had worked with the program a little bit. With that connection, he said to reach out to Phil (Paradis), the guy who started it.”

After a chat with Paradis, and plans with his partner (and former Calgary Dinos women’s player), Kyjsa Brkich, Sanders was on his way to northern Quebec to coach children in Inuit communities in northern Quebec.

In his first days in the program, Sanders was moving from community to community teaching the game.

That had its own series of challenges—like the experience of when planes can “overshoot” the short runways.

“That’s when they come down and recognize they can’t land or we’re off course too much. They just go back up and go to the next community,” said Sanders. There are a lot of times, you don’t end up in your community.

Sanders and Brkich are now in one spot and there’s less living out of their suitcase. They now have their own place in Puvirnituq—a community of just over 2,000 people along Hudson Bay.

And while it’s much easier to have a home base—it’s not without its challenges. Fresh produce isn’t always hard to come by and a lot has to be ordered from down south.

This past winter, a less-than-normal snowfall failed to provide enough insulation to pipes at the city’s water plant. That complicated the schedules of the water and sewage trucks that serviced the region.

Through everything, though, the people living in the communities that far north are there for each other.

They have to be.

“It’s this paradox of being so isolated. In the community we live in now, you look out and there’s nothing in every direction. It’s just frozen tundra,” said Sanders. “So then the people you’re in the community with, you’ve got this common ground so instantly everybody is one. They’re crazy resourceful.”

“You feel welcomed right away by everyone—the kids, the community, the school. So it has a unique vibe to that. You feel a part of the community. Everybody is there to survive together.”

Sanders and Brkich have taken to their new home.  They chose to remain in person so that they can being on the ground to operate the program. They also noticed the school was short-staffed so they decided to help the community in any way possible.

“We integrated ourselves in the community as much as we could. Now it’s our life our there. It’s our home.”

It’s a whole different world from the globetrotting of international volleyball.

The cold is the big thing. Snowpants and neckwarmers are part of the everyday wear. And heating pads are always a necessity in case you’re outside longer than expected.

“It’s intense,” Sanders said of the cold. “It’s something you get used to and you prepare for. Not like you’re just thrown in there. It’s something everyone kind of helps you with.”

But through all the challenges of playing the game in an area so remote where places are only accessible by plane or skidoo, the game brings people together.

Some tournaments, entire communities come out to watch.

Seeing volleyball through different eyes and how young players try to innovate the game has allowed him to tackle the sport from another angle.

He says there are plenty of natural athletes in the north. The challenge was focusing that natural talent into a technical sport like volleyball.

But it’s not like he was arriving and introducing the sport from the start. Sanders says there was already an established knowledge of the game with people knowing videos from Youtube.

From there, program coaches have helped unearth some talents that have gone into collegiate programs in cities in the south of Quebec.

Teaching new skills and seeing young people succeed has been a fulfilling experience for Sanders and Brkich. Volleyball has taken Sanders around the world and coaching has only broadened his own appreciation for the power of sport.

As for his own playing future—well, that’s still up in the air. Sanders sighs and says “ah yes, the decision.” He says he’s not retired yet but his own future is still up in the air. He says he’ll speak with new head coach Ben Josephson but there’s still some time to chart his own path with a few years left