Paulin to play pro volleyball in France

Tanya Paulin has decided to continue her education this year. She'll just be on a volleyball court in Lyon, France, when she does it.

That's the third of four divisions and one she believes is comparable to Canadian Interuniversity Sport calibre.

"It's not the strongest division, but I think it's the right one for me," the Bathurst native said. "They've been quite straightforward with me. They said I would probably stand out a bit, so I might be picked up by a better team or a higher division next year."

Paulin had registered with an agency which connects athletes to opportunities in a variety of sports. There was some interest from a club in Sweden as well, but the contract offer from the club in France came through.

She'll receive a salary, an apartment, travel expenses and insurance - and the experience of a lifetime. She leaves Aug. 22, will land in Paris and take the train to Lyon. Saint Fons is a smaller city of 15,000 just outside Lyon, a city of one million.

"It's a big university city, so it will be great...a lot of young people," Paulin said. "My first time in Europe, I'll be landing in Paris, so it's pretty cool. I'm hoping that I get to travel, if not during my season then after. Lyon itself has a lot of cool places I'd like to go visit."

Paulin has had some medical issues in the past - a back injury from a Grade 12 car accident which aches from time to time. Last year, she missed the first half of the season after surgery to remove a rib and some muscles when it was discovered there was a compression of the clavicle and the top rib on her left side, which squeezed a vein and caused a blood clot to form.

She says she's fine.

"The second semester went really well," she reflected, and indeed, she was part of a historic day at UNB when the women's and men's volleyball teams clinched their respective AUS titles just hours apart. "I took a little time off after national team tryouts and took some time this summer. My back has been great, my knees have been great. My arm, every once in a while, swells up, but it's nothing serious."

As part of her contract, she's been enrolled in the university in Lyon and will have access to on-campus physiotherapy and medical facilities.

She likely won't go to classes. She was a Dean's List graduate with a bachelor of science in kinesiology this past year. She was considering enrolling in the Masters program and playing out her fifth season with the V-Reds before France came calling.

While she's prepared for some culture shock, it's not something she's afraid of.

This is a girl who grew up in Bathurst, and came to UNB five years ago speaking no English. Today, her English is flawless, and when she goes home to Bathurst "it takes a day or two" before she's comfortable in French again.

Though Parisian and Acadian french are somewhat different, there won't be a big language barrier.

Paulin plans to savour the experience.

"I'm getting to travel and see the world, enjoying life right now. Getting paid to play volleyball...it's great. It's not something I'm going to do for a long time, but I'd love to do this for a few years," she said. "I was looking forward to a fifth year with UNB," she said. "We would have had a great team again. But this opportunity doesn't come along all the time, so I had to take it."

"It's an opportunity to travel and see the world for free, to play volleyball and travel around Europe," said John Richard, UNB's women's volleyball coach.

Paulin becomes the first UNB women's volleyballer to turn pro.

While it's a significant loss for the reigning AUS champions - particularly when you consider that left-and right-side power hitters Jill Blanchard and Erica Hay have graduated as well.

"We were going to be young anyway," said Richard. "This just made us quite a bit younger. But that's OK. We recruited well, thank goodness."

Katarina Legutky of Calgary, a five-foot-11 left-side player, along with Fredericton Reds volleyball program products Vanja Mitrovic, libero Olivia Babcock and setter Leah White, are the key recruits.

Whether the remaining nucleus on the floor can bring the new talent along fast enough for UNB to defend their conference crown remains to be seen.

"We'll see what happens," Richard said. "You don't have to be good in September, you have to be good in February. The beauty of having a young team is, you can see the improvement week to week.

"There's a lot of energy and a lot of excitement in the gym. The top four teams from last year, Saint Mary's, Dal, X and us, are all good. We've probably lost the most of all those teams. But we'll see."

Danny Da Costa is the new head coach of the St. FX women. He takes over from Michelle Aucoin, who left the coaching profession last month to pursue other career opportunities.

Da Costa has been coaching volleyball in the province of Québec for the past 15 years, and has 10 years of coaching experience with both men's and women's provincial team programs.