A former professional volleyball player who guided the Halton Hurricanes to multiple provincial and national titles is the new head coach of the Brock Badgers women’s program.

Brock Sports Director Neil Lumsden announced Monday, July 9 that Steve Delaney had been selected to lead the Badgers women’s varsity volleyball team.

Steve Delaney

“His background as a high-level athlete and history and successes in coaching young women at the provincial and national level make him a great choice,” said Lumsden.

Delaney’s playing career included varsity volleyball with the University of Winnipeg, and then competing on Canada’s national beach volleyball team around the world. He also played professional indoor volleyball in Finland and France, and semi-pro with a club in Toronto which won two national titles and competed at a high-level in the U.S.

He has also been a long-time coach, most recently serving as head coach of the Halton Region Hurricanes under-18 team, which won a national title under his watch in 2016, and back-to-back provincial titles in 2017 and 2018.

Halton’s U-18 club is known to develop varsity athletes with all 11 players on the 2017 team going on to play for either NCAA or U SPORTS teams.

Delaney said he’s looking forward to the opportunity to do more than just coaching high-level athletes at Brock.

“I have to thank the Hurricanes because when I started coaching with them and got to work with some elite athletes, I really developed a passion. I didn’t want to just coach athletes, I wanted to develop a program,” he said. “I’ve done a three-year plan for Brock and the goal for me and for the team is to make the playoffs this year. I don’t know how hard it’s going to be because I haven’t been in the gym with the athletes, but we’re going to work hard regardless.”

Lumsden has faith that the Badgers women’s program can be successful.

“Steve has done some homework regarding our team and he believes we’re at a point where we can have success with the young women on the team as it is and some of the new recruits coming in,” he said.

Lumsden said U SPORTS-level volleyball is something worth watching.

“One of the big secrets in varsity high-performance sports is women’s volleyball. If anyone pays attention to what’s going on at the provincial and national level, many of these high-calibre U-17 and U-18 women stay in Canada rather than going to the U.S. because the calibre here is so good.”

Delaney, a Burlington native who runs Pinnacle Wellness, a corporate wellness and consulting firm, said he’s looking forward to getting started with the Badgers players soon.

“They have a ton of potential,” he said.