Curran Chan Continues Family Tradition Signing with Blazers MVB
The CMU Men's Volleyball program is very pleased to announce the commitment of Curran Chan for the 2024-25 MCAC season. The Grant Park and WinMan Volleyball Club product follows in his brother's footsteps to don the Green and Gold of the Blazers.
A dynamic outside attacker for his Grant Park Pirates team, Chan is a complete package very much in the mold of outgoing Blazers' combo left side and libero Albert Francisco, who is taking his talents to PacWest's College of the Rockies this upcoming season. The two share many similar attributes and the link goes beyond their on court play as they have been family friends for some time. While the Pirates weren't able to get past the Kelvin Clippers in the divisional semi-finals of their MHSAA "AAAA" playoffs, the team made the finals in the Pembina Trails Collegiate tournament, and Chan was named Tournament All-Star in two other tournament appearances, at Tec Voc and West Kildonan this past season. The team's most valuable player was also named an MHSAA Graduating All-Star following the conclusion of his high school season.
After starting his club career with 204 Volleyball for his 13U year, Curran was hand picked this offseason to join a WinMan side that was assembling a squad to rival the perennial powerhouse Bisons Club for the 18U provincial championship banner. This year's team has already won the Volleyball Manitoba Premier, and recently came back from Calgary and the Best of the West tournament where their championship run was halted by the Bisons this time around. The team is still getting set for the provincial championships, and then Volleyball Canada Youth Nationals in Edmonton in May where they hope to turn some heads. Previously with 204's Gold team, Chan was named a 2023 Provincial All-Star following his 17U season, and was awarded the Adrian's Army Scholarship that same season.
Perhaps his biggest feat on the court in his blossoming career was being named to Team Manitoba for last summer's Canada Cup, when the top 16- to 18-year olds in the province were assembled to take on the best from across Canada, and the squad made Manitoba proud by capturing gold at the event. A libero for that team, Chan's all-around game took centre-stage as he showed that he could be as defensively dominant as he could be offensively back home for his high school and club teams on the left side.
Curran follows his older brother Cameron Chan to CMU, after the elder Chan experienced a successful career with the Blazers that saw him thrust into the starting setter role in his first season with the team, leading them to an MCAC Championship win in 2017-18, and ended with the team's first ever appearance at a CCAA Men's Volleyball Nationals in Quebec City at the conclusion of the 2021-22 season. Curran, who is the youngest of the family hopes to bring some big-game experience and success of his own to his new team, and is excited to join such a strong program close to home. Blazers head coach Don Dulder hopes very much that the latest member of the Chan dynasty can help bring MCAC Finals fortune back to the Blazers, who have fallen in their last two MCAC Championship games. "As a selection to Team Manitoba last summer, Curran is an all-around solid player; excellent passer, defensive player, and attacker," stated Blazers Head Coach Don Dulder, who is entering his eleventh season at the helm of the program. "He sees the block well and has an innate ability to get a kill, even though a bit undersized. It's very special to have Curran join our team following the footsteps of his older brother Cam a few years ago, and we're excited to have him part of the Blazers family too."
Following a seventh-consecutive MCAC Finals appearance this February, the Blazers will once again look to make an appearance on the national stage next season when the CCAA Men's Volleyball Nationals are held here in Manitoba, hosted by the Providence Pilots. For the first time in CCAA history, two teams from Manitoba will make the championships in a bid to increase the middle province's visibility on the national stage and show why Manitoba is still a hot bed of top talent in the country. The CCAA is the national body for collegiate athletics in Canada, offering 10 national championships in seven sports. Now finished its third full year of participation, the Manitoba Colleges Athletic Conference joins five other established CCAA conferences; PacWest (BC), ACAC (Alberta-Sask), OCAA (Ontario), RSEQ (Quebec) and ACAA (Atlantic).
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