In this photo: Mieke DuMont prepares to return serve with the Dalhousie Tigers earlier this season.
KTW presents its annual Where Are They Now? series, in which we catch up with newsmakers of the past.
When Kamloops last heard from Mieke DuMont, hers was one of the most recognizable names in high-school athletics.
Now, she’s one of the most recognizable names in Dalhousie volleyball.
“It has been really good,” DuMont said of her time at Dalhousie University in Halifax.
“The coach and the team have been really nice and really welcoming, so they made the transition a lot easier.”
DuMont racked up accolades in her final year at South Kamloops secondary, where she was a three-sport athlete for the Titans — volleyball, basketball and soccer.
She collected the District Dogwood Authority Award for Physical Activity and South Kamloops’s service award, as well as its senior female coach’s award, senior scholar-athlete award and Titan award. She led the school to a bronze-medal finish in the B.C. High School Girls’ Provincial AAAA Volleyball Championship and was named a first-team all-star in the process.
As her senior year wound to a close, DuMont was offered a full varsity volleyball athletic scholarship by the Dalhousie Tigers, as well as an academic-entrance scholarship.
Since turning in her Titan yellow and black for the Tiger gold and black, the South Kamloops graduate has continued to hone her athletic prowess.
The Atlantic university has offered the perfect locale for DuMont to continue her development, with a young roster and trusting coach allowing her to have an immediate impact.
She started all nine of the Tigers’ pre-Christmas matches, helping the club to a 3-6 record and a third-place standing. She’s second on the club in kills (45), service aces (12), digs (71) and solo blocks (6). She’s third on the team in points (75).
It hasn’t been a wholly easy transition — there have been some tough moments on the court and in the classroom — but DuMont said playing in Eastern Canada has been everything she hoped it would be.
“It’s definitely a lot more intense training and there’s more pressure playing, but the coach and the team have made it very easy to transition into,” she said.
“Now I’m comfortable playing there.”
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