Kodiaks bring Wickstrom back to southern Alberta

By Lethbridge Herald on August 6, 2021.

Aideena Wickstrom is coming back home.

The Lethbridge College Kodiaks women’s volleyball team announced Thursday the commitment of the product of Coaldale and the former LCI Clipper standout in time for the 2021 Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference season.

Wickstrom last played for the Humber Hawks of the Ontario Colleges Athletic Association in 2018-19, posting 46 kills and nine digs in 10 matches.

She now returns to southern Alberta to continue her studies at Lethbridge College and bring some experience up the middle to the Kodiaks, who lost their 2020 ACAC season to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I am very excited Aideena is returning home to play for the Kodiaks,” said Kodiaks women’s volleyball head coach Anna Schwark. “She is a great local talent, which is always something to be proud about recruiting, but she also made a lot of progress out east [with Humber]. After seeing her highlight reel from her first year I was really impressed with her skill and strength. I almost didn’t recognize her to be honest.”

Wickstrom brings strength to the middle position, but Schwark is hoping to realize her full potential along the right side as well.

“Although she is a newcomer for us this year, I think she will still have a very important role because of her ability to lead by example,” said Schwark.

“She has middle experience which I absolutely love, but she is also working on her right-side hitter skills as well and I think that is where she will really make an impact both at the net and as a passer/defender too.”

Wickstrom enjoyed her experience out east and moved into a starting role at Humber, but is excited to bring her game closer to home.

“I’ve been in talks with Anna since I was in Grade 11,” said Wickstrom. “I think coming out of high school I just wanted a change though, which is why I made the decision to go out to Ontario. Being so far away from my family was just hard. Eventually I was like, ‘you know, there’s this perfectly good team back home and this coach that I really like who’s always believed in me. So I think I’ll just come back home.'”

After her first season with Humber, Wickstrom decided to take a year off playing competitively to focus on academics and coaching youth volleyball, an experience she says gave her a better appreciation for the game.

“I only got to coach for just over half of the season because then COVID hit and restrictions came in,” says Wickstrom.

“But it was a mixture of U13 and U14 girls and they were just amazing. They taught me so much. Because you have to teach these girls how to pass and how to set, so you need to go back to the basics, and I think my own fundamental skills have been really sharpened because of that. I think coaching has kind of helped me get an all-around better perspective of the game, how to play and treat other people and just be a good teammate.”

Wickstrom has enrolled in Lethbridge College’s Exercise Science program.

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