Canadian youngster and MCMaster University alumni Brandon Koppers has just been announced by PlusLiga powerhouse Zaksa in its official website as one of the team’s new signing for the summer. This will be Koppers’ first professional volleyball adventure outside of Canada. The 22-year old 6’8″ outside hitter, a staple in Canada’s youth national teams, expressed his feelings about leaving for Europe:
“I played in Poland several times, still in my time at MCMaster, a few exhibition matches against Bielsko-Biała. However, only when watching Skra play against Jastrzębski Węgiel I understood how much I wanted to play in PlusLiga. During my last year of studies, I loved watching ZAKSA in the Champions League, admiring the team and its fans. When I heard for the first time that there was a chance for me to be in a club like ZAKSA, I was very excited. Coach Andrea Gardini has done an amazing work with this team, he is a trainer from who I really want to learn more about volleyball. ZAKSA is an amazing club, well organized, with great fans – for me it will be a great opportunity to be here and I intend to use it for my personal growth.”
Joining a top European club is something rare for prospects coming out of college, be them from the USA or Canada. It is way more common for these unseasoned players to start off in Europe’s lower-tier leagues, so Zaksa showing showing an interest in Koppers can only mean that the team sees in him a very valuable prospect. Zaksa, the current PlusLiga runner-ups, has recently also added Aleksander Śliwka, Rafał Szymura, Lukasz Kaczmarek, and Przemysław Stępień to its roster.
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