TORONTO –  A lot of 18-year-olds who stand six-four-and-a-half and weigh 185 pounds are, shall we say, somewhat gangly and more apt to bump into a wall while taking a walk than perform finesse moves on a field of play.
 

Sam Schachter, will represent Canada in The Hague.

But Sam Schachter is no ordinary teenage string bean. In fact, he’s got all the attributes of a champion beach volleyball player: he’s quick, he’s co-ordinated, he’s good on offence and just as talented on defence. He can spike and he can dig (go low to save opponents’ hard shots), and his overall game is such that after only three years in the sport, he’s on Canada’s 19-and under national team that’s travelling to the Netherlands for the World Under-19 Championships, which began this week.

The Richmond Hill teen, it seems, is the real deal, a volleyballer who’s good on the court, but excellent in the wildly popular beach variety of the sport.

The beach game suits his talents to a tee, he said prior to heading to The Hague. In the hardcourt game, players tend to be specialists, whether servers, spikers or set-up men. In beach, with only two players per side, you’ve got to be more flexible.

“I think beach requires more overall skills,” he said. “I have good ball control and do everything generally well.”

George Shermer would agree. A former coach of the Maccabi Canada volleyball team and co-owner of Beach Blast, a beach volleyball training and recreational facility with locations in Downsview and at the Docks, Shermer has seen Schachter develop into one of the country’s best young players.

He’s effusive in his description of Schachter’s talents. “He’s got the right size, tremendous athletic abilities and he comes from a very good family background,” Shermer said. “He’s got all the tools to succeed.”

At Volleyball Canada’s June tryouts for the national team, held at Beach Blast in Downsview, Schachter and his partner Rex Fenton of Ottawa, were pushed to the limit. In the final, they faced the Manitoba duo of Chris Voth and Dane Pischke and were almost eliminated in Game 2 of the best of three championship. Already down after losing the first set 12-21, they trailed the westerners 20-19 in the second game and faced three match points. Barely staving off elimination, they went on to win 26-24, forcing a Game 3. That one they won 15-10, sending them to Holland.

Schachter knows he and Fenton will have their work cut out for them in Europe. Canada is a middling power on the international scene. Our best-ever finish in a youth competition was fourth. Brazil, Poland, Australia and Germany are world powers, with European countries relying on players who honed their skill playing in a professional court league.

Schachter’s dream is to compete at the world’s at the senior level, and considering how far he’s come in a short time, that goal appears well within reach.

A graduate of Westmount Collegiate in Thornhill, Schachter played court volleyball in high school before making the move to the sand.

“I like beach a little more,” he explained. “I experimented with it the first time. Now I’m known as a beach player.” Two years ago, playing with a different partner, he finished ninth in Canada and fifth in Ontario. Last year, after changing partners, he moved up to fourth in Canada and second in Ontario.

This year meant another change. He teamed with Fenton, a longtime opponent, and the pair vaulted to the top ranking in Canada while also earning a spot on Ontario’s under-21 squad. The June national tryout at Beach Blast marked the pair’s first tournament together.

Schachter, who will attend Wilfrid Laurier University this fall, attributes his rise through the ranks to physical growth, “which helped,” and because “I am smarter, a better attacker, [play] better defence and digging. My overall game improved.”

He trains under Jason Hubbard at Beach Blast in Downsview, among other venues. Schachter’s training regimen is gruelling, taking up to four or five hours a day, five days a week. Prior to tournaments, he trains seven days a week.

Shermer believes Schachter’s potential is nearly unlimited. He could go as far as the Canadian Olympic team in 2016, when he should be near his peak, he said.

“His biggest asset is that he’s extremely well co-ordinated, not his size,” Shermer said. “He’s good in all positions.

“His personality is that he’s focused on all the things young people don’t know about to be number one. He’s got it all.”

Schachter would be a shoo-in to make Maccabi Canada’s court volleyball team at next summer’s Maccabiah Games in Israel, if he chooses to play, Shermer said.

Even without him, the Canadian team should put a smile on Shermer’s face. He’s hopeful that all three of his sons – Joshua, who finished fourth in the national under-18 competition and second in Ontario, Eli and Daniel – will make the Canadian team in Israel.

In addition, Josh Binstock, a nationally ranked beach player, might be available.

There’s also a good chance Maccabi Canada will field a women’s team. It will likely be built around Rebecca
Moskowitz, far and away the best Jewish female beach volleyballer, Shermer said.

Moskowitz recently teamed with Line Jomphe to win a bronze medal at the $10,000 Federation Internationale de Volleyball (FIVB) Beach Volleyball Women’s Satellite event in Laredo, Spain.