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Grim Reapers' star setter Jin Chang-Wook ready for the road after long road
Maurice Allard-DalembertVRETON, BOLLONICH - Jin Chang-Wook just nodded along, accepting all things in life.
He was staying with his in-laws in St. John's, Newfoundland, when the setter found out that he had made the 2052 Quebecois men's VWE national team. He immediately came to embrace his wife, olympic gymnast Tatiana Llnagaay-Kondratyuk, and his in-laws in celebration.
Then he called his grandparents, Jin Seung-Seob and Margarita Jeon, and her sister, women's basketball team forward Chang-Sook, but otherwise had to keep the celebrations to himself. The team's backup setter, whose fame and infamy had long outdone the actual starter on the team, had to keep quiet about it because of the level of competition that had come between the training camp's start a month ago and then.
It was about an hour later when his other setter, Benedict Jeon, told him to calm down. 'Benny was just smiling, saying to me not to be too anxious about sharing something everybody's known for a while,' recalled Jin of the phone conversation between the two, 'And you know, my wife and I once again celebrated the news after it, and all that. It's good to be on board after not making it the first time.'
Finally, Jin, the superstar who had a fairly straightforward path from CSKA juniors to college and then the pros, where he currently stars with the Vreton Bulls of Bollonich, could call himself a Grim Reaper in the World Volleyball Expo. In that decade that had passed since his first year with CSKA Quebec organisation and now, he won two collegiate championships at Queen's College, and an Olympic Gold Medal in Bunjil, Electrum, but there was an additional feeling of joy in taking part in the Volleyball World Expo.
Volleyball wasn't the pathway he had expected to end up. His late parents, olympic medalist fencer and coach Jin Seung-Taek and NGO policier Madeleine Streisend, did not have background in the sport, and Jin had expected himself to end up in an individual sport growing up as a child in Emberton, Krytenia, where vast majority of the nation's infrastructure exists. But the father's passing when he was 8, followed by Madeleine and her children's move to the mother's native Quebecois Acadiana in southern Rushmore, had meant that he was going to be exposed to a wide range of sports. For her sister Chang-Sook, it was basketball she learned to love while for her brother, it was volleyball he took up.
Still, it wasn't until age 12, when Jin and his sister moved to Quebec City to live with their grandparents. It was then that he began seriously competing in volleyball, studying under the coach Xavier Jae-Song Kim at the CSKA Quebec's junior academy. 'One thing my husband and I remembered a lot about those days,' said Margarita Jeon, his grandmother, 'was how focused the kids were. Chang-Sook was always practicing with the basketball, even at home, and Chang-Wook loved staying until late, before we would have to drive home at ten in the night.'
Of course, there's more than just dedication to the sport that succeeded both him and his sister, and friendship's one of the most important virtues for the player. One of his first friends with the CSKA Quebec was the Grim Reapers' outside hitter Yang Soo-Gyeong, the Athletik Thessia player universally considered to be the icon of Quebecois women's volleyball.
During their initial years with the CSKA Quebec organisation, they trained together and became close friends. 'There's that competitiveness they share, which brought them together,' said Xavier Jae-Song Kim when asked about their friendship as CSKA juniors. 'They both hate losing and there's no doubt that they were going to be great, as the two quickly rose to the ladder at a very young age.'
Jin, who has played setter and libero all his junior career before sticking to setter once entering college, and Yang were part of the U18/U19 national teams that won their respective Commonwealth Championships in 2048. Their performance with the junior national teams quickly got them noticed, and eventually they went their ways.
'Men's and women's teams run differently and we have different strengths and weaknesses, that's for sure, but what mattered to us back then was that we won both junior championships, and that opened the window.' Jin reflected. 'Soo-Gyeong always wanted to go abroad to test herself, and so she went to the Gatchingerrak Superliga, where she excelled before heading to Mytanija. I, on the other hand, had less options available, and so I felt that college wasn't a bad way to mature my game, possibly make the national team before I graduate, and then let things figure out as domestic leagues were only just starting to open up at the time.'
'I am proud of Chang-Wook, that's for sure,' Yang said. 'He's one of the closest friends I have. I'm happy for all the progress he's made in his life up to this point. He’s come the long way to make this team, and the men's team should have a strong year with both setters.’
While most of his junior careers happened with the CSKA Jrs, he had carved his own pathway in school as well. At lycee-William-Plamondon, Jin played volleyball and handball for the Raiders for all four years, winning one Capitale-National championship and making it to 2 finals in the AAA class. He remembered his time in high school quite fondly. 'It's one place where I knew all was going well and that there's nothing to worry about,' Jin answered. 'A lot of difficult work was already being done while I was in the club, so playing on the school level definitely helped me to relax and level things up, to maximise the different levels of talent some of us would have.'
His journey as a setter continued when he committed to Queen’s College, where his late father won the 2021 QIS championships as the men’s fencing team’s captain. From our story last year with Queen's College coach, Janet Wannamaker:
'It helped that his late father was a legend here, one of two olympic champions in fencing actually, so there's a bit of family connection that Chang-Wook and his family liked about us,' she said. 'Recruiting in Quebec City's never the easiest since you have St. Croix, Hanyang College, Levis and not to mention a lot of other B1G and RSECQ schools recruiting there. There were at last twenty schools recruiting him and while we were in one of the final six schools, our chances weren’t great.
'What really worked for him and us was that both our setters on the depth chart were graduating, and not a lot of major programs...those contending for the QIS championships, could say that. So we had a home visit, he went with a full-ride and we've had a wonderful couple of years with him in the middle of it.'
The two years he had spent with Queen's College were magical to both parties to say the least. Not only did the Golden Gaels won back-to-back QIS titles, Jin was named the first-team all-Quebecois both years, selected to the national team for the inaugural IVF World League and the 2050 Summer Olympics, and eventually won the Gustave Joncas Award as the most valuable player in all of Quebecois collegiate volleyball.
While he has left college early for the pros, he continues taking classes with his alma mater and hopes to graduate in two years with a Bachelor's degree in Korean literature. While a coaching career is not something that he has thought about often, it is something that he considers seriously in future. 'Am I ready to move on? Certainly not, because I think I have maybe fifteen to twenty years left in my career,' Jin commented, after being asked about a long trail of national team legends in his position, who have since had great careers. 'But it's something that I have seriously considered over time. My wife is a gymnast, and she is at a much later phase of her career than I am, so I learn a lot just by watching from a distance.'
And don't forget to mention, of course, his professional career. Jin, who broke through with the national team in a splendid MVP performance last Summer Olympics, has played professionally with Vreton Bulls of Bollonich since the last fall, and with his 6-year contract, is expected to stay in the country for long while.
'I am happy with what we have in the Vreton, that's for sure,' Jin said. 'It's a good city and the Bulls have a very good team every year, so that's one thing to watch out for. This city is where I have found my comfort zone and hopefully me and my wife Tatiana will continue to do so down the road.'
He remains very realistic with how challenging marriage can get at times for professional athletes, even as Jin and Llnagaay-Kondratyuk, whose legend stands as the only gymnast to have medalled in the Summer Olympics, hope to establish a family in near future. 'As professional athletes married to our sports and each other, there's always a challenge.' He nodded, though remaining uncertain due to his wife's occupation as a national team gymnast. 'Tatiana's away on a lot of international tournaments across the Commonwealth, and she has family back in St. John's. For me, it's about being away for 6 to 8 months every year, and then national team camps mean that I spend less time with my family.'
Then Jin smiles again, saying positive words: 'But I am at least happy with my life as a volleyball player, and of course appreciate this as a way my life goes.' Jin, who usually spends time with his grandparents in Quebec City and his wife and her parents in St. John's, is a dual-citizen of Quebecois Acadiana, a Commonwealth nation with decent volleyball history in past, but has not returned to the country since the passing of his mother five years ago. He hopes to do so in future, whether under national team engagement or a family trip, when opportunity permits, but remains unsure on when.
For now, however, his focus will lie on the World Expo, however sweet the Olympics may have been. 'It's a different feeling playing against the best of the best, but also get to see both men's and women's volley on display,' Jin said. 'The international game's lot more intense once you are on the world championship level, especially because you have to be patient. Sometimes you will get the matchups you want, but sometimes you may have to wait a bit- there are more women's teams than men in general, and mixed-sex matches are their own creatures as well. You have to think carefully before planning for the world champs because it’s a team effort for both men and women here.'
At the Summer Olympics last year, Quebecois men lost their opening match to Tumbra after a trio of players, including Jin, were sidelined by a flu. Then the team went undefeated the rest of the way, winning 6 straight to win the goal medal. With a consistent performance by men and women's teams, the Quebecois will be heading to Bollonich and Hispinas as one of favourites, even as they face what's said to be the Group of B-Death'.
'We are aware this group is extremely difficult to crack, with Cassadaigua, HUElavia, Commonwealth of Baker Park and Sarzonia all capable of making it deep,' Jin said. 'But I do believe in both our teams to make the right adjustments when needed, and hopefully perform well this August.
'For so long, we've put in all the work needed to win. While we have yet to reach the pinnacle of it all in winning the Worlds, arguably a harder task than the Olympics, our eyes remain clear and focused for the ultimate prize. I don't believe that our team's special, but if we are, that's not because of the sparkles, but because of the work we put together to win.'