At the height of greatness

When Seyar Karimi approached Coach Dave Preston in the ninth grade letting him know that eventually, he would be playing for him, the chances of that becoming a reality were slim.

Karimi, a 5’6” libero, who at the time, was only a manager for his high school team, had a lot of work to do in order to get to play for one of the best teams in the country.

But on that day, he made a statement to Coach Preston, and made it very clear to him, and to his friends, that he was serious about one day having the chance to play for the Marauders volleyball team.

“All of my friends were like, ‘what are you doing’?” said Karimi.

“And I was like, ‘I’m going to do it, im going to make a statement here’- and I went up to him and said ‘hey, I’m going to be on your team.'”

Karimi knew he wanted to play for the Marauders early on in the ninth grade, as two of his high school coaches at Rick Hansen Secondary School—Dave McAllister and Mike Russell—were also the assistant coaches at McMaster at the time.

These coaches would always take the high school team to Marauders volleyball games in the Burridge Gym, and from that moment on, Karimi was hooked.

“I don’t know if it’s because they brought us here that I really liked it, but I came into that game and I saw the coach and saw everything and thought that I had to come here,” said Karimi.

Karimi, however, had a couple of major setbacks in his pursuit to become a Marauder. One of these setbacks was that in order to play for the team, he first had to make the roster of his high school team.

From grades 6-9, Karimi was always the manager of his school’s volleyball team due to his size.

“I never made a team. Every year I tried out, I was too small, and my brother always made the team so, I was always the manager,” said Karimi.

By the time Karimi reached the tenth grade, he really wanted to play. Coaches Dave McAllister and Mike Russell took him in as a manager, but decided to give him a shot at showcasing his abilities on the court as well.

His grade 10 year marked the very first time he made the school volleyball team, and Karimi decided it was best to develop a good connection with McAllister and Russell if he wanted any hope of making the Marauder team.

“Those two guys impacted where I am now… they became like father figures to me, and eventually helped me out,” said Karimi.

Another major setback for Karimi was his academic performance. In order to play for the Marauders, he had to maintain a high average in high school to get into McMaster.

When he had his meeting with Preston in grade 12, he did not know if he got accepted into McMaster yet, and he knew that he would have to work extremely hard in order to get there.

But it was in that meeting, where the possibility of Karimi actually making the team became a lot more realistic.

At first, Coach Preston let him know all of the challenges that he would have to face in the CIS, given his small stature.

After seeing Karimi’s reassurance that he was up for any challenge, however, Preston had an easy decision to make.

“His reassurance through the whole thing was overwhelming,” said Preston. “When you meet somebody like that, with that kind of drive, with that kind of intuitive motivation, it’s captivating.”

Karimi was willing to work extremely hard in order to make up for his height.

“For a guy of his stature and his size and where we wanted to go, there wasn’t a lot of room. But he said, ‘oh I’ll make room,’ and he was right,” said Preston.

Preston told Karimi that there was a spot open on his team for him if he got accepted into Mac.

“So I went back to school, and just grinded it out, and it was my best academic year,” said Karimi.

Two weeks later, Karimi was accepted into Mac.

Fast-forward to two years later, and Karimi not only gets playing-time on the court, but is also in-charge of game-day speeches, a ritual for the Marauders at every game.

“They’ll get in a circle, and I have like four or five lines that I’ll rap to chirp about the other team, to get us pumping,” said Karimi.

Karimi is also in charge of a lot of the smaller details that have helped in pushing the Marauders from the best team in the province, to the best team in the country.

“I like to say that if my team is a jar of ping pong balls, I’m the sand that fills in the space,” said Karimi.

“After every game, every time the coach talks, I play specific music that our team listens to, on road trips whenever there is no music, people are like, ‘where is Seyar?’”

Coach Preston mentions his role as a helpful one for the team, as he also makes sure that the athletes and their belongings are taken care of.

“He is the guy to make sure that the chocolate milk stuff gets taken care of and that the details get packed in the team bag on the road trips, and that the uniforms and stuff get hung up,” said Preston.

On top of all of this, Karimi also contributes on the court.

“There’s critical points in times in a match where we rely on him to go in. So he’s not just here for the fun of it, he’s contributing,” said Preston.

When it comes to the Marauders volleyball program, Preston stresses that the overall character of a person is more valuable than their talent, or their height.

“Whether he is 5”6’ or 7”6’, to me it doesn’t matter - he’s got the charisma and the character, and the drive from within to be successful - that’s what we teach.”

Preston will be recruiting this coming weekend in Waterloo, and when he is there, he will be looking for players that have the kind of drive and passion that Karimi has, but he knows that the recruiting process is never an easy task.

“Sometimes I’m wrong, sometimes I think a kids got lots of character and he doesn’t, and sometimes I miss one,” said Preston.

“Recruiting is not a perfect science that’s for sure… But I trust my instincts, I trust my judgements, and Seyar’s character is so prominent, I knew I wasn’t missing that one.”