May 2, 2010: You may bet your last Gabrielle Roy $20 bill that one day Pascal Guenette will become an excellent volleyball coach.

Guenette, from St. Adolphe, Manitoba, attended high school at Ecole College Regional Gabrielle Roy which is named for the late French-Canadian authour who was honoured in September 2004 when the Bank of Canada issued a $20 bank note which included a quotation from her 1961 book The Hidden Mountain.

The affable Guenette, who has been tagged with various nicknames during his four-year college volleyball career, including Lumberjack when he grows a grizzly beard, was recently selected the 2010 Male Athlete of the Year for the Keyano College Huskies.

The 6-fot-4 Guenette arrived in Fort McMurray in 2008 following two years wearing the colours of Edmonton’s NAIT Ooks which was preceded by a high school career which included the following highlights: 2005 Manitoba AAA finalists, 2005 Under-21 Bisons Club National Champions and 2005 National Francophone Game finalists.

Playing the offside and power hitting positions, Guenette, 22, states the highlight of his volleyball playing career to date was participating in the 2009 Coldwell Banker Fort McMurray Canadian Colleges Athletic Association men’s championship which was hosted by the Keyano Huskies.

“My highlight was at nationals getting the last block to end the game and win in the fifth set versus Camosun (College Chargers from Victoria, British Columbia.).”

The scores of that quarter final game which, was viewed by a SRO crowd at the Syncrude Sport & Wellness Centre, were 25-14, 25-19, 23-25, 19-15 and 15-10.

The winner of the tournament was Edmonton’s Grant MacEwan College Griffins upsetting the CEGEP Limoilou Titans from Quebec.

Guenette has one year of eligibility remaining and will be transferring into Keyano College’s EMT Program. Upon graduation he also plans to get into coaching.

“I have been mentoring elementary and junior high school students about the game of volleyball and I plan to get into coaching in the near future. I would like to start in high school and then move into club volleyball.”

Pascal Guenette (left) with teammate Stacey Elser standing for the national anthem .