ESTEVAN - Shelan Proust has been recognized for her "countless" hours of dedication to the Estevan Extreme Volleyball Club over the past eight years.
Proust was one of the volunteers recognized with a Marlene Hoffman Volunteer Award by Sask. Volleyball on the weekend.
Proust initially started as a volunteer parent in 2015.
"This was really the true start of the club growing and Shelan just showed up, dug in and helped with whatever needed to be done, through managing her daughter's team and attending board meetings," stated her nomination.
In 2018, Proust took on the role of fundraising chairwoman and introduced various initiatives to assist the club with becoming financially stable. The goal was trying to keep volleyball cost-friendly so all athletes, regardless of financial background, could participate.
"Because Shelan couldn't just do one job at a time, she also head coached the 13UW [under-13 female] team in the 2017-18 and 2018-19 seasons before also taking on the vice-president position in 2019," the nomination stated.
In 2019, when the under-14 women's team needed an assistant coach, Proust stepped up. And she stepped in as the U17 women's assistant coach, too. This was while remaining the vice-president and fundraising committee chairwoman.
"Need anything done to make the club a success? Shelan literally signs up for it all as her passion for growing and sustaining the club was clear."
The nomination noted that in 2020, she slowed down a bit, but remained the vice-president of the program. It was during this time that the club dealt with all of the rules and regulations associated with the pandemic.
"Shelan put in countless hours preparing documents, policies and protocols to keep the athletes on the court safely," the nomination stated. "The Extreme also moved to a new facility where Shelan helped to hand-paint the floor with the dimensions of a court, so athletes could have a facility that was utilized by only our athletes."
In the years following the pandemic restrictions, Proust took on the role of president of the club and under her guidance the number of athletes rose to 107 through the different age groups in the 2022-23 season.
"Shelan has spent significant time securing gyms, recruiting coaches, writing policies and navigating the always fun job of dealing with parents. Shelan has never stopped managing the teams her daughter plays on. Above and beyond is simply what Shelan does."
The Estevan Extreme welcomed beach volleyball and summer camps in the past couple of years, and the Smashbal program has grown to the point where there is often a waitlist.
This past season, Proust ran weekly development sessions for Grade 7 and 8 students who had not previously participated in the club volleyball program.
The nomination form noted that just over 2,900 days have passed since Proust became involved with Estevan Extreme and she has been constantly researching grants, sending emails for clarification on something, taking calls from parents, meeting prospective coaches for coffee and sitting at a computer designing yet another poster for another new program.
Proust is also passionate about mental health in athletes and this year partnered with one of the 17U female athletes to have "Smash the Stigma, Mental Health Matters" on all of the warmup shirts for all age groups.
"This club has become her life and through her involvement, she has changed many lives and made Estevan Extreme Volleyball Club a household name in southeast Saskatchewan," the nomination stated. "The athletes Shelan has coached are better for knowing her, and the coaches she has mentored will go on to continue to change lives with the insight they've gained from Shelan."
