Riley Brinnen (moustache, right). Image credit: TRU WolfPack

By Aaron Schulze

Brinnen Representing Canada

Former TRU volleyball player injured in 2023 McGill Road crash earns spot on Canada’s sitting volleyball team

Jun 3, 2025 | 11:16 AM

KAMLOOPS — A former Thompson Rivers University (TRU) WolfPack men’s volleyball player who suffered life-altering injuries in a car crash in 2023 will compete for Team Canada.

The TRU WolfPack announced that Riley Brinnen earned a spot on Canada’s sitting volleyball team after impressing at a training camp in Calgary in April. The Kelowna native suffered spinal cord damage following a multi-vehicle collision on McGill Road near the TRU campus on Nov. 29, 2023.

“It’s pretty incredible, just thinking back to after the accident to where I am now,” Brinnen said in a news release issued Tuesday (June 3). “I feel really good about myself, I did struggle a lot with confidence throughout this process, so this feels almost like a rebirth moment. It’s sort of like I’m shedding my old skin and moving into this one.”

Brinnen played three seasons for the WolfPack from 2021 to 2023. He served as an assistant coach for the men’s team during the 2024-25 Canada West season. The WolfPack say Brinnen and Pat Hennelly, the men’s volleyball team’s head coach, discussed the possibility for trying out for Canada’s sitting volleyball squad while coaching together.

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“I was in this lost state, I didn’t really know what I wanted to do but I knew that I wanted to compete,” Brinnen said. “I liked being around the guys on the TRU men’s volleyball team, but I was watching them compete and I was really just craving that opportunity myself. I just got thrown right into the deep end, some things transfer over, but there are some rules and movements that are different. It’s all about figuring out how my body works and what movements work best for me.

“It was a really interesting process and as a kid your dream is always to represent your country through playing a sport, so I knew that as soon as the head coach offered me a spot on the team that I was in 100 per cent. It’s such a cool experience and I’m looking forward to the future years and growing with this team.”

Brinnen and Canada will travel to the Netherlands for a tournament in early July. He has his sights on the Sitting Volleyball World Championships next summer in Hangzhou, China and the 2028 Los Angeles Paralympics.

Canada’s men’s sitting volleyball team is ranked third in the Americas and 11th in the world.