GUELPH, Ont. – Throughout the 2020 fall semester, the University of Guelph Department of Athletics will be highlighting various members from our Gryphon varsity teams as part of our "BioSteel Student-Athlete Spotlight." This week's edition features
Jakson Paterson, a fifth-year student-athlete on the Gryphons men's volleyball team who majors in biomedical engineering.
LONG HOURS ON CAMPUS PAY OFF IN THE CLASSROOM AND ON THE COURT
Jakson Paterson has always enjoyed the challenge of juggling a busy schedule. And chances are, if you have regularly spent time on the University of Guelph campus over the past five years, you have most likely crossed paths with the 6-foot-8 standout on the Gryphons men's volleyball team. In a pre-COVID-19 setting, Jakson's daily routine during the school year saw him usually arrive on campus around 8am and not leave campus until approximately 10pm.
Over the course of 12 straight hours on campus, a typical day for the biomedical engineering major was usually comprised of four to five hours of classes or lab work, two to three hours devoted to practice with the varsity men's volleyball team, and the remaining hours of the day split up between studying at the library, working out at the Guelph Gryphons Athletics Centre, or finding a few moments to eat or socialize with classmates and teammates on campus. The long hours on campus have paid off for Paterson, both in the classroom and on the court.
During the 2019-20 season, Paterson was named a U SPORTS Academic All-Canadian, while also carving out time in his busy schedule to help out his fellow Gryphon varsity athletes. For each of the past two years, Jakson has served as a Student-Athlete Mentor in the Gryphons "
SAM Program," where he works alongside Gryphon student-athletes to help support and improve their academic performance. The same leadership role which he has adopted on the academic side is also evident on the athletic side, where Paterson lists helping the younger players on the men's volleyball team improve on and off the court as one of his main objectives for his senior season.
When it comes to development on the volleyball court, few players in the OUA have come as far as Jakson Paterson in recent years. After playing hockey most of his youth, the product of Humberside Collegiate Institute in Toronto describes himself as a "late bloomer" when it comes to the volleyball ranks.
Despite not joining the rep volleyball scene until his Grade 11 year, Jakson went on to contribute to three provincial championships as well as two national silver medals as a member of the Pakmen Volleyball Club. Attracted to the University of Guelph by its engineering program and the collaborative environment among the engineering students, Jakson also quickly grew fond of the athletic environment at U of G. During a campus visit, Jakson recalls the intimate atmosphere for varsity volleyball games in the west gym of the W.F. Mitchell Centre jumping out to him as a major selling point. Since that recruiting visit, the Gryphons men's volleyball team has gone on to make the move to the state-of-the-art Guelph Gryphons Athletics Centre for their home games. The upgrade in facilities has coincided with Jakson's improvements in his own game.
During the 2019-20 season, Jakson was named an OUA Second Team All-Star after a standout fourth season as a Gryphon. The 6-foot-8 middle blocker racked up an OUA-best 35 solo blocks, while finishing 3rd in the OUA in total blocks with 60. With Paterson anchoring the middle for the Gryphons, the team recorded one of the most impressive playoff performances in recent memory with a dominating straight sets victory over a talented Ryerson Rams team in the OUA quarter-finals on February 29, 2020.
Despite the 2020-21 volleyball season being cancelled due to the pandemic, Jakson continues to regularly train and practice with the Gryphons, all while working towards the completion of his undergraduate degree in biomedical engineering, which he is set to complete by the spring of 2021.
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