About Us
What We Believe
& Who We Are
Our mission is to change the culture of high performance volleyball training.
We believe physical and mental health lay the foundation for athletes to truly reach their potential. Through helping athletes develop better movement quality, self-care strategies, and efficient technical skills, we’ve seen first hand that volleyball doesn’t need to riddled with injuries and burnout.
How We Started
In 2018, the Athlete Wellness Academy came to life to address a major gap in the athletics world.
Athletes are better than ever at pushing harder, doing more, testing the limits of their bodies. However most athletes don’t have the knowledge or tools to be able to sustain this demanding level of training for very long.
What we saw again and again was way too many injured, exhausted, burnt out athletes. Every day we were helping individual athletes regain their health, restore their bodies, and find their way back to sustainable performance. We knew it was possible not just to overcome these common challenges plaguing so many athletes, but also to prevent them from happening in the first place.
About Our Coaches
Mischa Harris, Co-Founder
My journey in sport began at a young age, when I fell in love with the sport of volleyball and it became one of the main focuses of my life. Not long into that process however, I began to be riddled with injuries that years later would lead to an early retirement. I realized that what happened to me was also happening to athletes all around me - our bodies and minds were breaking down at an alarming rate!
The next phase of my life was dedicated to discovering the best strategies to recover from, and prevent future injuries and mental crashes. This fascinating path taught me an immense about myself, about movement, about psychology, and about what really creates a resilient athlete.
Now there’s nothing that puts a bigger smile on my face than helping athletes realize that they don’t need to accept injury, exhaustion, and anxiety as the status quo - there is such a better way!
Qualifications:
MSc in Experimental Medicine, University of British Columbia
Registered Kinesiologist
Certified Health Coach
Certified Fascial Stretch Therapist
Registered Yoga Teacher
Vancouver and Vancouver Island
Not too long ago I played volleyball at a varsity, professional and Canadian National Team level. In my varsity career I was named to the First Team All-Canadian 3 times and I was the Player of the Year in 2015. My team at Trinity Wester University also won 2 national golds and one national silver medal. After university I went on to play professional in Germany, France, Switzerland and India. In Switzerland I was part of the Swiss Championship winning team in 2018.
My journey was uncommon; I was able to continually surpass expectations and beliefs in what my limits were.
I believe this was largely due to the inspiration I was given through working with Mischa throughout my career. Before AWA was officially a company, Mischa was guiding athletes like myself through the current AWA principles and philosophies. He inspired me to be unique in my approach by getting me to work on what I was doing away from the court to recover, to optimize my energy, to better prepare, and to stay healthy. He was the man behind the scenes that kept me physically and mentally resilient throughout my whole career.
Now it is my mission to inspire other athletes to live their athletic careers uncommonly. I know from first hand experience that this works and I want to share this approach with other athletes because I believe it is a game changer!
Qualifications:
Certified Personal Trainer
Certified Health Coach
Fascial Stretch Therapist
Edmonton
Nick Del Bianco, Co-Founder
John Moate, Coach
Similarly to Nick I played volleyball at a varsity, professional and Canadian National Team level. Throughout my career I was named to an All-Canadian Team, and won 2 OUA bronze medals with the University of Windsor. Throughout my university career I was named to 2 National teams to represent Team Canada at the Taiwan (2017) and Italy (2019) FISU Games. In 2019 I played my first and only professional season in the top league in Germany, as COVID-19 quickly ramped up my season was cut short and I returned to Canada.
Since my return to Canada I have been pursuing a career path to intelligently help youth athletes reach levels of sport they never thought was possible. I find great joy in cultivating an environment where athletes feel they can learn, try and fail in a safe space. By teaming up with AWA I hope to give athletes all the tools they need to live fulfilling lives, get better at sport and learn new ways to take care of their bodies.
Qualifications:
Certified Strength and Conditioning Coach (NSCA-CSCS)
Bachelor of Human Kinetics
Greater Toronto Area
Questions? Want More Info?
No problem! Send a message our way and we’ll be happy to help!
