Meet Kaity Doyle.
Kaity is a 16-year old volleyball player for the Hamilton Smash Raiders, and will be representing Hamilton at the 2022 CANUSA Games in Flint, MI this August. When she was 10, Kaity and her older sister Kylie, 18, began playing volleyball together for fun and soon got an offer to join a rep team, playing together for a few years before splitting off into their own age groups.
On a suggestion from their mother, Kaity and Kylie started competing in CANUSA in 2019 – not only giving the girls a chance to compete together again, but also to branch out and make new friendships.
“Going over to the States and being able to make new friends not only here but also in Michigan, and then even the level of competition, it was something different,” said the younger Doyle sister.
Something different indeed as in addition to competing against each other, the athletes from Flint billeted the Hamiltonians. “Everybody wanted to win, but when it came to going home, there was no rivalry,” Kaity said. “It was just like one big conducive community, rather than just Hamilton and Michigan separating as teams.”
Some of the relationships built at CANUSA have continued on, with Kaity and some of the girls from the Hamilton volleyball team reunited on the Smash Raiders.
