When volleyball player Dale Iwanoczko was just 15 years old, he made his senior high school team, and his arrival as an elite player was officially announced.

It was the beginning of an impressive athletic and academic journey cut short by cancer, but which saw Iwanoczko become one of the top university men’s volleyball players in Canada and a member of the national team, while earning his medical degree from the University of Manitoba.

Dean Iwanoczko, Dale’s older brother by two years who was on that high school team as a grade 12 player, said Dale was already on his way to becoming an elite player. “We won provincials that year, my grade 12 year, and he was the only grade 10 kid on the boys' team,” said Dean, recalling the 1983- 84 provincial boys volleyball championship won by Lord Selkirk Royals coached by Jim Schreyer.

“Jim Schreyer and (Bisons men’s volleyball team head coach) Garth Pischke both told us that what stood out about Dale as a player was just his drive on the floor. Anybody that was on the floor with Dale was automatically a better player. Not because Dale made them a better player, but because Dale helped them raise their level of play.”

Dean said it was that way in all aspects of Dale’s life. The 6-foot-7 Dale always had big expectations of himself and a zest for life that drew people to him.

Dale Iwanoczko was born Sept. 13, 1968 and was the youngest son and middle child of parents Don and Erna Iwanoczko of Selkirk and brother to Dean and sister Dana.

In high school, Dale earned numerous athletic and academic awards including the 1986 Governor General’s Award, was twice his school’s male athlete of the year and was his high school class valedictorian. A successful provincial and national team player, he competed in the 1987 World Junior Championship in Saudi Arabia, the 1991 World University Games in England and the Pan Am Games in Cuba.

Iwanoczko was the ultimate student athlete in his university years in 1986-1991 as a setter with the Manitoba Bisons. The CIS rookie of the year in 1986-87, he went on to be the only male volleyball player in CIS history to be named a first team all-Canadian for four years and was the 1990 CIS player of the year. With Iwanoczko at the helm, the Bisons won five medals in five national championship appearance with a bronze medal and three silver medals before winning gold in 1990-1991.

Academically, he was on the Dean’s Honour Roll when he achieved his Bachelor of Science degree in 1989 and was the recipient of the Family of Medicine Award in 1993 when he earned his doctorate in medicine.

He courageously fought a year-long battle with Hodgkin’s Disease and passed away on Sept. 15, 1998, just two days after his 30th birthday. In his honour, his family and friends established the Dr. Dale Iwanoczko Memorial Volleyball Scholarship presented annually to four high school players.

On June 12, 1990, Dale spoke about the importance of being successful as a person and an athlete when he was the keynote speaker at the Lord Selkirk Regional High School athletic banquet.

“You have to take responsibility for your own success. If you want to not only win but be a winner - which means not only in sport but everything else you do, you are the only one that can accomplish that,” he said in his speech which has been saved by his close friend and Bisons teammate Peter Sdrolias.

Dale Iwanoczko lived a brief but extraordinary life, both athletically and academically, and is a proud addition to the Manitoba Sports Hall of Fame.