Published 04:12, 26 Jun 2023

Brie King is a woman of many talents, and these are all just pieces of the puzzle that make her and her multi-faceted career.

The 25-year-old is passionate about three things – volleyball, music and church. Let’s get to know this multi-hyphenate Canadian better and be inspired by her excellent body of work.

Brie Joy King, née O’Reilly, was born and bred in Langley, British Columbia. She played collegiate volleyball at Trinity Western University, foregoing her final year to pursue a professional career at Dresdner SC, where she won the German Cup during the 2019/2020 season.

She joined the Canadian national team in 2019. And from the onset of her career, she has already demonstrated excellence on the court that brought great results, including two bronze medal victories at the continental level.

As she mentioned in one of her interviews, she played 12 months a year in a normal year, but the pandemic put a halt in all competitions in 2020, which allowed her to focus in some other activities. When things got better in 2021, she chose to stay in North America and played at Athletes Unlimited, before moving to Beziers Volley in the French Ligue A.

In that same year she made her first appearance at the Volleyball Nations League in Rimini. And then continued to impress the following year, achieving back-to-back Top 15 Best Setter placements. Many took notice of her outstanding playmaking skills, one of them was legendary Brazilian coach Bernardo Rezende, who gave her a call to play for Sesc RJ Flamengo.

She soon packed her bags and headed to Rio de Janeiro, where she learned from the brilliant Brazilian tactician and competed with the best players in the world. Rio felt like home and the Canadian setter will be back next season.

With an added dimension to her game after the club season, she is reaping those benefits at the 2023 VNL. Brie is currently on top of the Best Setter category after two weeks of action.

As mentioned, her volleyball career had a pause in 2020, giving her time and space to explore her creativity. She did so on her piano, where she paired it with her vocals, making those nine months of no volleyball count as she managed to finish an album. She called it ‘First Things First’ and released it in 2021.

She described her album as a reflection of what she wants to be about – honest, passionate and full of life – her first things. By writing these songs, she is pleased that she can bond with her friends over something outside of winning and volleyball. But there is one song on her album called ‘Cheers’ that depicts her experience as a student and volleyball athlete. After all, volleyball is her primary passion.

Canada coach Shannon Winzer is all praises for her setter and sees her as a well-rounded athlete and person.

“She loves her music. She has strong faith. She likes to do recreational things. She does not live and breathe volleyball. She is a student of the game for sure, and she’s very good at it, but she has so many different facets to her as a human being, which makes her a better athlete,” Winzer said about Brie in an interview with CBC.

The Canadian setter proved that strong faith through her service to the church, where she performs music. Brie married pastor Jeremy King in 2017 and the Christian couple started a church in Vancouver in 2020.

Indeed, there are many good things that Brie King could do – on and off the court.

Brie and Team Canada will play in the final stretch of the preliminary round, hoping to score more wins to reach the Finals. They will be in Bangkok to face Croatia on June 27 at 17:00 local time (10:00 UTC), Brazil on June 29 at 17:00, Italy on June 30 at 13:00 and the Netherlands on July 1 at 17:00.