Why I Keep Coming Back to Sport: Reflections from the 2025 VNL Tour
It’s been a month since I’ve returned home from two weeks overseas with Canada’s Senior Women’s National Indoor Volleyball team. The team was in Istanbul, Türkiye for the second Volleyball Nations League (VNL) event of 2025. And as Canada concluded its 2025 VNL campaign just a few days ago in Arlington, Texas, I found myself reflecting on everything I’ve done to date in the sporting world.
Dr. Matt Wentzell and Lydia Maxwell - Therapists for VNL Event 2
Sport involvement may require many sacrifices, depending on the scope what is being asked of you. Time away from your family, your practice, and your patients is often times necessary and is not an easy thing for me to step back from. However, this came up in discussions with many of my patients after my return. Most think it’s “cool” to work in sports, but once they understand the sacrifices that might be made, many follow up with a question that compelled me to write this blog post: “why do you do it?”
VNL Event 2: Canada vs Türkiye
So after reflecting on this and what I’ve done to date, I wanted to put pen-to-paper and share the top 5 things that keep me yearning for more sport involvement, in no particular order:
The People
Sport is filled with amazing individuals. The connections I’ve made with the players, coaching staff and support staff during my work with a local Selects A soccer team for a number of years, with the BC Lions, and the Women’s National team has been memorable. I find the shared experience of sport has the potential to foster more meaningful relationships than that of mere colleagues or acquaintances.
Being a part of something bigger than myself
I’ve not been active in sport as a player for some time now. Balancing work demands with family duties leaves less time for this sort of thing. But the sense of comradery and working towards a common goal in these settings scratches an itch I miss dearly from my days of playing hockey competitively.
Always Learning
Working in a sport environment is cognitively very stimulating. Not in an academic sense, but in a character-building sort of way. I’ve learned so much not only by doing certain things that are “not chiropractic” (i.e. helping on court with practices, in the gym, etc.), but also through observation in domains of sport that are not my specialty. For instance, being a fly on the wall and observing exceptional coaching first-hand is something I’ve truly enjoyed on the trips I’ve been on.
The challenge
The stakes are high in elite sport which is both exciting and nerve wracking. I realize that after some time away from sport that I quite literally crave being in this type of environment.
The Highs and Lows of Sport
In competitive sport there are winners and losers. The feelings associated with both winning and losing is something I had lost touch with after being out of sport for some time. Returning to sport, albeit in a different capacity, still elicits those same emotions. The highs of winning are addictive and the lows of loss lead to critique across all facets of the sporting experience which I find to be an interesting mental exercise. Although I’m a mere cog in the wheel, is there something I could have done differently that may have lent itself to a more favorable outcome?
At the end of the day, my “why” comes down to passion and purpose. Being involved in sport—whether on the sidelines, in the gym, or behind the scenes—offers something that can’t quite be replicated elsewhere. It’s the relationships, the challenges, the constant learning, and the emotional rollercoaster that remind me why I keep saying yes to these opportunities, even when the sacrifices are real. Sport has shaped who I am, and staying connected to it through my role as a chiropractor allows me to give back to a world that gave me so much. While the wins are celebrated and the losses sting, the journey itself is what keeps me coming back for more.
Dr. Matt Wentzell
BKin, MSc, DC, FRCCSS(C)
North Vancouver Sport Chiropractor
