She's still in Hamilton, and still spending her days at McMaster. But things have changed radically for Lauren Skelly since her volleyball season – and ultimately, her career – ended in February.
Skelly was an exceptional student with an eye toward higher education, and when McMaster lost a heartbreaking quarterfinal contest at Ryerson, her future was still to be decided. She had done her due diligence in September, taking an entire week away from her team's preseason preparations to apply for a number of postgraduate grants and awards, and to come to terms with the notion that she could be leaving the Marauders in a matter of months.
Acceptance to the Master of Kinesiology program at McMaster came in mid-March, but a decision was yet to be made about the all-important grant money that could ease Skelly's financial burden and lend her studies some clout.
The verdict arrived later that month, and it was an overwhelmingly positive one. Having already received an Undergraduate Student Research Award (USRA) that would pay for her laboratory work over the summer, Skelly was rewarded for her excellence in the classroom and her commitment to the application process with the prestigious Canada Graduate Scholarship from the Natural Sciences Research Council (NSERC), which will cover a large portion of her first-year expenses.
The weight of her unknown future had played on Skelly's mind throughout the winter, and the resolution of her applications in March came as a huge relief. Despite her remarkable academic achievements – her four-year course average on the McMaster 12-point scale was 11.4 with a final year of 11.8 – she never allowed herself to relax.
“It was definitely in the back of my mind until I heard that I had received [the award] in March, and you can't assume anything,” she says. “Most places had already delivered acceptances by the time the awards were announced, so it was a nice thing to get.”
The award ensures that Skelly can continue her work under the tutelage of Dr. Martin Gibala, who heads the exercise metabolism research group at McMaster and continues to supervise Skelly's undergraduate thesis. Her existing relationship with Gibala, and his status as a well-known and respected figure in his field, made the choice to remain under his supervision an easy one.
While the exact path she will follow in her postgraduate studies is unclear for now – thesis topics in her program will not be finalized until her second year – Skelly plans to focus her work on the effects of high-intensity interval training.
The way is clear for Skelly to enter a new stage of her life, but that passage does not come without some heartache. Affording her postgraduate work the attention it deserves also means departing a Marauder team that provided the fourth-year player with several of her closest friends and fondest memories. But, as Skelly points out, the separation was a necessary step, and has already had its rewards.
“I treated this entire past season as if it would be my last,” she says. “So I had kind of come to terms with [leaving]. With a master's, I wanted to make sure that I'm able to really focus on it.
“It's also a new chapter in my life, and I think it would make the transition period smoother to not play. I'm still going to be involved in some way, and it is difficult. To this day, I still try to rationalize that I could come back.
“But I'll have 20-25 hours in my week that I'll be able to juggle, and I'm looking into some volunteering opportunities that are really exciting.”
Skelly admits that the graduation of several others – veterans Meagan Nederveen, Shannon McRobert and Kailee Stock are all set to depart – helped to convince her that moving forward was for the best.
“I had a really good final year, and as tough as it is to say, it's time for me to move on,” she says.
She won't let the separation be complete, however, and explains that she and Marauder head coach Tim Louks are discussing a role that will allow her to remain in the thick of things next season.
In the meantime, Skelly continues to collect accolades. Fishing through her backpack as she talks, she produces a letter that came in the mail just days ago. She has been named as the top student in the senior exercise physiology course. Another day, another award.
Even as she plans for future studies, Skelly is putting her final piece of undergraduate business to bed, as she painstakingly sorts through the preliminary results of her thesis.
“It's a mess of data right now. But I'm just taking it one day at a time.”
