Little did head coach, Doug Hanes, from the new men's volleyball team at Brock know that the diminutive man from Brazil that he met in November of 2015 would turn into the heart and soul of the men's volleyball team two years later.

Felipe Costa, at 5'6" made an appointment to meet the new head coach the year before the Badgers were to re-enter the OUA after a 16-year absence from the league. Felipe was now a landed-immigrant to Canada and was taking ESL classes at Brock to prepare for regular studies in Medical Sciences in September of 2016. His goal to be accepted and complete his studies at another university in dentistry.

Felipe had played volleyball at the provincial and national levels as a libero in his native Brazil before emigrating to Canada. He was ecstatic that Brock was about to start up a men's volleyball program as he pondered his first career academic year at Brock.

In his first year with the new team he played many roles including: serving specialist, passing libero and defensive libero. However in his second year with the program Felipe established himself as an assistant-captain, the starting libero and a crucial leader on the court with a very young team.

The team got out to a very slow start with a 0-9 record but have righted the ship and won 5 matches in a row to join Waterloo and Guelph for the last playoff position.

Felipe has emerged as the top libero in the OUA as the overall leader in digs and digs per set. More impressive is that he also holds the top position in the country as the libero with the most digs per set in USport.

With Felipe Costa's leadership the young Badgers are hoping to extend their winning streak and fight for the last playoff spot in the OUA with Waterloo and Guelph who were 2nd and 3rd in the OUA only a year ago.