Nearly 60 years after a family member made a name with the Winnipeg Wesmen, Mila Kerr is on her way to UWinnipeg to try and do the same.
 
Kerr, a setter from Balmoral Hall, has committed to the Wesmen women's volleyball team as the newest member of the 2025 recruiting class. 
 
Kerr is a legacy recruit with her grandmother Imeke (Timmerman) Kerr having played at UWinnipeg in the infancy of its athletics program in the late 1960s and having been named the team MVP in the program's inaugural year in 1967. 
 
"When the opportunity was presented to myself, I told my mom and we both kind of just sat there and we were like so happy and silent," Kerr said of being given the chance to play for Winnipeg. "I didn't know that it was really possible for me. I didn't think that staying home and being able to pursue this was an option. And when it became an option, I was actually in awe. I'm beyond excited. I have so much excitement for the years to come."
 
Originally drawn to soccer as a youth, Kerr devoted herself to volleyball — "a sport I never thought I'd play at this level — and eventually linked up with Dynamo for club before moving to the Jr Bisons program, with which she won provincial silver in 18Us this spring and 17Us last year. 
 
"Mila is an excellent multi-sport athlete who will bring a lot of energy and enthusiasm to our program," Wesmen coach Phil Hudson said. "Technically and tactically, she is an excellent setter. Her positive work ethic, competitiveness and determination are always on display. She is a great teammate and will have a very positive effect on the Wesmen program for years to come."
 
Kerr met Hudson early on at a camp he was running, and it was there that the seed of opportunity was planted in her mind. 
 
"I wasn't even playing volleyball, just in the summertime. And he came up to me one time and he was like, 'You're gonna be good,'" she said. "He just said that to me and that stuck with me. To this day, it still stuck with me. So I was just this little Grade 9 athlete who was just having fun and this university coach says you're gonna be good. And I'm like, well, maybe I could actually be good."
 
Kerr said she had an offer to play in Newfoundland, but the idea of staying home was more appealing. She bided her time until the offer came. 
"I just felt like this is an environment that I can thrive in as an athlete and as a student as well because the university just fit really well for academics and everything."
 
Kerr has spent multiple summers with the Manitoba provincial program, where she has recently played for Wesmen assistant Megan Bradshaw and former Wesmen libero Madison Fyvie.