Our Story
Aspiring Athlete was founded on a simple belief: the right coaching, environment, and opportunities can make a lasting difference in an athlete's development, both in sport and beyond.
Growing up in BC, Co-Founder Nikki Cornwall was always searching for more. Despite competing in school, club, and provincial team programs from U14 through U18, she craved consistent higher-quality training and environments that challenged athletes to meet higher standards.
Her journey through university, national team, and professional volleyball overseas exposed her to a wide range of coaching philosophies and training environments, reinforcing the lasting impact coaches can have on an athlete's development, overall confidence, and experience in sport.
Co-Founder Maleki Harris brings a complementary perspective through his experience as an NCAA Division I football player and five-year CFL veteran. His background reinforced the importance of strength, athleticism, physical preparation, and accountability in high-performance sport. Together, their experiences shaped AA's commitment to developing complete athletes through both technical and physical preparation.
At AA, we believe in quality, intentional training—not simply more training. Our programs are thoughtfully structured to complement school, club, and off-season schedules, prioritizing long-term athlete development over additional training volume.
Whether an athlete is just discovering their love for sport or preparing for post-secondary competition, our commitment remains the same: to provide experienced coaching, intentional development, and an environment that challenges athletes while always keeping their long-term interests at the forefront.
Built. Not Born.
Our mission is to develop confident, high-performing athletes.
Great athletes aren't built through one program, one season, or one great performance. Development happens over time through great coaching, consistent training, the right environment, and a plan. Our job goes beyond coaching athletes in the gym—we want to educate, guide, and mentor athletes throughout their development so they understand what it takes to chase big goals, and have the support to go after them.
We believe…
Big goals require preparation
If you aspire to play at the next level, we want to help you prepare for what that level actually requires. University athletes are expected to balance team practices, strength training, additional skill work and competition throughout the week—on top of their academics, family and friend commitments, and everything else happening in their lives. You don’t suddenly become ready for that workload when you get recruited; you build toward it. That’s why we encourage athletes to consistently develop their skills, strength, athleticism and overall training capacity throughout their youth careers, progressively taking on more responsibility and learning to train more like the athletes they aspire to become.
Rest should be part of the plan.
Training seriously doesn’t mean training at 100%, 365 days a year. It means training intentionally. High-performing athletes learn when to push, when to recover and what their development requires at different points throughout the year. We intentionally encourage breaks from volleyball and don’t believe indoor athletes need to move directly from school season to club season to a full competitive beach season. The off-season is a great opportunity to step away from competition, make significant gains in the weight room, recover physically and mentally, and work intentionally on skill development and game IQ. Doing more isn’t always the answer; doing the right work at the right time is what creates sustainable progress.
Confidence is built.
We want athletes to leave Aspiring Athlete with more than better volleyball skills. Confidence comes from doing hard things and proving to yourself what you're capable of. We want athletes to set goals, work toward them, learn from failure, respond to challenges, and experience what happens when they truly commit to something. Volleyball won't last forever, but we hope the confidence, discipline, resilience, and work ethic athletes develop while pursuing their goals will.
Development needs direction.
More camps, clinics, private lessons, teams, coaches and reps don’t automatically create better athletes. Great development needs direction. These experiences can add value, but constantly jumping from one opportunity to the next can leave athletes with a lot of information and little understanding of what they actually need. The longer an athlete trains with us, the better we understand their strengths, habits, tendencies and what needs to come next. Instead of starting over every time they walk into our gym, we keep building—with an individual plan and long-term vision for each athlete. We believe athletes benefit most from consistently working with coaches and trainers they trust who have been where they want to go and understand what it takes to get there.
Rooted in Surrey & Langley.
Our home gyms are All Elite and Surrey Christian Secondary, but you’ll find us training all over the Lower Mainland throughout the year. We try to offer programs and camps at a variety of locations so we can reach and support as many athletes as possible. Locations vary by program and season, so please be sure to check each individual program for specific training locations.
Feel like you need more individualized direction?
Book a Film & Feedback Session or Performance & Pathway Session with Coach Cornwall for personalized feedback, guidance, and a clearer understanding of your long term development plan.