Toop O Toor in Farsi means ball and net in English, and it is also the name of a volleyball club in the North Shore area, coached by Iraj Mozaffari, known as one of the most influential players in Iran over the past three decades.
TOT Volleyball Club has rapidly become a leading volleyball training centre in British Columbia, its teams earning multiple provincial and national championship medals. Mozaffari’s international experience, combined with coach Ahmad Abouali’s local expertise and Jamaal Shahrokh’s contributions, has led to success for aspiring youth players in North Shore.
“I love volleyball, and everything in my life is influenced by volleyball,” Mozaffari said. “Besides volleyball, I don’t know any other work. I love teaching it, and on the other hand, I think I can bring the Iranian community closer through volleyball.”
Mozaffari started playing volleyball around the age of 15. He has been active in several sports, including taekwondo, boxing, handball, and soccer (as a goalkeeper). He captained Iran’s national youth team for two years and the Iran B national team for another two years. When he joined the national team, he was the captain for more than four years. He played multiple positions, including outside, right and left side, and middle, for the national team.
After ending his professional career as a player, he was selected as the coach of Iran’s national team. He learned a lot from Park Ki-won, the coach of Iran’s volleyball team from 2002 to 2005. The last time he coached in Iran was in 2012-2013, when he led the national youth team (18U) to win the Asian championship and achieve fourth place globally.
When his daughter Niaz, now an assistant coach at age 18, was four years old, he established a volleyball academy in Iran and kept it active for six years. After six years, when 309 players were active in the academy, he immigrated to Vancouver, in 2015.
“When I arrived in Canada, I decided to continue the same path and wanted to choose a name for the club that would be familiar to the Iranian community interested in volleyball and knew me. That’s why I chose Toop O Toor, and now the club is known to the Iranian community and as TOT to the large community.”
He added, “My wish is for the club to one day have its own dedicated sports complex and to help elevate sports in B.C.”
Ahmad Abouali is Iraj Mozaffari’s assistant. He started playing volleyball as a teenager, playing the setter position. He immigrated to Canada and Toronto in 1995. A year later, he came to Vancouver and started working as a medical radiation technologist at Vancouver General Hospital in 1997.
He became the volunteer volleyball co-ordinator at the West Vancouver Community Center from 2010 to 2012 before becoming officially employed by the District of West Vancouver as a volleyball co-ordinator and instructor.
Abouali recalls, “Mozaffari was looking for a volleyball hall and came to the West Vancouver Community Center. When I met him, I told him it would be an honour to work with you. I asked him to teach volleyball to various age groups. When he worked, we could only watch; we couldn’t add anything to his work and training.”
Shortly after that, Mozaffari proposed the idea of starting a club with Abouali. They founded the club in 2016.
“No one knew us, and renting a hall initially was a huge challenge,” said Abouali. “The North Vancouver School District and North Van [Recreation and Culture Commission] trusted and supported us, and I thank them.”
Word of mouth spread about the volleyball club, and gradually, there were no vacancies for volleyball training in different age groups.
“We train 365 days a year,” said Abouali. “We have training seven days a week. Monday to Friday at schools and Saturday and Sunday at community centers…. We currently have about 130 players in training.”
In 2018, the club decided to participate in the B.C. club championships in the 13U age group and placed eighth.
“The following year, with the same team that was then 11 years old, we became champions and won the gold medal in 2019,” said Abouali. “Niaz Mozaffari was the captain of that team.”
COVID-19 wiped out the following season, but the same group came back and won provincial gold in 2022 and silver in 2023.
Mozaffari was quick to share credit for the growth of the club, thanking the many people involved in starting TOT and building it up to what it is today.
Without their help, “TOT club would not have reached its current position,” he said.
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Hamid Jafari is a Vancouver-based New Canadian Media correspondent currently on a work experience placement with Glacier Media. This article was originally published on North Shore News.
A Vancouver B.C based journalist who writes about the Iranian community in Canada, art, culture and social media trends.
