Strange Bedfellows Part 3: Heathfield and Mt. Lofty

Camelot

[Image courtesy of Heathfield SIV Website, 2007]

Impressive isn’t it? It’s the new “Mt. Lofty Sports Centre.” A grand monument to volleyball if i ever saw one. To say that it’s gargantuan would be an understatement. I haven’t been there, but according to the map it’s got at least 6 indoor courts, 3 beach courts, rain catchment tanks and a rock-climbing wall. You could be forgiven for thinking that a nuclear bomb could go off in Adelaide and you could hole up there for the next 100 years with everything that you needed.

It’s a far cry from the gym they used to have that couldn’t even fit 3 full-sized courts (I often say that if anyone ever saw the old gym Heathfield had to use for years they would never whinge about inadequate resources!). Oddly enough the Gym was ready only a few months after Brighton’s new gym opened.

Heathfield and Mt. Lofty aren’t really affiliated in a conventional sense. A more metaphysically apt desciption would be to say that Mt. Lofty is Heathfield’s avatar presence in the State League world. They’re really two manifestations of the same being.

Mt. Lofty was started by Heathfield (and probably Eldo) in the mid 80s as a way for past and present Heathfield players to play State League. More or less, it’s run by the same people who run Heathfield, or used to. It’s hard to tell where one ends and the other begins. However, there have been some notable non-Heathfield Mt. Lofty players, like Mark Frisby-Smith, Kerri Pottharst, Aden Tutton, Luke Hunyadi and Tony Scott.

Heathfield, Quality, Quantity & the AVSC Grail

I think the rapid growth in volleyball participation at the younger age levels in recent years has come at the expense of quality in players and coaching below the elite levels. There’s still some plenty great volleyball out there, but we still don’t have enough coaches and resources to give every kid playing out all the attention they need to make them the best they can be. It’s a tough question of economics. Do you make your programme as big as your resources permit you to keep everything at the highest standard? It ultimately means saying no to some players and teams. Or do you make hay while the sun shines and let everyone in. You might end up stretched and the quality of your programme dininishes. Quality vs. Quantity. It comes down to choosing if you have a participation-driven culture or a success-driven culture.

Remarkably, Heathfield has managed to have a lot of Quality and Quantity in their programme. They always bring over the most or second most teams to Melbourne, and yet the standard of technique among their non-honours teams is quite high. Even their bad players are pretty skilled. I often feel that in a world of diminishing standards and decaying technique that Heathfield stands as one of the last bastions of classically good volleyball. Heathfield is Camelot with Eldo at the throne, amidst a world of savagery. If that School’s cup is the Holy Grail, then they’re the ones who have brought it back more times than anyone else.

Mt Lofty

All Heathfield’s teams compete as Mt Lofty teams in Junior League. They’re organised in groups similar to their AVSC teams, and each has a coach, who is usually a past Heathfield player. Heathfield easily has the best coaching staff around. They’re all ex-Heathfield players who have won Honours titles, played state volleyball, and possibly even for Australia.

It’s amazing how many Heathfield players want to come back and coach for them. They can only go to Melbourne if they can take trainings and Friday night junior league matches. That they can leave many overqualified coaches behind while just about every other school struggles for enough quality coaches for AVSC is a testament to their depth.

The fact that many of these coaches keep coming back, and have all been brought up on the same winning values reinforces the strong culture they have. Historically, Brighton had a bigger talent pool to draw from and more resources than Heathfield, but I reckon Heathfield often came up on top because of this culture.

Mt Lofty at the Senior level is often quite formidable. The core of their players are past and present Heathfield players, but they do attract a few others. I remember one year they fielded a women’s league team that had Anna and Renae Maycock, Jess Peacock, and Belinda Huff. You could have passed them off for the national team [this wouldn’t have been possible years ago when VTAW was still around and many of these players would have been in Canberra].

There’s also usually two Reserve Women’s teams, one made of alumni, and the other made up of some of the intermediate Heathfield girls (the younger ones play junior league, the open aged girls play league). In the three years I coached Women’s Reserves, I never beat either of these teams. [Then again, we lost to pretty much everyone else too].

Ascetic Beauty

Heathfield’s uniforms have never changed in the time I have been involved in Volleyball. The open teams might get a different strip, but that light blue jersey with the three thin horizontal maroon stripes and cloth numbers has remained ubiquitous with the school. They’re so old that they’ve gone from being in fashion, out of fashion, back into fashion, and now just iconic. It’s just become a powerful symbol of their sustained success while everything around them ebbs and flows. The day they change those tops will be the day they Jump the Shark, so I hope they always keep them.

I also found it funny how they take over the same banner every year. Willunga has a new one each year – i was quite impressed by our winning banner this year that featured the characters from Futurama playing beach volleyball. Heathfield’s banner had a simple image with the titles they had won written in the borders. They just bring the same one over again with the new titles added on. While I like pretty banners, I also like Heathfield’s sense of order and priority. Inevitably, they’ll need a new banner – they can’t fit that many more titles in the space that’s left.

Reclaiming the Grail

If you coach a school or club, you can never help but feel envious when you look at Heathfield and Mt. Lofty. They don’t seem to do much wrong.

Heathfield may have lost the school’s cup, but the last time that happened they just dominated for the next few years – winning OHB and OHG three years in a row. It was like the whole community of the Adelaide Hills – Eldo, his coaches and managers, the players, the parents etc were just outraged and decided to reclaim the cup in a way no one had done before.

This seems to happen every few years – Heathfield dominates, then one year they don’t do too well and lose the cup. Then they just come back with a vengeance for the next few years! So Brighton may have won the cup this year, but the Wrath of Heathfield should never be underestimated and it’ll be interesting to see what happens next year!