McHuge

[Chris (left) and Harrison Peacock winning ... something. I can't keep track anymore]

Good to hear current AIS Beach Volleyballer Chris McHugh’s thoughts and experiences playing state indoor. The development of players like him are really central to this discussion. Chris is one of the players I have been proudest to coach. Below is a picture of Chris aged 11 (Standing far left) after winning the SA mini-volleyball open. He was a podgy 11 year old, and I think it’s good to see that not all our elite athletes were born superhuman freaks. Some of them looked like regular kids.

[Standing L to R: Chris McHugh, Lewis Dalby & Jackson Tanner. Kneeling L to R: Liam Finn & Ben Leaver]

Also in the picture are last year’s Brighton Open Honours Boys setters Lewis Dalby and Ben Leaver, and Brighton Open Div 1 Bronze Medal winning setter Liam Finn. I was privileged to coach these boys for 3-4 years years, culminating in a junior league title in 2004. The mini-volleyball final in question was above average – on the other team was AIS indoor player Harrison Peacock and Ben Pohl. Maybe even Sam White. My memory is sketchy here.

[My 2004 Div 2 Junior Boys Champions]

I coached Chris from this time till he was about 14, and although I always thought he was very talented, he went unnoticed and under-appreciated for years. I can’t claim that much credit for Chris, since he already had pretty good skills when I got him, and practically reinvented himself as a player after I finished coaching him. Nevertheless, I’m still bloody proud of him and what he’s achieved.

In 2005, I finally nagged him enough to get him out to the State Team trials, and he made the second U17 team, probably just missing out on the top team. It turned out to be a blessing in disguise as he really shone. For players like Chris on the fringe between a first and second side, it’s better being in the second team. From there, Chris didn’t look back. He got a SASI scholarship, played in Mt Lofty’s AVL team, got picked to represent Australia at the junior level in Beach, and finally a hallowed AIS scholarship.

Chris’s family are also terrific. His younger sister Kathryn is a great player in her own right. I was lucky to coach her one year, as well as co-coach a junior boys team with her last year. Their parents, Greg and Min are wonderful and have been the glue of Henley Hawks for years. Greg’s president now, and doing a great job. They’re just one of the many great families I’ve been really lucky to be involved with over the years (as a coach, I’m a bit like a family hand-me-down).

It’s been great seeing Chris grow up into a gentleman. He’s 18 now and towering over me at 6′6, he’s a long way from that chubby 11-year-old who used to indulge in a bit of soccer with the other boys at the end of trainings. He’s still humble and courteous – he used to ring me when he got great news like when he got his SASI and AIS scholarships and when he got selected for his first overseas tour. These days i hear lessnews from him, since his successes are now less of the exception and more of the norm!

The days I could teach him stuff ended long ago. But hopefully if my business makes it big, I’ll get to sponsor him on his way to London 2012!

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chris Says:
February 28, 2008 at 8:03 am

Hi Huy first of all, who you calling podgy? Secondly I must agree that the state team structure in SA must be changed. There has been a dramatic change in the mentality of the state team both in its players and coaches for the worse. I have great admiration for state team coaches and through the years have had some amazing ones such as Derek Slater but as the years have progressed there is no longer that fire from some of the state coaches to do well they have resigned themselves to defeat straight away as they have been give lower grade teams. This leads to complacency in the players and as a result decreases the stand of skills. I believe that there should be a second “development” team in the state team structure, I for one am a product of this team. The third team however should be scrapped as the players who are in this team have very little playing ability and are just there to make up numbers. The players also become a nuisance at finals time as they are not playing but are still around. The greatest example of this is when you’re trying to sleep but you have a U17 third team next door keeping you awake till 2am with their antics. It took Sam Boehm and a couple of other 19 guys to lose their cool to get them to shut up. There are some great kids who come through the third team but they are a drain on resources and a distraction for other teams.

Quo Vadis? Where to now that Paul and Trish are gone

Volleyball SA is possibly the most sustainable and viable state association in the country. With a near virtual monopoly on indoor, beach, social, and representative volleyball, as well as the two profitable City Beach volleyball centres in recent years, VSA is in a good position to take the sport to its full potential in SA. With expanding business interests, the organization has grown dramatically in the last 5-6 years.

By now the whispers have reached everyone that last Thursday, Volleyball SA made its Business Development Manager and Second-in-charge, Trish Virag redundant. Up till then, Trish’s job involved managing VSA’s cash cows – the City Beach Volleyball centres in metropolitan Adelaide and at Mawson Lakes. If not being appointed to the General Manager’s position vacated by Paul Finn came as a surprise to some in the volleyball community, then Trish’s sudden redundancy could only be described as a shock.

Trish was president of Henley Hawks during the time I played there. I sat on the committee with Trish for a number of years, and co-coached the women’s reserves team with her one year. I came to respect her ability to get things done, her energy, and most importantly the noble nature of her intentions. She had a strong vision for our sport and community and gave selflessly to it.

Trish has worked at Volleyball SA for 15 years in various capacities. She has been involved in every aspect of the organization, at every level. As Junior Development Officer, she ran a State Juniors programme that experienced unprecedented and unrepeated success, and established several successful programmes for kids that remain to this day. As Business Development Executive, she launched Mini-Volleyball nationally as the Spike zone programme, and managed State League and Social Volleyball. Finally, as boss of the City Beach Centres, she project managed the construction of the Mawson Lakes centre and increased participation and profitability at the metropolitan centre.

In her time, VSA rapidly grew from a small organization of 3 or 4 people managing the interests of a small base of people in a boutique sport, to a multi-faceted organization of about 10 people serving the needs of the thousands of participants that our sport had grown to. As someone that knew every square inch of that organization and our sport in SA, she leaves behind a giant vacuum of experience and knowledge. The remaining staff who will absorb her responsibilities have been at VSA for a combined number years less than her.

Of course they’ll appoint someone with a lot of experience as general manager, but it will be a young group of people in their early 20s running the place, dominating the ideas and direction for our sport in SA. As someone who started running a business full-time straight out of uni at the age of 22 with 4 similarly aged and experienced friends, I can tell them from personal experience it will be interesting.

Working in a small organization, they will be exposed to opportunities and challenges that their peers working in larger organizations won’t get. They’ll get things right, and they’ll get things wrong. They’ll make decisions that will affect countless livelihoods and expectations of a whole gamut of stakeholders that are both unique and complex. They will cop the polarised opinion that their predecessors had, and people will talk about them with great affection or scathing, but never with any indifference. With the decisions they have to make, it’s impossible to make everyone happy. May we wish them the best and that they will do us all proud. They have big shoes to fill!

Tony Scott’s thoughts

Nice to hear from Tony Scott weighing in on the discussion. Tony is one of the best players to watch and living proof that short guys can still rule the court. He started off as a libero but has moved on to playing as a setter or passer-hitter for the Mt Lofty League club.

Playing for SA, Tony earned all-star selection in both 2001 & 2002. But his best trick would have to be his ability to ampi-dexterously hit. While there are plenty of players who can swing at a ball with their non-preferred arm if it’s out of reach, Tony could actually hit balls with both arms with the correct approach and footwork. Watch him in a hitting warmup if you get the chance. He alternates arms and you wouldn’t be able to tell if he’s right handed or left handed (he’s right handed, and i’m sure his left arm spike isn’t quite as good, but the technique is definitely there!).

Tony has pointed out that his “Second” U17 team that won bronze in 2000 were actually the U16 state schoolboys team getting some extra practice before their own tournament later that year. Just goes to show that sometimes the best kids in a generation can be stronger than the second string of an older bunch of kids. That said, this team had some remarkable talent in it like Brad Tutton, Travis Moran, Tony Scott, Josh Urbanski and Luke Hunyadi. Speaking to Eldo, his U16 girls also competed in the same tournament, losing the bronze playoff. They would have to be the two strongest “Second” teams we’ve fielded, and the only ones to play off for medals.

They’ve kept State and U16s separate since then and schoolboys/schoolgirls teams didn’t compete when AJVC was held in Adelaide in 2005. Instead they fielded third teams with kids that were the same age or a bit younger. All got very confusing. But the point is, having the U16s involved might have pushed the top sides to be stronger, since the quality of scrimmaging would have been much more competitive.

Tony also brings up a good point about having a separate division for weaker teams. Seems it works for the AFL with its national carnivals. From what he’s implying though, the weaker non-traditional states like NSW and QLD play in a second division. If we were to introduce a 2nd division, could we see weaker states play in it, and states like Vic who have had multiple teams medal get TWO teams playing in Div 1?

Furthermore does it all have to be at the same event? Sally brought up that having less teams would also mean we could limit the referees to only the best ones, and have a higher quality tournament all round. There are plenty of other tournaments out there too.

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Cheers for that Huy, yeh the team was entirely the U/16 school boys team and apparently it took quiet a bit of convincing from John / dad to get us into the tournament and only because it was in adelaide. I think we may be the only “second” team to medal? may not still be the case?

the tournament provided excellent warm-up competition before we went undefeated (without losing a set) in the u/16 champs. team consisted of:

• Travis Moran
• Luke Hunyadi
• Zev Costi
• Daniel Clark
• Josh Urbanski
• Brad Tutton
• Alex Fimeri
• Tom Gale
• Toby Suter
• Tony Scott

im pretty sure that is everyone…

yeh u/16 is defintely a better program, i think some valid points have been made on your blog by people in regard to state second teams. I was a firm believer in having only 1 state team…however i think a tiered system of division 1 & 2 (like AFL have with dominant states Vic,SA,WA in Div 1 & non-footballing states in Div 2) and allowing kids an actual chance of winning a match at a national championships is the best option. caters for both sides of the argument in 1 tournament!!

anyways keep up the blogging!!

tony

Sally Bacon’s thoughts

More interesting thoughts, this time from ex-Australia player Sally Bacon no less (Possibly best known as the first name on the “School’s Cup Alumni to represent Australia” page in the annual School’s Cup programme). Sally definitely comes from the “Old School” of every state’s best 12 pitting themselves against each other. I think we’re missing a lot of “Old School” influence these days so it’s great to hear her thoughts.

Sally raises an interesting point about the number of games for the younger divisions v the older ones. U21s typically have a game a day, whereas the U17s now have maybe two or three extra games. Players can get tired or injured as its long, so it encourages having more players. I always thought more than 9 was a good number. Often the three backbone players stay on full time + a libero and 4 players sharing 2 spots coming on and off in the backcourt. Blessed thing the 12 sub rule. 10 players+ has always hard to manage in my experience. I have often observed there is a trauma involved in being that 10th player in a first side! Injuries of course changes everything.

When teams have to travel long distances, there’s a strong case to increase the number of games to make the expense well worth it. With so many games, people get injured, tired etc, so it makes sense to increase the size of each team. Is it growth going out of control?

Both Christian and Sally have suggested that perhaps it may be best to find a way so that development sides only meet each other.  Sounds like a good idea. I’m sure Sally would have been a little annoyed when one of her starters injured herself in a foregone conclusion of a game against a development side. An old coach of mine used to say that if they want to keep AJVC elite and still have development teams, maybe they should just send them to play at country carnivals. Who knows, the shorter length of country carnivals might be more suitable.

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Sally Bacon Says:
February 23, 2008 at 7:46 am 

Huy, Chris, Devo, Eldo

I loved your scenarios. I am a player / coach who is also from the old school where you select the 12 best players from your state to compete at the National Championships. You play against the 12 best players from the other states. If injuries occur then you have players to fall back on who will be equally skilled. Hopefully you have someone in the group who can drive a mini bus to cater for 14 people. Or if not then you make 4 trips back and forth to the airport. You get the best referees as the team numbers are less and the fees for each team to compete also drop as you are not paying for 100 refs accommodation and travel, maybe now just 50.

Last year i had the opportunity to coach the NSW U17 team to 4th place. I had a 1st placed team, however in the lead up to the tournament my starting outside hitters (x2) travelled Internationally to compete for Australia at the World Beach Championships and i lost my two starting middles with ankle injuries. (One of those ankles occurred when a player from a 3rd ranked state team came through the net and the other player fell awkwardly after getting on the court at 9.30pm to start a very important 2nd game of the day???)

This year the stakes for NSW U19 are higher after i have learnt my lesson in selecting only 9 or 10 players. I will not have players too tired to play finals as other players got injured during the week. Anything can happen at a National Champs. This year i will be selecting the 12 best players and they will trial and work their butts off to gain selection. Some players will be disappointed in non-selection as they have previously represented NSW on other occassions.

All players will get ample court time due to the 12 sub rule which comes in to place in the U19’s, back court subs, through injury to players, and also by playing additional players against VIC 4, SA 3 , QLD 3 and WA 2 and each will come home knowing that they were a part of the team, no matter what and no matter whether they were from the city or the country they were one of the 12 best players that NSW currently have. Players will also come in different heights and many will travel great distances for the honour. Those players that did not make the final cut will continue to play State League, University Games or Schools Cups to get better for when selections come around next year. Others may decide to quit volleyball all together.

I find that players become complacent when they know all they have to do is show up to make a team. The attitude of my players has now become competitive and they are fighting for the right to be on the team. At the recent trials they have been ranked on performance and now at the final trial they will need to perform to make the final squad. All players are aware of what lies ahead and hopefully they are all happy with this.

I have only ever played for NSW when there was 1 team. Players were from all over the State and if you missed out on selection then you were just not good enough for what the coach was trying to develop for that year. I too remember that we had the best referees who are now all the referee delegates? I have missed out on State and National teams at some stage in my volleyball career however i am still involved in the sport.

We used smaller state competitions to better our game or get more competition ie Good Neighbour, Wallabies, Collie Coal Cup, State Cups

Parents pay huge $$$ to send kids away. I can see the rationale in having say two teams in U17 for each division and then have states nominate as to whether they are in U17 division 1 or U17 division 2. With the older age groups only 1 team needs to participate and leave positions 11 and 12 open to new kids just starting out who show real potential and will go further in the game in a couple of years.

If i was to suggest the age group which is the most competitive that every state loves to win then it is the U19 age group followed by U17’s. It seems these days that U21’s is where you go to play volleyball, shop as you only have 1 game a day and then get the best outfit for the party on the last night?? Most of the players are already playing AVL and players struggle to afford to pay for themselves to play as they are at Uni and parents will not fork out the $$$

When we had a National Senior Competition over a week then this gave players of all ages over 18 an option to compete with other top players.

In the end no matter what is decided the ultimate decision is up to the AVF to provide an elite level of competition for elite junior players. If players show potential then they be invited to national camps or National Coaches travel to each state to view what players are currently coming through the ranks.

I hope i dont offend anyone with my comments, but this is how i like to coach and my thoughts might be old school but they worked 20 years ago.

I also hope that Stapffy as Sport Development Manager can bring the quiet sport of volleyball back to the heights that it once was when he was playing and coaching. Mind you in those days the competition was fierce and the best teams represented their state in Seniors, U21, U18 and U15’s if i recall correctly…

Kids are playing this sport in greater numbers which is evident from Australian Schools however do we have the talent base to boost national teams once again that do not train full time…

Good Luck this year at National Juniors and I look forward to seeing you all again on the other side of the net. And this year i will come with extra numbers so when we get to day 4 and have two games which go overtime and we are starting the second game at 10.00pm then i will be prepared and my tired players will have back ups.

Sally B

Pandora’s Box

So within a few hours of posting up my observations on what happened when SA went from 6 state teams to 12, a whole bunch of people read it and commented. I’m surprised anybody reads this (I can deduce I have two subscribers so a big thankyou to both of you out there), so I was really surprised when I got this…

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Christian Stapff 

Huy,

As the new face with Volleyball Australia—in my capacity as Sport Development Manager—your article raises some important questions for our sport.

Before I do, your readers may want to know: What gives me the authority to comment?

I have played for the WA Institute of Sport Volleyball team from its inception in 1986 until 1995. Over this period, I had the opportunity to represent Australia. During this time our WAIS team placed every year or played in a medal playoff.

As a coach I had the privilege to coach players such as Julien Prosser, Dan Howard, George Petrou, Wade Willcocks, and many (who, I hope, will forgive me for not mentioning their name—the list is long) who represented WA, the Junior National Team and at the National Team level This period also coincided with a golden period for our junior programs in Western Australia—Men and Women. The credit goes to coaches

My hope this debate (dialogue would be preferable) continue as I am not sure we have arrived at a model meeting all our kids needs.

I will comment on a couple of issues–some raised by your article, others raised tangentially from what you stated.

There are a number of issues at play when we decide to have second and third teams for each age group.

• Will the second/third team be competitive?
• Does the team get good coaching? Are we playing at home?
• What actually is the purpose of a second/third team?
• And, is our sport structure actually allowing a team to fulfill such purpose?
What has occurred to me is we should maybe consider if it is not better to match second/third team against other second/third teams—a level playing field, assuming each state selects the teams on merit.
The athlete is more likely to strive to getting better faster—the incentive to strive for the 1st team or second team, and so on…. In addition, since second and third teams (or even lower teams) have less experienced coaches as well as less playing and athletic skill( a generalization) the playing field is somewhat leveled.
What if one state has more teams than grades i.e. 5 teams but there only three levels. Easy, the lowest performing teams play in the third level competition.

The issue, I believe, revolves around access for athletes to competition they and their parents pay for. In the past it was the state-v-state concept, but this I believe had hurt volleyball development in Australia because the numbers (twelve per team) were so limited. I believe that multiple teams per age group is a worthy concept, if we level the playing field so highly skilled teams do not meet low skilled teams i.e. a ‘first’ team plays against a ‘second’ team. We should not that even among ‘first teams there is a significant gap between Winner and last place.

The concept of ‘multiple teams per age group’ raises the question can we develop and provide incentive for a regionalized concept: i.e. representative teams from regions not just states. To an extent schools cup approaches this concept, but schools cup does not provide opportunities for athletes whose school does not go to Schools Cup.

There are pockets of volleyball excellence in regional areas, and right now they center on schools, or where a good coach is developing players.

If we are concerned solely about medal counts we also may lose the thing I like most about volleyball it is an intensely physical and technically demanding game , but also a social event.

As Sport Development Manger with AVF I want to raise one more issue:
• Participation at Schools Cup

How can we improve participation and skill levels further?
Should we include a height related division in each age group?
This was trialed by FIVB, and surprise, surprise, a country which is not known as a dominant volleyball nation won the tournament (I like the idea because I fit that criterion. The criteria: Men=1.85cm, Women=1.75cm). Which country? Indonesia and they beat Russia in five sets. Was skill the decisive factor?

What impact would a player height limitation have on kids?
• Kids grow at varying stages—and some will not reach physical, mental and emotional parity for awhile.
• Their athletic development can vary by up to four year when we compare early developers and late developers
• Short kids can compete—they are always in the game since they don’t face big blockers/ big hitters; skill level now is important!
• Tall players play against tall players—less chance to get arrogant, complacent and develop bad technical habits
• You, as a short player can play up but now you know what you are up against! This is good for those average height, but are big jumpers, outstanding athletes or wannabe liberos

My point is: kids want to play, kids want to improve, and if they have a chance to win—it is a trifecta.
Keep in mind the following:

1. Kids care less about winning than having the opportunity to play (Research says: 80 % of kids would rather play on a losing team than sit on the bench of the winning team!!!) and,
2. they play best when the chance for success or failure is 50%; this applies to any team by the way. Ever coached a team either winning too easily or losing badly?

We should ask ourselves: what is the purpose of this competition? Does it represent opportunity for coaches and referees as well?

Let’s begin with the end in mind!

Sincerely,

Christian Stapff

Team SA Part 2: Failed States – the decline of SA’s competitiveness

Few would argue that SA did badly at last year’s AJVC. It got many people talking about where we went wrong. Was it an isolated year of badness? Or was it a decline? People started talking about the “good ol’ days”. There’s this fantastic blog with all the stats and info on AJVC over the years. Here are some interesting stats I pulled.

1995-2002

	Gold	Silver	Bronze	TOTAL
1995 MEL	2 (U19W, U17W)	0	0	2
1996 MEL	2 (U17W, U17M)	1 (U19W)	0	3
1997 BRI		1 (U17M)	4 (U21W, U21M, U19W, U17W)	5
1998 PER	2 (U19W, U17M)	3 (U17W, U18W, U19M	0	5
1999 ACT	3 (U19W, U17W, U17M)	1 (U21W)	0	4
2000 ADE	4 (U19W, U19M, U17W, U17M)	1 (U21W)	1 (U17M2)	6
2001 MEL	1 (U17M)	3 (U21M, U19W, U19M)	1 (U19M)	5
TOTAL	14	10	6	30

[President's Cups: 1998, 1999, 2000]

2002-2007

	Gold	Silver	Bronze	TOTAL
2002 SYD	3 (U21M, U19W, U19M)	1 (U17M)	1 (U21W)	5
2003 BRI	0	1 (U17M)	4 (U21W, U21M, U19W, U17W)	5
2004 PER	1 (U21M)	2 (U19W, U19M)	1 (U17W)	4
2005 ADE	3 (U19W, U19M, U17W)	1 (U21W)	1 (U21M)	5
2006 ACT	0	2 (U19W, U17M)	1 (U19M)	3
2007 SYD	1 (U19W)	1 (U21M)		2
TOTAL	8	8	8	24

[President's Cups: 2005]

I’ve defined these two eras as such:

• 1995-2001. 7 years before SA expanded its programme. Junior Development Manager, Trish Virag oversaw the programme before being promoted to managing VSA’s business interests. Second teams were rare and only fielded if exceptional, such as the Travis Moran led SA Blue team in 2000, which won Bronze and earned Travis all-star selection. [NB Tony Scott's comment on this post has indicated that the 2000 U17 Boys Blue team was actually the U16 School Boy's team getting some extra practice]

• 2002-2007. 6 years in which SA expanded its state programme from 6 teams to 12. State programme overseen by Richard “Sooty” Casutt, then Mick Nelson, then Simon Phillips. In this time VSA rapidly grew and had a high turnover rate.

On cursory inspection, not much difference. We had some good years and some bad. We averaged 4 medals per year in both periods. We won nearly twice as many golds in the first period, and made the gold medal game 24 times compared to 16 in the second period. We had a distinct advantage when the tournament was held in Adelaide, winning the President’s Cup both times. Not unusual since it was easier to get our best teams and coaches involved. A good indicator is when we do well interstate, which more evidence points to the first era.

So ignoring when we hosted in 2005, the data shows a clear decline in the last 5 years. There’s no single reason for this, but as someone with an interest in economics, I’m going to look at the number of teams we fielded, and the resources we had to support them.

Participation v Success. Quantity v Quality. Again

The expansion of the state programme represented a profound shift in philosophy and became a polarising issue. So why did they do it?

The basic problem was participation levels at the elite levels was just not high enough. 2001 saw state league reduced from 8 clubs to 6, with the two Northern clubs, Giants and Tea Tree Gully Trojans both folding. State league didn’t seem to be getting younger and there weren’t enough young players coming through. The U21 state teams struggled to get enough players and often had players who had been dropped from younger teams. Viability seemed to be a big problem.

To solve all this Richard “Sooty” Casutt, who had taken over from Trish, championed the expansion of the state programme to increase the stock of players. By then, many states already had multiple teams at the U19 and U17 age groups, so we were the next to follow. In 2002, we fielded second U17 girls and U17 boys teams. By 2004, we had 6 x U17 teams, 4 x U19 teams and 2 x U21 teams (only 1 would compete since there weren’t enough teams for an U21 women’s competition).

Expanding the programme did make a difference. State league participation increased, with a lot of clubs fielding 2 reserve teams. A lot of these teams were development teams with younger players. Other things changed round this time too that boosted participation. Age level divisions in junior league were scrapped in favour of more flexible ability-assessed divisions. Non-club teams could compete in junior league seeing more school-based teams participating.

Everyone is special (which means nobody is)

The above is a quote from my favourite animated movie, The Incredibles, which unusually for a family film made a sinister commentary on the effects of political correctness and equal opportunity. The main problem some people had with expanding the state program is that it would debase the value of being selected. If everyone is special, then nobody really is. Another argument was that with such a dramatic increase in numbers, the quality would coach. You could call a lot of these people traditionalists or purists. They were part of a time when volleyball was a boutique sport, that although small, was incredibly rich in quality. They would not want to see it watered down to lowest denominator garbage.

On the other extreme, there were people who were progressive and wished to see the sport grow beyond its traditional limits. It was the age-old debate of quantity vs. quality. There was nothing dubious about either motivation. Based on the influence of the people who taught me, I would fall more into the “quality” camp, although I have also been involved in taking part of programmes that are more participation based.

Did it work?

Well, in a sense both sides were right. In the years that the new policy was introduced, participation at state league increased and our U21 teams were a lot stronger and had better results. But the standard did drop at the younger levels, with SA’s dominance in the U17 age groups significantly diminishing. Some would say that our resources were just spread too thin to accommodate 6 young inexperienced teams every year. Overall we won half as many titles as we did before and 20% less medals.

“Progress” had its costs there was a real “changing of the guard”, as many experienced coaches stopped being involved with the programme. Bold ideas will inevitably alienate people while attracting new ones. With less experienced coaches around and more athletes than we had had before, the standard definitely dropped.

“Development”

As a screen producer by trade, 90% of my time is spent in developing projects that may not see the light of day. It’s a tricky and speculative business, and developing volleyball players and teams is no different.

One year I was the assistant coach of the U17 men’s “yellow” (third) team, and it was hard. We ended up picking 10 kids (with 3 teams of 9 or 10 I don’t think anyone who turned up got cut) who were 14 or 15. Although they managed to win two games against a second ACT team and a second WA team, they really weren’t strong enough to compete against a lot of teams and got hammered. There’s a great basic rule I got from Eldo when I did his Level 1 coaching course: a drill or exercise has to have a success rate of 40-70% to be effective. When my team was getting pummelled I really questioned whether they were learning much at all.

Development teams need to rotate their players to give them equal game time. But does this work? Whether you rotate the players during the sets, between the sets or from game to game, there are problems. Conventional wisdom says repetition improves players. So rotating between sets or games means an inexperienced team has to find its feet again and re-invent the wheel. You could just give the equal court-time within each set by giving them set roles and subbing then on and off in frontcourt or backcourt. This certainly lets them build familiarity, but also doesn’t expand their skill-set, another no-no of development.

Generally, all of this works counter-intuitively to one of the most effective learning tools of representative sport – meritocracy. Staying on if you play well, and getting dragged if you don’t. The study of economics has long taught us that people’s behaviour changes when the incentives do. Perhaps the problem is there were too many players which meant giving equal court-time would create instability, so reducing the team to say 8 players would give them more repetition. Having coached two bottom aged development teams at national tournaments I can say that they’re physically at a disadvantage and their performance starts going downhill after the third day. So in this case less isn’t necessarily more.

I think another part of the question is the quality of the coaching. Are they learning from an excellent experienced coach, or an inexperienced developing coach? It could be the blind leading the blind. Coaches with the gravitas to get the best out of a representative team don’t grow on trees, but good-willed people who want to help seems to. One practice for the developing U17 teams was to designate a Head Coach who would oversee all three teams and coaches. Usually this person was one of the coaches who under previous circumstances was good enough to get a state team a medal. However, this responsibility had a catch 22. Either this person could spend a lot of time with the top team to ensure a medal at the expense of the rest of the programme, or spend equal time across the three teams at the expense of medal chances.

So it became increasingly hard to give an answer to parents who asked if it was worth their child playing in a development team. It’s expensive, so do they really learn that much from being annihilated on court in most games? Are merit based and equallist ideals confusing in a state programme? Elite sports leagues like our football codes and governments ask that question everyday. What does it mean to a player to wear those proud colours but get pumped every game because they’re just not up to the challenge yet?

In its defence…

Some great players did come out of these development teams. Travis Moran played in a second U17 team in 2000 that won Bronze and earned him all-star selection. He represented Australia at the Athens Olympics. Greg Sukochev played in the same team 2 years later in 2002, and went on to win an AIS scholarship. And Chris McHugh, who i coached as a podgy 11-year-old went unnoticed for years until he turned heads playing in same team in 2005, going on to be part of national beach programme.

The core of the SA U17 girls third team in 2005 became the core of Eldo’s Bronze medal winning SA U16 team the year after, so the development teams weren’t without their successes, although many would have to agree that having 12 teams was a little too much.

2008

SA’s result in 2007 got a lot of people talking and reviewing these policies. I’ve heard that they might go back to 8 teams, with second teams at the U17 level. It seems like a good balance. I might even be attempted to get involved again. I hope a lot of our best coaches are thinking that too. As someone lucky enough to have been a part of winning teams for SA, I hope SA glory doesn’t remain a thing of the past for too much longer.

Trials start tomorrow.

Team SA Part 1: Obscure Champions

The Indoor season is coming back again, and with it the great institution of State Junior Volleyball. Trials are on in a couple of weekends (23rd & 24th February). Since it all makes me nostalgic, I’d thought I’d write a bit about my own experiences playing for SA.

2001 Australian Volleyball Junior Championships (AVJC) – Melbourne

I didn’t play state until I was 19 getting into the U21s. With a massive dropout rate, SA’s U21 teams have always struggled for numbers and had weaker results than our younger age rep teams. My U21 team was no different. We were expected to finish last, and ended up playing for the gold. I’ve now heard our team’s story told a number of times over on a number of occasions, and it’s become bit of a classic. What sets our story apart from the other classics is whereby most of these stories are about players who become illustrious, the members of my team remained pretty obscure.

The team

In the end we only had 8 players on the team including me. I really only got in by default and was playing way over my head. Andy Earl was at the AIS, and was supposed to join us when we got to Melbourne. We found out as we boarded the bus that he had been selected for the senior men’s team to go on tour. They would go on to win a silver medal at the Asian Championships. Anyway, the team was:

Andy Congdon

Andy is probably the best setter I’ve played with. Just under 6 feet tall, he wasn’t the tallest player, but he was quick, smart, and had great hands. Andy went to Brighton, where his father, Peter taught and coached for years, but chose to play for Mt. Lofty after he finished school. With a lot of amazing setters around at the time like Jonathan Hague, Andy Hunter and Stuart Maycock, I don’t think Andy got a lot of the credit he deserved, but he was great and there aren’t a lot of setters as good as him playing state league now. Our backup setter was Simon, who started on court as a passer hitter, so Andy set every rally in the tournament. He stopped playing a couple of years after and is now an occupational therapist.

Nic French

“Frenchy” was one of the great players that came from Renmark. An extremely versatile player, he could play middle, outside and set. Remarkably, when his U18 team (with Andy and Richard) came 5th in 1998, he made selection into the all-star-6. At 6’5 he was our tallest player, and mostly played middle and occasionally outside. Nic moved to Adelaide a couple of years after and was working for centrelink last time I heard. He still plays League for Norwood.

Richard Tonkin

Richard was a very talented passer. His technique and ability to read the ball was just flawless. I think he had played most tournaments as a backcourt player or libero. He played for Austral, but moved over to USC Lion. Since we didn’t have a lot of tall players, Richard ended up playing as an outside hitter (for the first time in his representative career), and had an amazing tournament, earning all-star-6 selection. Had Andy Earl played, I reckon Richard might have ended up playing as a Libero. The year after, Richard coached the SA U17 boys to a silver medal. He stopped playing after a couple of years and I think he lives in the UK now.

Simon Clarke

“Clarkie” was another great player from Renmark. I’ve heard Tony Scott say once that he reckoned Simon was the best player to have come out of the Riverland (though that mantle could quite arguably be Tony’s now!). Like Richard, Simon started off as a backcourt player in the younger state teams. He was a skillful setter and passer, and kept these skills when he shot up to 6’4 making him a very skillful tall player. He was our backup setter, but started every game as a passer hitter. He had a booming jump serve and could hit from any position. Oddly enough he had a heavy build (before our gold medal game he woofed down a hotdog and jumbo-sized shake from Wendy’s), but had huge leap. He was like a flying tank (he’s a lot thinner now).

Off the court he was very laid-back and laconic, yet he was the most dedicated member on the team, and drove down to Adelaide every Sunday morning from Renmark to make trainings, even when we struggled to get 6 players out. He had played in a couple of state sides with Patty, which had a history of losing to the Vics early, but then beating them in 5 sets for the gold, and so he was always optimistic that we’d do well despite all the evidence to the contrary. He worked in IT support at the local primary school in Renmark. I used to see him a couple of times a year when he came down to Adelaide for the SA Open and in Melbourne for the Schools cup, but haven’t seen him for a while. It’s a pity because it was always great to catch up with him.

Patrick Rogers

As a very competitive 6’0 middle-blocker, Patty had to be optimistic. He was the archetypal short, skilled Heathfield player who played a lot taller than he was. His quick runs were highly effective, and he never shut up or stopped moving. He was like the Duracel battery. He played in a couple of underdog state teams with Clarky that won gold medals, and never had any doubt that he’d be in a winning team again. Patty was very charismatic and worked a lot in sales. Last I spoke to him he had started a business of some kind (either in consulting or technology). He found it hard to get Saturdays off for state league but started playing again in the last couple of years.

Steven Speck

Steve was in Yr 12 at Heathfield when he played for us. He had been dropped in the last cut of the U19 team, and since we were short we picked him up close to the tournament. Like Patty, he was an effective short middle player (Heathfield seemed to produce a lot of short middles who succeed at this level!). He taped his fingers before every game and had the unusual ritual of labeling them with the date and opponent and adding them to a collection. Steve did yr 13 the year after and all but quit volleyball having dropped out of the Heathfield programme. He was going to Melbourne to coach Marryatville High when one of the Heathfield Open Honours players broke their leg at the last minute, and he was drafted to play for them. With only 8 players they went on to win the first of Heathfield’s three-peat Open Honours Boys titles. He’s got to be one of the luckiest players around having won a national silver and gold medal for two teams he had no intention of playing for! I think he went into teaching but have completely lost touch with him.

Terry Ledgard

Like Steven, Terry had been cut from the U19 team and joined us late. He came from Edward John Eyre high in Whyalla where Jeff Healey was coaching some great players like Simon Philips and Simon Horner. Terry was possibly the best athlete we had on the team. He was about 6’4 and very fast. He usually played as an outside hitter coming on front-court for me. Like the rest of us, Terry didn’t go on to play much more volleyball. He wanted to get into Duntroon and follow a military career. I heard a rumour recently that he’s now in the SAS and serving in Iraq or Afghanistan.

* * *

The core of our team was really Andy, Richard, Nic, Simon and Patty. The rest of us just played bit parts. Having won as underdogs, Patty and Simon were always very positive. Andy, Richard and Nic were less so having missed out every year for medal play-offs. I think the year they played U18s in 1998 in Canberra, they finished fifth on percentage, having been one of three teams that had the same amount of wins and losses. Training, playing and going away with these guys was great. At this age everyone is more mature and chilled out. Most of us were starting our careers or half-way through finishing uni, so it was good to hang out with people who had pretty balanced lives.

We worked really well together, which I think helped. One of the cool things we did was cook and eat together. We stayed in cabins in a caravan park with kitchens and all chipped in for our meals. As unusual as it may sound I think getting a team to cook a decent meal together is really team-building. Some of the players in the other teams just fended for themselves.

Our Coaches

We had awesome coaches in Mike Reu and Wally Waniarcha. Mike used to captain the Australian team and was an icon at USC Lion. Wally also played for Lion and along with his brother, was probably the last Ukrainian to play for them. Wally was extremely short (170cm maybe?) for someone who played state league but he was extremely skilled and cunning, and played in many of their consecutive premierships. Mike has coached the U21 men’s team ever since and they have rarely missed out on a medal, often overachieving for the team they have.

Tough Games

Our first three games were all gruelling 5-setters. We lost our first game to a NZ team coached by Richard “Sooty” Casutt after being 2 sets up. They had two left handers attacking out of position 4 which I thought was highly unusual. We were disappointed we lost until we saw that they were beating everyone else too. Be just got over the line against NSW and ACT. They were the two weakest teams and we just got over. On the Thursday we were annihilated by Victoria in straight sets. We were pretty demoralised. We had to play Queensland the next day, and they looked pretty strong having beaten Victoria on the first day. It didn’t look good.

The game against Queensland was possibly the most bizarre game I have ever been involved in. It was still possible for us to make the gold medal match if we beat Queensland in straight sets. All they had to do was win one set to get through. They led 20-15 in the first set, but somehow we won. They led 22-17 in the second set, but still, somehow we managed to win. They just fell apart in the third set. We played really well. I just played in the backcourt and made sure nothing hit the floor. We made the most of every ball that we got up. On the way back to the changerooms, all we could hear from people passing by was that they couldn’t believe some short-arse SA team made up of no-names had knocked QLD out of the gold medal match. That was the best game we played in the tournament. I’ve never been involved in a game like that as a player or coach since and probably never will. It changed my outlook on life in that anything could be possible. To this day I’m still confident any team i play for or coach can win from 5 or more points down late in a set.

We didn’t win against Victoria in the Gold medal match. They killed us again in straight sets. With Matt Desalvo, Steve Neal, Micah Venturini, Craig Graham, and Steve Brooks they were just too strong and deserved the title. But it didn’t matter so much that we didn’t win. It was far better than finishing where everyone was predicting us to finish. Most importantly, we got to see Andy, Richard and Nic off with a medal.

The roles would be reversed the following year when Victoria would have the weaker but inspired team, and we would have the stronger team on paper [with Andy Earl and Travis Moran]. The gold medal game, which we ended up winning still went to 5 sets as many SA-VIC games seemed to back in those days. Oddly enough, the gold medal I won that year didn’t seem as special as the silver I won the year before.

Meanwhile…

The U17 boys led by a young Travis Moran, Luke Hunyadi and Tony Scott, beat a QLD team in 5 sets to win the SA’s only gold medal for the tournement. The U17 girls managed a silver medal with two inexperienced setters playing above expectations. Belinda Huff was the star of the team, and aced her way through a game to beat the Vics in a memorable 5 set match that went late into the night an got them into a gold medal playoff. The entire squad was there and cheered them over the line. On the bus Belinda thanked everyone for their support, and as Van Morrison’s “Brown Eyed Girl” played over the radio everyone sang along. It was corny moment but nice, and to this day I’m always reminded of her whenever I hear the song. I think that was also the night that St. Kilda got smashed by the crows and Malcolm Blight got sacked after less than a year of coaching them. The U19 boys had high expectations but a disappointing result. The team included Stuart Maycock, Nik West, Aden Tutton, Dan Fleming, Simon Horner and Johnny Byron (nee Rawlinson), but just couldn’t get it together when it counted. They finished third, but would come back the following year to win the title without dropping a set. In the end SA brought home a gold, 3 silvers and a bronze.

With Mike Reu, Wally Waniarcha, Jiang Ying, John Tiver and Simon Naismith, Indra Reinpuu and Paul Smith all coaching, we had possibly the best coaching staff I can remember.

End of an era

The state programme changed after that. New people would take over running the programme. SA started taking over more teams at the younger age levels to grow the sport and prevent the low participation numbers at the older age levels. Never again did they want an U21 team to scrump for players like we had to. We’d see a lot less experienced coaches taking teams too. Our results deteriorated until last year we managed a disappointing 2 medals. But that’s a topic for another day!