Young Turks

As odd as it sounds, my first coaching clinic at Wilunga for the year to kick off our AVSC campaign was cut short by a Rod Stewart concert…

I had a good first coaching clinic on Sunday at Willunga. As usual, new kids starting at the school start coming out while a bunch of familiar faces disappear as Sundays are taken up by part-time jobs, matriculation, girlfriends, boyfriends, and a whole bunch of lifestyle changes I don’t even want to know about. There were some exciting kids I hadn’t seen before come out and I think this might be the year we qualify for an honours event. Not saying anything to tempt fate. Many of these kids are the younger siblings of kids I used to coach there. Just like at Henley, I’m becoming a hand-me-down here too.

As it so happened, the annual “Day on the Green” concert was on. Every year in some part of the wine country they put on a concert with some big name acts. Elvis Costello came one year. Can’t remember any others. This year it was held in McLaren Vale, which is just next to Willunga. To make a bit of extra money for AVSC, the school decided to open up its grounds for parking in exchange for a gold coin donation.

We had to cram all the different groups into two sessions so Princi came and helped me out. Running trainings with disparate skill groups is always a nightmare. Watching Princi try to explain who Rod Stewart was in front of a crowd of blank-faced 13 and 14-year olds  was quite funny. I think describing him as “the Justin Timberlake” of 30 years ago didn’t quite worked either!

In any case, i think they made a tidy sum from this fundraiser. I’ve seen a lot of fundraisers in my time – Sausage Sizzles, Car Washes, bottle pickups at the footy, chocolate etc. But a Rod Stewart concert is definitely a first.  Anyone out there got any interesting fundraising ideas?

Congratulations Sooty and Colleen

Kiwis will get the joke in this week’s banner, which I’ve dedicated to Richard “Sooty” Casutt and Colleen Campbell, two trans-tasman volleyballers who got hitched recently. Sooty and Colleen moved from NZ to SA for a number of years and were a big part of the Volleyball community, working and coaching at Volleyball SA, SASI and South Adelaide. They moved back to NZ a couple of years ago, where they had the wedding. Sooty’s also one of the best referees out there on the Beach tour and I hope to see him in Adelaide later on the year for the World Tour event. I wish them both all the happiness in the world.

Setting the Serve

To finger pass or forearm pass the serve? That is the question. I’ve actually wanted to write about this for a long time, so I’m glad Eldo brought it up.

The “Old Days”

I wonder how well people remember, but the rules of Volleyball used to be very different. One of the big things was that you were not allowed to finger-pass a serve. It was deemed a near impossibility to do so without double-touching, even if it did look clean. Eventually the rules changed so that double touches weren’t relevant on a first touch [More accurately, it didn't matter so long as it was part of the same action, but if a player played the ball twice with two separate actions it was a double hit. I'm haven't read the rules and interpretations for a while, so correct me if i'm wrong].

Setting was such a fine skill so only the players with the best hands were allowed to handle the ball this way. ie, the setters. Oh, those were the days! And so, as it became legal to take the first ball on the fingers, some coaches insisted that their players do it where possible, as it gave them more ball control. Certainly i was like this with the boys teams i coached. Then I coached girls.

When in doubt, ask Sue Dansie

I noticed my girls struggled to do this. Like Eldo says, it ends up skimming off the tips of their fingers behind them. One night at Junior League I saw Sue Dansie helping out some Heathfield teams. I’ve respected Sue for a long time as the ultimate authority on all things Volleyball, so I asked her if girls struggled finger passing a serve more than boys did because their hands weren’t as big or strong. Her answer was simply that no one, should receive a ball on their fingers.

She said that on reception, players should stand far enough to let any ball above their chest go out. They should get their body behind the ball and take it on their forearms. In the case where an aggressive serve goes either side of them, they should reach back and laterally pass [Lateral passing should only be used as a last resort. Unfortunately, Beach Volleyball has cemented it's over-use]. So ever since then, I have been insistent on ALL players I coach that they receive serves with their forearms. When asking Kathryn about Eldo’s views on service reception in preparing the Willunga girls for U16 trials, I wasn’t at all surprised that his position was practically identical to Sue’s. Great minds tend to think alike.

The disadvantages of finger-passing the serve

It’s easier for kids who don’t have great fore-arm passing ability to pass on their fingers, but it’s a bad idea for a couple of reasons. Firstly, as discussed earlier, the ball tends to skim off the hands behind the passer. Secondly, Sue pointed out that in the event that it doesn’t dribble behind the passer, the ball is likely to “stab” in flat towards the setter, giving them less time to make a play. It’s incredibly difficult to redirect a flat serve into a loopy pass with the fingers compared to doing the same thing with a forearm pass. In short you will give your setter a better pass if you forearm pass the ball.

Still a hard sell

Not all coaches agree on how to receive a serve. As junior boys co-ordiantor at Henley last year, I called a meeting at my house with all the junior coaches and the league men’s coach to discuss how we would teach the kids. When the subject of service reception came up, I pushed my view and it was met with unanimous disagreement. the argument went on and eventually, one of the other coaches [who shall remain nameless] told me to “take off my snobby blueblood private school necktie and accept it” [I'm paraphrasing here, but the gist was certainly to get off my high horse and stop being a dogmatic snob]. We moved on and I yielded albeit begrudgingly. To this day, when i see players receive the ball on their fingers it feels like the equivalent of hearing someone with long nails scratch a blackboard.

Do Girls serve more aggressively than Boys?

Years ago, Unley High head coach Glen Duffield told me that he trains his girls to serve into the back 2 metres of the court, with the ball crossing over the net through the “window” [no higher than the top of the antennae]. He reckoned that if they could do that, the pass would either be a shank or yield a free. I could never get those sort of results when I served like that and wondered why. My theory was that serving through the “window” deep into court on a lower net creates a flatter serve, which is harder to pass. The net might be lower, but the dimensions of the court are still the same, so I think serving can be much more aggressive in girls volleyball. Flatter serves also means it’s harder to receive on the fingers too.

I tested this theory one year when i coached a Brighton team for AVSC. I set the net height 10cm lower than their playing height at the start of training for passing drills and then 10cm higher than their playing height straight after for hitting/blocking practice. They finished a disappointing 7th, but their passing ability was quite strong and they were able to play a lot of quick attacks off service reception.

Free balls

Should you receive a free ball on your fingers or forearms? Well for players who have sublime passing skills, i like to leave it up to their own judgment. taking it on the fingers make sense. There’s less power than in a serve. But what about a roll shot or freeball that’s high and coming from the deep in the back court? I think it still takes a forearm pass to bump the best ball to the setter.

Don’t play like a hack just because the rules let you

I think it’s important to note, that despite the many rule changes Volleyball has had, what made a player great 20 years ago isn’t all that different to what makes a player great now. You’re allowed to finger-pass a serve now, but I bet if you looked at the best passers on decent teams, overwhelmingly they’ll be players who prefer to forearm pass the ball and are excellent at it. You’re allowed to take the ball as low as your chest when you set the ball now, but the best setters will always be the ones who take the ball in a neutral position above their head, making no obvious indication of where they will set until the last moment. And finally you can play the ball off your foot now, but you will never see it developed as a comparable alternative to passing or diving/rolling [And no, that obscure Thai bicycle-kicking sport on ESPN and SBS World Sport doesn't count as volleyball].

Rules are flawed because they are created by people who are less-than-perfect. They may change the incentives, and in doing so, the way we do things. But great success has always come to those who follow a higher standard of rules that cannot be written nor enforced.

At School’s cup, you’ll notice that the best passing teams are the Heathfield teams, whether in honours or div. You’ll also notice a conspicuous absence of finger-passing on the serve in those teams. But is it realistic to get every player on a team to do that? Barring Heathfield, there’s one big flaw in my argument that the best passer on a successful team takes the serve on their forearms; What do the rest of the passers do?

If you can’t find Sue Dansie…

Ask Eldo. Or someone else who has taught a large volume of players with decent technique. Have a read of his comments below. As for setters, that’s a mystery for another day…

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Eldo

Re setting the serve.

My view with junior girls generally and nearly always take more pride in serving. Last year I thought in Melbourne, that serving seemed to be an inconvenience and only delayed the boys view of the game. BUT girls serve much harder than boys generally do not have the strength to set the flat hard serves. The girls are are entitled to try but my view is that the ball generally dissappears over position 6 into row 32 of the grand stand.

Whilst at junior level the girls serve harder than the boys, the boys receive free balls much better than the girls because they DO use their fingers more. Given the oft lack of pace on a free ball the girls can finger pass but they often choose not to. This is dissappointing because if they are in the front row (and often are) then they, by moving backwards take them selves out of a quick hitting role.

The boys just clearly have bigger and stronger hands.

A NSW coach once told me that if you get the best setter in Open Honor Girls in schools cup and then go to Division 3 and find the 4th team and look at their male setter, then they will be around the same standard. This close to being true but when you look at the tactital setters like Raelee Vick, Victoria and Fleur Holmes Shelie Bonython, Mandy Carr, Anna Maycock South Australia has been well served by their female setters.

It is my view at the moment that Victoria is clearly in front of SA and the rest of the states with their development of setters and that this development has taken a well defined and logical path. Their excellent academy structure helps here. At Heathfield we are fighting back in this regard.

Eldo

Eldo on the U16s

Good to hear from the grand patriarch himself… I’m definitely sure my sister didn’t finish off the trial, and it’s very possible she decided not to go on with it herself. It was a very long time ago, and I wasn’t there. It’s still a story that seems to come up verbatim in my household round the dinner table.  Certainly it’s good to make sure it’s worth people who come a far way to travel. I wonder what it’s like in places like QLD where it’s so spread out.

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Eldo 

Thanks for giving the School under 16 State teams some publicity.

I am sure I have never sent a kid home early from Under 16 trials. It is written into the rules that every kid is permitted to attend all the trials during a weekend. This rule is to ensure country kids get their money’s worth from a trial. We can cut if a trial goes over into a second weekend but I cannot ever doing that. I certainly agree with this rule. I have also had a couple of kids serving underarm in a State team although, that was some years ago. Actually I hate State trials and telling kids they did not make it. I spent hours last week talking to Heathfield kids (boys and girls) who missed out. I hope they get a go in a 2nd 17 team as they have somethiong to offer.
Eldo

More from Murph

Some good points here with kids getting converted to Volleyball. But it also poses an interesting question; What is it we want from the state programme? Is it to convert more kids to our sport? or is it to put on the best competition for those already in it? Volleyball is in a tough spot competing for kids with other more established sports. It doesn’t help when kids start Footy and Netball a lot younger (in primary schools) than they do Volleyball (typically high school).

One of the great things that the AVF did was take SA’s Mini-volleyball format nationally to create the Spikezone programme in primary schools and get the kids into the sport earlier. I think programmes like that are more effective in winning athletes than each state having development sides to do this. Overwhelmingly the kids that pour into our club are Spikezone kids in primary school wishing to play on. But I do agree that TID kids get that richer experience with our sport if they get a chance to play state.

Murph makes me think about the challenge of coaching kids Gen Y kids. I’m a borderline X-Y, so i have a foot in a couple of camps. Gen Y’s want things NOW. There’s no patience or waiting for your time. You used to wait until it was “your time” to try out, but now you don’t have to. Kids can now play junior league before high school, they can play state a couple of years before the cap, they can play reserves/league while still in high school. They also get injured younger – I find the idea of kids with knee and shoulder problems at the age of 15 disturbing. And they get sick of it all younger too. Is it too much too young? Are we burning them out?

Feedback from your players is very much a funny thing. There are players I’ve helped improve a lot who don’t appreciate a thing, and there are some excellent players (and their parents) who had great feedback for me even though I had bugger-all to do with their success. In business I learned a funny truism relating to all this; People don’t usually remember what you did for them, but instead they remember how you made them feel.

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Murph

Huy,

Most certainly there was some over simplification on my part there…

But I have spoken to a few of the athletes I mentioned last time, and they all agree, without hesitation, that they are better volleyballers due to the experience of playing in Sydney. Rory Welsh is one such player, who excelled like you would not believe in Sydney, he then went onto win an MVP award in melbourne. He told me that his time in Sydney helped every aspect of his game, as well as giving him the confidence and experience in tournament play. Jade arrived at the trials not looking like the player you mention…But boy did he grow throughout the training sessions and in Sydney he stepped up exceptionally.

Another one to think about is a young lad called Jordan Maslen, who last during trainings was otherwise focussed, he was always wanting to go out and play footy…After the trip to Sydney, I spoke to him and his Father, and they both agree, he’s a volleyballer now. He has the bug, he wants to play 21s one day. Another lad in my team last year David had a pretty good tournament, he was a TID athlete who was just kind of playing because he was at SASI…After the State program he told me how he loved the sport, as soon as the tournament finished his Dad was on the phone to Brighton, seeing if he could enroll in the school. He regrets not starting playing earlier (perhaps as a 14 year old in a State team….)

There are many little stories like this…Sure they players might have achieved the same thing if they were not a part of a development squad, but you cannot argue with the testimony of athletes telling you that you have either helped them become a better player and set them up for future tournaments, or given them the passion to love the sport.

Murph

Team SA Part 3: David Eldridge’s Finishing School for Young Volleyballers

Over the last weekend, SA trials for the U16 and U17 teams started. I came to support the Willunga players who trailed for the U16 Schoolgirls team, as this would be their first trial and I expected them to find it a bit nerve wracking. This team, and the U16 schoolboy team exist outside the AJVC continuity. While the state volleyball associations run the AJVC teams, the Secondary School Sports associations run the U16s.

Having selected and coached them for donkey’s years, Eldo has become ubiquitous with the U16 Schoolgirls team. Like his Gravitas-grade peers, he has a presence that can be imposing and intimidating. I’ve noticed that even players I have trouble coaching inevitably tremble at his presence. Despite his severe look and blunt witticisms, I’ve found him to be one of the most approachable people out there.

The first time I heard of Eldo…

I must have been 8 or 9 years old when my sister (who was in the Brighton programme at the time) came home crying because she got eliminated from the U16 state team trials when she did an underarm serve and told not to bother with the rest of the trials [Even our mother who never took much notice of our extra-curricular activities remembers this story!]. It sounded harsh then, but whenever I think about now, it was probably a bad idea for her to try out if she couldn’t serve properly. It’s important to “have a go”, but when players have less than a 30% chance of being able to succeed in the exercises, then it’s just demoralising and detrimental.

About 10 years later when I became one of Henley’s first juniors coaches, I was sent on a Level 1 training course and was lucky to have Eldo as my instructor. I picked up a lot of stuff from him that I still use now.

If you only ever make one state team, it better be this one

Eldo’s team is an institution steeped in tradition. It has stood solidly like the Rock of Gibraltar as the fortunes for our state programmes have waxed and waned. I think they’ve won the title at least 10 times under him, and it’s highly unusual if they don’t medal at all (last year being one of those years).

Historically, not a lot of non-Heathfield kids get picked. It’s not unusual to see a team made up of 7 or 8 Heathfield girls and 2 or 3 girls from other schools. To have 4 or more non-Heathfield girls is an anomaly. In 2006, when SEVEN non-Heathfield girls made it was just surreal. I don’t think there’s a lot of unfair bias here since I coached against these girls for years and never beat them once. To make this team as a non-Heathfielder puts girls into an elite club (seriously, they should get given special rings or something). Getting a player into this team is like putting a man on a moon or a new judge on the supreme court bench.

Apart from its track record, the team is special because the players get coached by the guy who’s put more players into the women’s national team than any other. They get taught how to do everything properly and flawlessly. The big one being how to roll properly. If skill and technique were like manners, these girls would be the equivalent of high society debutantes. They just come out of this with a certain pedigree about them that makes them quality players. They have gravitas.

Fortune favours those who turn up

In developing Henley’s programme, and later Willunga, getting players into this team, more than any other state team became a priority and indicator of progress.

There was a real breakthrough year for Hawks when in 2006, we got seven past and present players into the team – Kathryn McHugh, Esther Finn, Kirsten Smith, Lauren Shippey, Maddie Wakefield, Sophie Orchard & Lauren Reynolds. The last player we had before that was Becchara Palmer. We’ve managed to get one or two kids from the club into the team each year since then, so it means we’re doing something right.

Willunga needs to start getting players to try out for, and get into this team if they are to move forward. It’s a tough sell for a lot of them since the idea is quite daunting and there’s the perception that it’s not worth trying out since only Heathfield and Brighton girls will get picked.

I was surprised when I spoke to Eldo that in previous years there were Willunga players he thought could have made the team. There were two in one year, and there was a player in another year that he reckoned would have even been a starter. They could have been any number of talented players I’ve seen there, but we’ll never know. Because none of them ever decided to show up.

The barrier is purely mental. The players they trial against from Heathfield and Brighton are good, but it’s not like they were born with the divine right of kings for a spot on this team. Like everyone else they still have to try out. Life is full of improbabilities, but if you’re good and willing to back yourself by turning up, you never know what can happen.

My passion for coaching came from teaching kids that life is about going for the things you want in your heart, and not the easier things you have invented in your head. If any of the kids I worked with didn’t get this, then I have failed them in every conceivable way. The game was never more important to me than this.

Exam Cramming

I decided it was time for Willunga players to start trying out, so I called Princi and told him I wanted to get as many players to try out and identified a few I thought had a good chance. I held two training sessions with them going through what I thought they needed to know. Since I’ve never played in any of these teams, I enlisted the help of someone who did – Kathryn McHugh. I coached her in reserves and she was kind enough to let me pick her brains, as well as make the long drive down with me to coach them one session. Her insights were really valuable, but I’m not sure how effective the trainings really were. I had made a list but I just couldn’t get round to all of it, let alone spend the time I wanted on each thing we did. Essentially, I was getting them to cram for a test.

I also gave them that other thing you use when you’re not prepared for a test – cheat sheets. All sorts of information on habits Eldo prefers and dislikes; That he hates finger passing on reception, prefers every freeball being set, looks for outside hitters who can hit aggressively down the line 40% of the time. Some of these things were on the registration form, others just from Kathryn’s memory.

Putting someone on the moon

I was happy to see 4 girls out to the U16 trials, another out to U17s, and one of the yr 9 boys out to the U16s boys trials too. It was 6 more than we got trying out last year. Steph Collins managed to get selected which was great. Willunga’s first, and hopefully first of many.

Two of the other girls, Elke and Brianna, have a chance to try out again next year and are keen to do it. Other players I knew who made it included Emma McEwan (who was selected last year, and would have surely been selected the year before if only she wasn’t in primary school) and Tatjana Pohl who I coached 3 years ago in Albury Wodonga when she was only 11. Even then, she was taking on kids 3 years older than her and beating them. Luke Sibbons and Jade Walsh, who Funky and I coached at Hawks over the last couple of years made the U16 boys. Only in year 8, Daniel Shippey who we also coached in the same team made it as a “shadow player”. I was really happy for them, especially Daniel since he’s always worked particularly hard.

With 50 girls trying out, there was no shortage of disappointment after the team was announced. I felt Eldo and his staff handled this with a great deal of professionalism and sensitivity. The girls selected were taken to a separate room with the team manager, where they got some housekeeping out the way and celebrate with each other. Meanwhile, Eldo and the selectors made themselves available to give feedback to any of the kids that didn’t get picked. It seems to have changed a lot since the time my sister got cut! [N.B. Tam now has a better over-arm serve action, but as the infomercials say "results may vary"]

As a development coach, my job has never been to cut people, so I can only imagine how unpleasant an experience it is to face up to these players. But empathy tells me that it probably feels worse for the player involved. Interestingly, Devo’s blog says Victoria did their selections only a week or two before, and did things a bit differently.

Change in Culture

With a bit of luck, this will start getting Willunga’s programme to the next level. Most Successful programmes begin as a participation vehicle for kids. Then slowly as talented kids come through and want to apply themselves, they start playing club volleyball, and trying out (and making) representative teams. Slowly the idea of getting out there becomes less intimidating for players as they know people who have come before them until it becomes the norm instead of the exception. Improvement in a programme and its players can only go so far in isolation before it needs to engage with these other institutions to advance further.

When I first came to Willunga they only had one player who played club and state (and only in development teams). This year they have three club players, two of which was in a first state team last year, and the other who just got selected. The baby steps of progress have begun.

Although I’d love to see Willunga keep improving and finally qualify for honours, it’s not up to me to decide. The students, coaches and administrators have to decide if this is the path they want to follow and ask the fundamental question of what their programme is all about. I can only show them the possibilities and leave it to them to decide what it is in their hearts they wish to pursue.

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Post Script: in case you didn’t notice, my two training sessions at Willunga means I’ve backflipped once again on “retiring”. Seems the possibility of getting that illusive team into honours proved too irresistible. Training starts again Sunday…

Post Hoc Ergo Propter Hoc…

Michael Murphy, last year’s SA U17M third team assistant coach adds his two cents. Murph reckons many of the kids in the development teams make the better teams later. Which is true. But is it because they played that extra tournament when they were bottom age? Or is it because being good enough to make the team the year after comes with having the mindset of wanting to play earlier given the chance? Post Hoc Ergo Propter Hoc – “after this, therefore because of this” – it’s important not to confuse correlation with causation

When I had Murph’s job in 2005, the first player I picked was 14-year-old Michael McEwen, because I knew he had the best passing technique out there. We also picked Nic Rodger who was the same age and a skilled all-rounder, having been taught well by his mum, Sue Rodger (Mike and Nic both played in my Div 2 boys team the year before. They’re in the photo kneeling in front of McHuge). They were always going to make U16s, U17s etc. They were just young at the time and not quite strong enough yet. Playing in my team didn’t ensure their future success. I’d bet the farm that if we didn’t have the team that year, they would have made subsequent selections when their time came.

One of Murph’s kids who made the U16s this year was Jade Walsh, who I coached from when he was 11, and I could tell from an early age that he had a good chance of making these teams when his time came. The common thing that makes these kids good players is the fact that they’re willing to take every opportunity out there. But if some of those opportunities weren’t there, would they still be good enough to make it anyway?

And as for what gets players into the AIS – who knows? The AIS works in mysterious ways…

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Murph

Hi Huy,

As a coach of the U17 Boys 3rd team last year, I have a biased, and somewhat sentimental view of the teams we should take along to Nationals. I do think, without doubt, that we should only take one team at u19 and u21 levels, at the age of these players, they are developed enough to be playing reserves/league volleyball. However, the U17 are not always ready to be placed into as high a level competition as that. With Junior League being so weak here, good/great players of age 14-16 have to look at State Teams for elite volleyball, especially if they are from non-volleyball schools.

I think that there is reason behind the SECOND team should be scrapped from u17, leaving a 17’s team which is preparing athletes for u17’s top team the following year, or perhaps with the exception of SASI TID athletes who would benefit and fit into the 19’s team the year after.

Last year we took a squad of 10 in the 3rd team. This year, 1 will make the top 17’s team, 3 have made the 16’s team, 1 has made the 2nd 17’s team, 2 are trialling today for the 19’s, 2 are playing for their Open sides at high school but are no longer state athletes.

Last year the 2nd team also took away 10 players, 2 will make the 2nd 17’s team, the 3 will make the top 19’s team and the rest will play for their schools and no longer be able to travel into the obscurity of excessive state teams.

What is my point here? Well, we could have taken one team containing the five from the third team, and the five from the 2nd team. Generally speaking, we would have a better team that goes far better in the u17 age group, and also prepares 100% of athletes for future competitions, rather than the 50% we seem to be getting at the moment.

Another thing to think about is following Victoria’s current scheme of playing an u17 city team and an u17 country team. With plans for the development of SASI centres in Whyalla and Mawson lakes, as well as the current squad from the South, we could be pressing, in the mid-term, to have a team based from regional areas, and one from the city.

One thing we do need to think about though is this…A lot of the yellow teams have won so very few games, yet they still produce AIS athletes. Should we scrap something that produces these kind of athletes (not results)? I don’t think so, but I do like the way that we are taking fewer teams this year, but I don’t like the way that there is little foresight into the use of the second team. After watching the trials, it doesn’t look like being a development squad, but rather a ‘best of the rest’ squad. We should be sitting down, picking the 10 best players for the top team, and the 10 players who, with the right grooming, could be stars.

McHuge mentioned something I couldn’t believe, in saying that the 2nd/3rd team coaches were unmotivated and didn’t really care all that much about development, and I think more thought needs to go into the development squad’s coaching appointments. I for one was extremely passionate about my team and wanted them to develop their game as much as possible, and it was very rewarding to see one of the players being outstanding at trials, and hearing about the selection of another few into other teams.

Simply put…

Cutting teams is a part of the answer. The other parts are; more thought out selection processes (maybe even invitational…) for the development teams and more deliberate coaching appointments for the teams that, at this stage, seem to be producing the most AIS athletes : non AIS athletes ratio overall.

From McHuge’s Mum

Chris’ Mum Min shares her thoughts,

By the way, I’m from one of those “non-school’s cup” schools. We didn’t have any volleyball at all. But we had expensive boats, so you could do rowing instead. I think they were a bit out of touch with the modern world.

It does bring up an recurring question: What opportunities are there for kids to play good tournament volleyball if they don’t go to a volleyball school and can’t make a development squad? There are always country carnivals, like Warnambool, which is on next weekend.

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Well you two!
The third team selected for State reps in SA is all about DEVELOPMENT and experience. One might might never now one’s real potential unless given an opportunity like the one mentioned to awaken the desire, self belief and committment needed to make positive steps forward.
Unforntunately not ALL volleyballers attend schools which take teams to National School’s Cup and participation in the said third team is their only chance to ‘SHINE ‘.
Yes some that have been taken away lacked the experience of FINALS FEVER at National State level and were inconsiderate to other state teams
vying for positions in finals and fingers crossed WE have learnt from that error in judgement.
To any volleyballer out there when an any opportunity comes knocking do not be complacent, take it with both hands and RUN…. be the very best you can be. HAVE FUN.