It was a huge week. As Willunga’s “floating coach” (a role that i am grossly underqualified for) i ended up getting up at 6am every morning and coming back to the accommodation by 11pm each night. I really felt that willunga’s programme made a huge leap forward. For me, the highlight was seeing our U15 Girls Honours team take the bronze medal. After 7 years of trying to get a team into honours I can’t describe how it felt to see them make it into the semi’s and medal. But more on that later. We also won a bronze in Girls Open div 2, and we outscored last year’s cup points, edging closer to breaking 400. So let’s look at how our teams went:
Open Boys div 1
Finished: 7th (64 cup points)
Win-loss: 6-3
Rallies: 835
It was really hard to tell where these boys would finish. On one hand they only had 7 players, with a knee injury to star player Chris Little. They didn’t have a coach with Chris and ex-student Jake Stangawitz sharing the role. But they did have a gun player in german exchange student, Ben Wedel, who had played in Germany’s national youth team. They got off to a good start winning 5 of their 6 first games. They lost the must win game on the Thursday and were immediately knocked out. In the end 7th was an improvement on their 10th place finish last year. Will be sad to see the curtain close on most of these kids’ playing days
Open Girls div 2
Finished: 3rd (52 cup points)
Win Loss: 7-2
Rallies: 767
Princi’s girls made it to their 3rd AVSC medal by slumming it in div 2. They didn’t drop a set for 3 days (first 5 games) and losing two games on the Thursday (including the semi) relegated them top playing off for 3rd. The final against Unley was a nail-biter.
U17 Girls div 1
Finished: 10th (59 cup points)
Win Loss: 4-5
Rallies: 881
Jacquesy’s girls AKA “the Phoenix” couldn’t quite rise from the ashes. Losing 3 out of their 5 pool games knocked them out by Thursday. In the end a niggling ankle injury meant National Junior Women’s rep Sarah Gould was a late inclusion and an early finisher. Middle Blocker Steph Collins did a good job holding them together playing all over the court but unfortunately 10th was the best they could finish. It is sad to say goodbye to Steph who is moving on to Brighton. After all, it is unlikely fort her to have a team next year and she’d still like to play on and get a crack at honours. I wish her all the best and know she’ll have friends there who will look out for her.
U16 Boys div 1
Finished: 8th (62 cup points)
Win Loss: 4-6
Rallies: 1001
Moon’s boys weren’t able to get one better than last year. Playing up in div 1 this year, the boys lost 3 of their 6 pool games to barely qualify in the top 8. Even with Josh Proctor firing, they lost a crucial cross-over game and didn’t make the semi’s. Chris Little spent a lot of time helping out these boys over the week yielding some big improvements. Hopefully these boys will be fired up to push for an honours spot. We have 9 months to get there!
U16 Girls div 1
Finished: 11th (58 cup points)
Win Loss: 4-4
Rallies: 812
It really broke my heart to see these girls who worked so hard all year not do a bit better. A throat-related illness left the girls with 6 players on the Monday who valiantly salvaged the day with a win and a loss, including a fantastic thriller against Wonthaggi. The girls lost their third pool game, partly due to some dubious refereeing and were out of medal contention by Tuesday night. Wonthaggi had gotten through on percentage and ended up taking the bronze. A similar thing happened to our U16 div 1 girls team 2 years ago, so I think we may have a “Wonthaggi Curse” upon us. Despite some disappointments, the core of the team is positive about next year. We’ll get there next year
U15 Girls Honours
Finished: 3rd (92 cup points)
Win Loss: 5-4
Rallies: 1647
I spent the most time with Willunga’s first ever honours, team helping out their match-coach Shantel. Although the hours I had put into training and preparing them might have helped get them through to the top half. It was really the team that took themselves into the semi’s as they blossomed into an even stronger team than I imagined. The girls lost only 1 pool game to Brighton in 5 sets but still managed to finish top in their pool. They were also lucky to make it through to the semi’s after losing both their crossover games. They had the highest points percentage out of 3 teams that were all on 1 win and went through. After losing the semi, the girls made it to the Bronze medal game – not bad considering they had lost 4 games on the way. The game against Upwey went to 5 sets on the showcourt and I couldn’t help but feel a sense of déjà vu. Nearly 4 years ago I had been the assistant in Henley’s 5 set win over Upwey at the U15 national championships in Albury Wodonga.
It had taken me 7 years to get a team into honours and for them to make a medal match was amazing. I told them as much before the game and that it didn’t matter to me what the result was. Needless to say I got a bit emotional.
Possibly one of the great stories of their tournament was one of the year 8 starters on the team, Morgan Hill who badly sprained her thumbs defending a ball on the Thursday. She had been winning a lot of points with her serving and hitting and we had presumed we couldn’t play her for the rest of the week. We gave her a chance to warm up in the bronze game, and after getting thumped in the 1st set we put her on and shuffled the lineup. I think she made a real impact and helping us get over the line.
The support from the rest of the squad who had flocked out to the showcourt to cheer on the girls was great. My long running obsession with getting a team into honours and medalling was finally over. Afterwards, it was nice that some of my favourite coaches came up to congratulate me and the team. Sue Dansie came up to the team to give them some nice words which was cool.
What I liked most about this team was their ability to stay upbeat whenever things were down. In timeouts whenever things got tense, Shantel would start getting them to sing and dance to KC and the Sunshine Band’s “Get Down Tonight”. Although I might have helped them tactically, technically and strategically, this is something only Shantel could have really done. I think more than anything else you need high emotional intelligence to be a successful game-coach. It was often a colourful contrast in timeouts with one camp looking rather intense while the other just sung and danced.
According to an uncle of mine the toughest guys in the Vietnam war were actually the Koreans. He lived on a Korean army based that got attacked one night by enemy soldiers and while these guys were suffering heavy casualties they never flinched and just kept on singing together, I’ve always been a firm believer that the team that sings together wins together.
Other good things
Loxton winning the Gold medal in U17 boys honours. If it was an impressive feat for our first honours team ever to win a bronze medal, then Loxton winning U17 boys honours is just amazing. At that level with so many kids playing higher level volleyball in state teams, development squads and clubs, for an isolated community to pull that off is quite the achievement. Sure the had a couple of state players, but it takes more than that to win an U17 honours title!
Loxton also did quite well in some div 1 competitions, reclaiming from Willunga it’s title of 3rd best SA school. To top it off they beat town rivals Renmark in 2 of their 3 playoffs on the Friday (how on earth there were so many Renmark/loxton playoffs is just weird). Renmark used to be a real powerhouse, but I think they’ve been in decline since the Scotts left. Loxton used to be the poorer cousin and it was even slightly funny that a loud boo came on during the opening ceremony from the Renmark contingent when the Loxton banner came out. I think it was pretty innocent and parochially funny. Still the days when Renmark outperformed Loxton may be over!
The Purple Orchid. I was fortunate for my good friend (and National Junior Women’s Assistant) Chau Le to take me out to dinner one night at the Purple Orchid in Springvale – Carl and Chris Lim’s family’s Cambodian restaurant. Definitely try the clams if you’re ever there. Or the beef cubes. Was also cool to have a chat to Carl and Chris who were both there. As it turns out, our families probably both shared Christmas together in Villawood nearly 25 years ago to the day!
Willunga Posse takes one for the big team. After 4 gruelling games and 2 5-set matches, the U15 girls had an 8am duty followed by an 11am game. I suggested to Shantel that Leith (the team’s manager) and I take the duty with some of the girls and let the rest sleep in. We couldn’t work out who to rest as even the girls who had not been on as much were carrying injuries and ailments. In the end, we managed to get another 6 people to help us out – other team managers, coaches and players with late games. A particular shout out to Schubert and Jake from the open boys who helped out.
Their effort meant the girls got to sleep in a couple of extra hours which I think helped them out. It was probably the biggest shift I’d seen in culture at Willunga, going from disparate teams which only picked players who were in the same classes to a “big team” culture where people just did what they could to help out the whole. I think they definitely contributed to that bronze medal!
Player demands officials let him ref a medal game. Now this i weird. As it turns out our gun german exchange studnet playing in our div 1 boys team is also a regional standard ref – just 1 below international standard. He enjoys doing it too. usually for good money. However in this case, he simply demanded that being such a good referee that the officials give him a “big game” to referee on the last day. He got the Open honours bronze medal game which went to 5 sets [27-29, 27-25, 25-15, 22-25, 18-16]. I’ve never seen a player ask to duty a gam, let alone a game their team isn’t scheduled to do, let alone an important game that directly determines a medal winner. I really don’t know what to make of it. Is it attention-seeking behaviour? or is it a commitment to craft and officiate at the highest level? you decide. It is an improvement. since the last time i remembered one of my open boys refereeing a match, it all ended in a fistfight.
This time Ben did a great job. When offered an official’s shirt to wear in the game he demanded he wear his willunga top to represent the school. our officiating dignity was restored!
[German Exchange Student and regional standard referee Ben Wedel top ref-ing the Mazenod/Monbulk Open honours boys bronze medal game. HE VOLUNTEERED FOR IT!]
Ditching the “idol contest”. As much as I am a fan of singing, the idol contest sucked. The Canberra tournament used to be all about the volleyball, and the singing contest was a sideshow we really didn’t need. It’s the Australian Volleyball School’s Cup, not Johnny Young’s Talent Time. Happy to see it go
Shorter Opening ceremony. Glad they moved it to a place where there was seating and made the thing shorter. Still, staging it in a giant, bare Olympic pool made me feel I was watching some weird event in North Korea. Keeping it short was great
Tin Can Bay wins 3 gold medals. This P-10 school has got to have the highest medal per capita record in the history of this event. All three of their teams won gold at AVSC. Sure 2 of them were in div 2, but still it’s pretty good. I remember their only team medalling in 2005. Good on em.
Not so good things.
Losing one of our best players to Brighton. I know Steph will be likelier to reach her full potential moving over to a Special Interest Volleyball school but it still sucks. It’s unlikely she’d have a team here next year let alone in honours. She also came out to help me coach every week for 2 hours, so i couldn’t have trained as many people to a decent standard without her. Good luck steph and I’ll definitely see you round state league and the like.
Incidents. Speaking to one of the officials, there seems to have been more problems for the red coats in the past. Why can’t people just be nice to each other? If anything, as coaches can’t we at least show our players how to solve problems without having to drag over an official. Are we in the business of teaching winning or whinging? I’m pretty sure that most problems can be solved by playing better volleyball. Whether the other team is getting away with bad volleyball, or there’s a scoring problem, or some trash talking, the easiest way to make it all better is ignore it and just get on with playing better volleyball.
Anyway, this brilliant and committed volunteer said she was considering not coming again after 3 or 4 years. That’s just bullshit and we have got to treat our volunteers a lot better
Low standard of refereeing. I don’t complain about referees during games, and I still haven’t because of my principles and philosophies, but there are some “accredited” officials out there that really suck arse. They changed the accreditation system this year, which I think just passed the buck to someone else. I think coaches or managers should do more of the refereeing. Perhaps a quota, where adults and players take a 50/50 split of going up on the stand. At Willunga I get stiffed with pretty much every BrightField game. For the record, the standard of refereeing in the honours event our U15s were in was pretty good. U16 div 1 was pretty bad. In all honsesty though i think it all gets easier if you get to know the teams and their coaches in your pool. After all, they do the duties for your game. And if you respect each other than there seems to be less percieved refereeing problems. So i highly recommend having a yak with the other coaches and their players. tell them what you like about their teams. Once you all see that you’re all there for the same reasons (besides winning a medal) everyone gets along a lot easier. It’s not that the refereeing gets better, you just don’t think it’s worse when you like the people. it sounds retarded, but people are highly emotional beings. So find something nice to say to the other coaches when you see them. Find out where they’re from and tell them what you like about their teams. and if you can’t think of anything, then you’re a deluded misanthrope who should find something else to do with their spare time.
Scoring system? Why on earth are they choosing to go with Points percentage before set percentage. Apparently this is what the FIVB is doing and we’re following suit. I still reckon it’s harder to win a set, and there’s an economic beauty in the team that wins more sets with less points. Still it means every rally counts so no tanking.
What on earth was that Craigslea guy on about? I went to the coaches’ “technical meeting” for the first time. The AVF’s CEO was there which I thought was weird. Surely this would be a bit below her pay grade. There was also an election for a school rep on the organising committee between David Eldridge and the Craigslea guy. I really have no idea what the Craigslea guy was on about or what his platform was. Not that I got to cast Willunga’s vote, but I suspect it went to Eldo anyway.
No closing ceremony. It did suck that the honours court went over time and we couldn’t have a proper closing ceremony. After years of dreaming of being up on the podium in front of many people I’ve had the chance to work with who have put up with my incessant fixation on winning a medal in honours, I saw my team get their medals in the foyer. I think it sucks more for the kids. After all, I’m a confirmed tragic who will be going to this event for years. They might not ever get to go up and accept a medal again.
Gastro. Again. The note saying shaking of hands was to be replaced by “acknowledging the other team” was definitely a downer. I remember some friends of mine telling me about the Gastro outbreak at AVSC in 98 I think it was. It’s a pity cos you want to see the teams at their best going against each other at the business end of the week.
Rostrevor not so strong. It was a sad day to see no Rostrevor teams in honours divisions. Their open team finished even lower than ours. In Div 1. Speaking to Urbani he’s going to ramp it up again. Let’s hope we see them there agin next year
Gerfloor Cup still a two-horse race. For all the hype about Girton bringing over one of the best squads it’s ever had, it was still between BrightField. They really should ask at the organising committee if the Gerfloor cup for campion school should just be renamed the “Heathfield/Brighton Shield” for whoever wins. Most of the players at this year’s AVSC weren’t even born the last time that someone other than BrightField won it. The numbers game says it’s a tough ask.
The cup is judged on your best 6 results. Since you get so much more points for honours, only schools with teams in at least 6 honours events can really have a crack at it. This year there was only 2 – Monbulk and Rossmoyne. BrightField had teams in every honours event (Brighton had second teams in two honours divisions) letting them choose their best 6 results from.
So long as BrightField finish in the top 8 in 6 of their honours divisions no one else has a shot at the cup, since you get the same score for 1st in div 1 as you do for 9th in honours. Only 1 BrightField team finished out of the 8 (Heathfield Open Boys). But that was ok, because they didn’t have to count that one in their top 6 results.
Special commendation must go to Heathfield, who in 2002 won 5 of the (then) 6 honours events. They lost the 6th event 15-13 in the 5th set of the medal game and nearly had the perfect score by a margin of two points. With the “modern landscape” of school volleyball this feat is unlikely to ever be repeated.
