The weekend of the 19th and 20th August, Leicester Athena hosted their third summer tournament.
Eight men's and seven women's teams from places as far apart as Reading and Wigan descended on De Montfort University's Leisure Centre for a thrilling weekend of volleyball. The women played on Saturday and, after 6 gruelling hours, Reading Aces came out top ahead of Lincoln Cannons and All Stars. Sunday was the turn of the men and Hot Shots returned from last year to win again. They played with power and commitment beating Lincoln Cannons into second and Wigan Seahawks into third. We got loads of great feedback from players and they all enjoyed the opportunity to get some indoor court time under their belts. We hope to run our fourth tournament on 17th/18th August in 2024 so keep your calendars free.
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As the summer speeds by, preparations are underway for the new season. This year, we will have seven squads training in seven separate sessions:
This season we have had a lot of new faces join the team to add to our solid core of regular players from pre-Covid times. The players have made slow and steady progress in their technique and have bonded amazingly as a group. Both of these factors have been crucial in their official league games to date, having won 2 out of their 4 games so far this season. The two games we have lost were not a surprise, going up against Loughborough Students has always been tough. And despite loosing we showed real grit in some of the sets in both our home and away games, with the scores being close. With the support of some experienced players, the progress of the team has been very good. Their commitment to coming to the training sessions week in and week out has been a major factor in their rapid improvement. As a group we have covered a lot of the basics of digging, volleying and hitting and after the Christmas break we will be moving on to rotation - and the players will be deciding on what positions they want to play for the rest of the season. Joylyn and Naema have taken to their setting roles very well - and have shown good progress in their ability to get the ball high for our hitters. Joylyn has made brilliant progress in her under arm serving and blocking. Laura and Sarah have made massive progress in hitting and moving to the ball. I'm very happy with Laura's progress in particular, since she is one of the newest members of the team. In a short few weeks, she has made massive progress and isn't afraid to get stuck right in. Beth has made fantastic progress all round - but particularly in her back court defence. She is fast to the ball and does everything she can to keep the ball off the floor. Our next steps will be to work on defence and transition so that the connection that has begun to develop on court becomes stronger and more fluid. Well done everyone! The first thing to say is "WOW".
We started junior sessions in March and have grown to running sessions on Saturday and Sunday mornings. We have over 40 players coming to those sessions and we are FULL! Beginners Saturday mornings are for younger players and beginners. We regularly have over 20 players coming and they have shown a huge improvement. The younger players have taken part in the Grand Prix run by Nottingham Rockets and have shown real togetherness. In the new year, we will enter Volleyball England's Junior competition using teams from the Saturday sessions. It will give them a huge amount of experience to play against other teams of junior girls. We will have a team in the Tier 2 U16 competition (Athena Celeste) and two teams in the Tier 2 U15 competition (Athena Meteors and Athena Comets). Athena Moon Athena Moon train on Sundays and have entered the Leicestershire Local league. They play against adult teams, so this is a real challange for them. They have played twice and even won a set. Athena Sun Our most experienced and skillful players are playing in the East Midlands league against very much more experienced players. They are gelling as a team and showing great commitment to chase every ball and have a wonderful never-quit attitude. After the abyss
Like sports clubs up and down the country, the summer has been all about rebuilding. After 18 months of no c0mpetiton and very little training, we are all faced with ensuring old players come back and new players find us. Thankfully, we have worked very hard to ensure we can start the new season with three adult teams and two junior teams. National League Under the guidance of new head caoch, Steve, the NVL squad is looking as strong as ever. We have recruited a number of very impressive players to supplement the excellent core we had developed over the past few years. Playing in Division 2 North, the season has already started with the team winning two out of their three matches. Regional League The East Mids squad was really hit by the turmoil of the past two years with over half the squad leaving. With Sarah and Petra taking over the coaching reins, Athena has attracted a number of new payers and promoted some of the local league squad to make an almost completely new team. Their season starts this weekend. Local League This squad was also decimated. Players moved on to new cities, some have decided to stop playing and many have moved up to the regional league squad. We have worked hard to attract a whole swathe of beginners to the local league team. Pretty soon, they will start their season, a cause of nerves and excitement. Juniors As we came out of lockdown, we were inundated with interest from juniors wanting to play volleyball. We now have nearly 50 juniors playing and we will be entering teams into the East Midlands laegue and Leicestershire league. We will also be looking to play friendlies against other junior clubs in the area to help our juniors develop. We have worked very, very hard to build ourselves up again, We are very proud to be able to field so many teams and demonstrate that people still want to play sport and that volleyball is thriving in Leicester. Thank you to everyone who has helped us get back on our feet so quickly. Last weekend, Nottingham Rockets hosted another tournament, this time for juniors. There were two categories: Under-14s and Under-17s.
Athena took four teams: two for each category. Because most of the Athena players had only started playing this summer and they were up against mixed teams, Coach Paul had been playing down expectations amongst his very excited squad. He knew they would be playing against some very experienced players. Under-17s In the Under-17 category, both teams decided to ignore the coach's view that they would get beaten and won their opening matches. They did that by working incredibly hard, supporting each other and serving well. For both teams, this was their first ever taste of playing 6v6 competitive volleyball and their first chance to try out playing a 6-2 rotation in a match ... but none of that phased them as they showed great tenacity and skill. As the day wore on, they played teams such as Darkstar and Riga who were clearly much more experienced and extremely well coached. Their power and skill level showed the Athena teams the level they have to get to and acted as an inspiration ... although I am not sure the players were feeling that inspired as they were getting beaten. By the end of the day, Athena 1 finished 6th and Athena 2 finished 9th out of 9 ... but that doesn't matter. What mattered was these girls grew. They bonded together, they had a fabulous time and they will learn so much from the experience. Under-14s The Under-14s played 4v4 volleyball on half courts. Both teams started nervously and lost a couple of matches. But once they calmed down and remembered that this was the same as training, that they could volley and dig and serve, they started to put in some really impressive performances. Darkstar were miles better than any other team in the Under-14s, but Athena 1 and 2 came out second and third out of 6 teams. Athena 1 were the youngest team by far, Athena 2 had some very inexperienced players, but they showed real grit. Thank yous Firstly, a huge thank you to Bryan from Nottingham Rockets for organsing the tournament. Managing 15 teams acors two competitions is no mean feat and he deserved his evening beers. And a big thank you to the parents who came along to support and help, including Christine, Kavita and to Kathy who coached Athena 2 under-14s all day long. Your time and enthusiasm was very much appreciated. Nottingham Rockets hosted a pre-season tournament for regional league teams in the East Midlands. Athena sent two teams, one made upof NVL players plus three juniors and one made up of regional league players. Here is what the respective captains had to say: Charlie captained the regional league squad: "Athena 1 sported a new team at the Nottingham Adult Grand Prix this year, with Charlie setting, Ioana as opposite, Alex, Anna and Sam as middles and Maria and Eve as outsides. The first two matches were extremely tough. Going up against some very experienced players in other mixed teams - we lost our first two matches. We struggled with some high level serving from our opposition. Despite this, we did show some flashes of fabulous 3 touch volleyball. After so long without playing, it was only to be expected that people would be rusty and Athena struggled in the next couple of matches= but bounced back later in the day to win. With our first win, everyone relaxed more, and our last match was much more fun, despite not winning the last game. All in all, it was a good experience for us despite the losses. It helped to pin-point the areas we need to work on as a team to help us improve and play better together." Sarah captained the Athena NVL squad:
"On the 11th September, Athena’s NVL team brought a team to the Nottingham Rockets Adult tournament – however this was a new team for Athena to enter. We had new adult players of Kristina and Jess join us who have been training with us for a few months now, but we also brought 3 juniors: Chiara, Rahel and Izzy. They joined with previous Athena NVL players of Sarah, Michelle, Algi, Petra, and Paulina, we forged one great team and introduced part of our new look squad to the county. We started off with the first 2 matches going successfully, winning 31-26 and 33-16 respectively. There were admittedly a few errors on our side, however the team cohesiveness only improved with time and experience. As we had 3 setters on the team, Coach Steve kept swapping players in/out to ensure everyone was able to play as much as each other, and this didn’t seem to affect the ability and scoring power of the team which was positive to see. At the halfway point of the tournament, we were moved to the other court side, as we had won our first games and were now in the top 4. On this side, we had to adapt to a men’s height net and were now playing against 3 predominantly male teams, with only one or two female players on each team. As the only female team of the tournament, this could have been a daunting experience, particularly for our younger teammates who haven’t experienced much game play yet. However, our skills, tactics, and ability continued, and everyone rose to the challenge. Some real highlights came from this experience – notably Rahel blocking an outside NVL men’s player, and Chiara’s serving weakening the opponent in each game we played. Although we didn’t win the 2 games we faced in the latter half of the tournament, we came 4th overall and Coach Steve seemed suitably impressed and happy with how we played, particularly as we seemed to have improved from our friendly earlier in the week against Coventry & Warwick Riga. This only shows the positive signs for the future!" A bit thank you to Nottignham Rockets for organising the tournament, it was great fun and will be very useful as the teams prepare for the new season. Athena's juniors took part in the East Midlands Junior Beach Tournament on Sunday and really had fun.
Athena took 28 girls, split into 5 teams, to the Loughborough University beach courts. Many of the girls had only started playing since May and this was their first time in a competition and the first time playing on sand. Before the tournament, nerves and excitement were understanably high but once the matches started, the girls threw themselves into it. Athena had 2 teams in the U18 competition and did well against much more experienced teams including mixed teams. In the U15 competition, Athena had three teams, including one team with an average age of only 12 years old. Across the courts, you could hear the shrieks of excitement as they played and points won were cheered loudly. For such inexperienced players, they played with a real smile on their faces, their first pass was great and there was some fabulous serving. Coach Paul said "I was so pleased: they all learned things, they all had fun. They organised themselves, played well in their teams, were happy to do scoring and were an absolute pleasure. I was so proud of them." As COVID restrictions begin to lift, Athena are out there playing volleyball again.
Currently, we are allowed to play outdoors and we have already had 2 grass volleyball sessions and a beach session at Loughborough. And, wow, it feels good to be back. We have had players from all four groups come along (NVL, Regional, Local and Juniors). The smiles were amazing to see, it is just a pity we can't hug! A huge thank you to Sarah and Charlie who are arranging the outdoor sessions. And if you want to get back into volleyball, then get in touch ... we will soon be back indoors and running training sessions and we would love to see you. Once again, COVID-19 restrictions mean we have to pause training.
All training has been cancelled until further notice. In the meantime, in our chat groups and on social media, we continue to chatter and keep in touch and we continue to plan for the days when we can play again. Girls carry on trying to stay fit or practice skills ... all pining for the fun that comes with training together. If you are interested in playing volleyball, do get in touch and we will contact you when volleyball starts again. Until then, stay safe. |
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