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:
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. 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. During these difficult times, I wanted to say a big thank you to those people who give up their time to make our club work.
Here, at Leicester Athena, we are really fortunate to have a group of people who are committed to helping us grow. As a player, you can sometimes have no idea of the amount of effort that goes on behind the scenes. I am going to mention. Few of our fabulous volunteers here: Sarah is one of our founders. She is captain of the NVL squad, she is club secretary, she coaches the regional league squad and is the one people turn to when they want a sensible answer. Charlie is captain of the local league squad and she is our player engagement officer 9i.e. if anyone has a problem, they can go to her). Sarah and Charlie have been working REALLY hard recently to make sure we can get back to training. They have bene contacting venues and Volleyball England to clarify what we can and cannot do. Without them, we would have no volleyball right now. Sam is our safeguarding officer. With our growing junior section, having someone like Sam around helps enormously and makes sure we have the right behaviours and processes in place to keep our juniors are as safe as possible. We have our coaches, of course. Steve Jones brings a huge amount of experience and, this year, is being supported by Roli and Kim. As I mentioned, Sarah coaches who regional league squad supported by Petra. Paul coaches the local league and the junior squad. Alongside Sarah and Charlie, as captains, we have Edyta who is the new regional league captain, helped by her vice-captain, Ioana. Then we have committee members such as Alysia and Kristy who look after our finances and arrange social events. But they are also part of the soul of the club as they have been with us from the start. That is an impressive cast list, but we would always welcome more support. Personally, I would like one or two of our parents to get involved as well as a couple of juniors to make sure juniors have a voice when we make decision. But that is just me .. always wanting a bit more. To those people mentioned above and to all the others who help in other ways such as arranging nights out, line-judging, asking questions, being engaged … THANK YOU!!!!!! Yes, we are back playing volleyball.
We started on Saturday with juniors at DMU Watershed. We had 4 new faces and one of the new girls was asked if she wanted train with the regional squad as well because she impressed that much. On Sunday morning, Sarah took charge of the regional squad for the first time, alongside new captain, Edyta. A total of 9 players came along which is a good turnout considering another 3 were at the beach tournament in Kettering. In the afternoon, Paul ran the first local league training at New College and we had 8 players turn up. Again, we had 2 new faces and we had 3 juniors who cannot make Saturdays so will train with the local league squad. Finally, Steve Jones took training for the national league squad, There were 11 players there and they experienced Steve's brand of high intensity and highly technical coaching. I heard that there were some very tired people at the end of the day. No matter which squad you were in, whether coach or player, one thing that united us all ... it felt AMAZING to be back on court! Yes, we are BACK!
After an eternity (actually 6 months), we are starting training again. Juniors Our juniors are going to kick things off at DMU Watershed on Saturday 19th September. They train from 10 am until noon. Regional League Our new look regional squad, complete with new coaches Sarah and Petra, start on Sunday 20th September from 10 am til noon at New College. Local League Our local league group will train from 2 pm until 4 pm on Sunday at New College. National League Finally, the national league squad meet up with their new coach, Steve Jones, on Sunday from 4 pm until 6. A huge thank you to the venues for working so well with us, and a thank you to Sarah and Charlie for all the planning, especially Charlie for her work in developing our COVID-19 risk assessment and policy (click here to see our COVID-19 documentation). Lastly, we are recruiting. We are looking for regional league, local league and junior players. So come join us and get into volleyball. For the 2019-2020 season, we are starting a junior section. Currently we have 8 young players aged between 10 and 17 years old coming to training.
Alongside training, we will arrange friendlies and attend the East Midlands Under 17s Grand Prix tournaments to gain match practice. Supporting our juniors, we have two club safeguarding officers in Sam Zabanyana and Sabine Petrache who ensure that our young players can enjoy volleyball in a safe and friendly environment. To help us understand how to develop junior players, we are working with a student from De Montfort University who will investigate different models for developing a junior club. Her work will help inform our future direction as well as contributing to her own academic work. We are very excited to see what she produces. Just because the indoor season is over, doesn't mean that the volleyball has to stop. Whether it is Ashcombe outdoor tournament, Bristol outdoor tournament, the East Midlands Beach series or just playing on Victoria Park as part of pre-season preparations, we are there having fun. Thanks to Sam for the great photos!
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