The new season starts soon and, with three teams, it promises to be a busy time for Leicester Athena.
11:00 Sunday 2nd September: Squad meeting at Morningside Arena 19:30 Wednesday 5th September: Local league training starts at Morningside Arena 11:00 Sunday 9th September: NVL Friendly match against Lincoln Cannons at DMU Queen Elizabeth Leisure Centre 19:30 Wednesday 12th September: Local league training at Morningside Arena 15:30 Sunday 16th September: National Cup match against Lincoln Cannons in Lincoln A National League friendly and then a cup match in the first 2 weeks? Wow, that is starting with a big bang. If you are free on Sunday 9th, please come down to cheer us on in our friendly, you can see how we fare against a Division 2 team!
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We love these anime-style drawings of some of our players drawn by our very own Charlie. We think they are fabulous drawings and really capture the spirit of Athena. We are going to have to find a way to get them printed into banners for match-time! If you think those are good, check out this wonderful poster drawing. Thank you SOOOOO much, Chatlie!
Excitement builds as the fixtures for our first ever season in the National League come out. Check our National League page for all the details.
We start on the 14th October in Loughborough and our first home matches will be on the 16th December. All fixtures will be triangular fixtures, featuring three teams and each team playing two matches ... that could mean a leg-killing 10 sets of volleyball. We had better get fit now! Added to that, we have just agreed a deal with De Montfort University to play our home matches at Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Leisure Centre, De Montfort Uni, Leicester, LE3 5LX. We hope that our partnership with DMU will continue to grow to help both us and them grow! Leicester Athena celebrated the end of their second ever season with an Awards Night and Annual General Meeting at Peter's Pizzeria in Leicester.
The night was a chance to look back at what we have achieved in the past year and award people for their hard work as well as look forward to the new season and start to plan. Congratulations to the following people: Regional league squad Player's Player of the Year: Adela Romero Most Improved Player: Faye Rigkou Most Valuable Player: Kristy Logan Local league squad Player's Player of the Year: Charlie Surridge Most Improved Player: Emma Spiridon And a special mention for Petra Szőllősyová for being named DMU's Sportswoman of the Year. Also awards were handed out to Kamila (this year's most broken bunny), Sarah (love Bunny) and PanPan (Best Supporter). Next year, we will have three teams and they will be led by: National League: Sarah Booth Regional League: Julia Golinska Local League: Charlie Surridge As well as all the club stuff, we said Happy Birthday to Faye and Congratulations to newly-engaged Sarah. As well as eating pizza, we hit Gelato Village for ice cream and Cafe Bruxelles for some dancing. A huge congratulations to Sarah, Alysia, Kristy, Petra, Hannah, Charlie, Emily and Beth for completing the Midlands Half Toughmudder.
Throughout the 5 miles of mud and obstacles, the girls kept smiling and they well-deserved their beer and burgers at the end. The girls were running in aid of Family Fund and in aid of new club equipment. If you want to donate to their fund-raising, please click here. A group of Athena players are getting ready to tackle the mud and obstacles of the Midlands Toughmudder on May 12th.
It is all part of the club's attempt to raise money for the Family Fund charity and to raise money for the club's own future development. The Family Fund charity is a charity that is particularly close to the hearts of one of our players for the support they provide and we are really looking forward to raising money for them. Our aim is to raise over £500 and I hope you will all be generous enough to help. It will certainly give the players a lot of encouragement knowing you have supported them. Click here to access our Go Fund Me page. We are coming to the end of our second season and we have continued to grow. Over the past few months, we have attracted a whole host of players who will become stars with Athena.
Players such as Emma and her sister, Teo, Laura, Ioana, Algi, Monika, new setters such as Faye and Alex and younger players like Sunny, Rebecca and Emily ... all prove that there is so much potential for women's volleyball in Leicester. It is a source of pride that we have such a welcoming atmosphere, that we have such a fun group and that people want to join us. Our challenge is to carry on developing our players, giving them support and helping them enjoy the sport and grow as individuals and as a team. Plans are already in place which we will discuss in more detail later. Athena were fortunate to be asked to be the first club to take part in Volleyball England's new net drop challenge.
Based on a fun promotional competition used in the European Champions League, the aim of the challenge is to serve, clip the top of the net with the ball and have the ball. After a quick qualifying serve, where Emma was the only to be successful, a final took place with club captain playing against Emma with 5 attempts each. Emma showed she is a whizz at this, scoring a further 2 more hits to Sarah's one to win 2-1. Click here to see the video on Volleyball England's Facebook page Athena celebrated Christmas with a meal at The Distillery in Leicester on Sunday night. Despite the snowy conditions, 14 of us made our way into town and had a fun evening chatting, eating and drinking cocktails.
The night was tinged with emotion as it was also time to say goodbye to our lovely Kinga who is returning back home to Poland. She leaves knowing there is always a place for her in the bunny family. Many thanks to Jeremy and Pip from Active Magazine for their piece about Athena. Ten photographs over 5 pages is excellent promotion for our club.
Click here to see the article, alternatively, there will be free issues of Active magazine in supermarkets, hairdressers, cafes bars etc. |
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