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New Sports Development Manager
Volleyball Australia is pleased to announce that John Cheadle has been appointed to the position of Sport Development Manager with the AVF. John was previously the Sport Development Manager for Cricket Fiji and has spent much of his time delivering programs at the coalface of the cricketing world. He has an understanding of sport participation and the need for solid sport development programs. John can be contacted via email on john.cheadle@avf.org.au and will still receive emails for a while on the sdm@avf.org.au address.
Beach Tour Update
As most people are aware, the promoter and then subsequently the major sponsor of the Australian Beach Volleyball Tour have withdrawn their support for the 2008/09 summer season. This has largely been due to the economic crisis that has hit the global markets.
The AVF has been attempting to secure other sponsors in order to provide the Beach Volleyball community the opportunity to strut their skills against the best in Australia. The short time frame has not been helpful to the 2008/09 season, with the majority of interested parties keen to put something together for the 2009/10 summer.
Where does this leave 2008/09?
The AVF encourages all Beach Volleyball players to attend their State Beach Tours, which are already in full swing. The AVF is still desperately trying to pull together a National Beach Championships over one weekend. We have been working through a budget and will still require sponsors to pull this off as unfortunately the AVF is not in a position to be able to run that event at a financial loss.
Unfortunately unless sponsorship over and above what we need to break-even is obtained, it is likely that the National Championships will not have prize money. The prestige of being recognised as the best in the country in men’s or women’s beach volleyball should be nonetheless attractive.
A decision on the National Championships will be made in the next fortnight at which time we will communicate, dates, location and further details.
AVSC - The Wrap Up
 The 25th Anniversary of the Australian Volleyball Schools Cup was held from 7th – 12th December 2008. This special anniversary edition was once again held in Melbourne, at the Melbourne Sports & Aquatic Centre (MSAC) and the State Volleyball Centre (SVC).
It wasn’t quite the record-breaking number of teams that we had been expecting, but with 402 teams competing, down from 405 in 2007, it was still the largest secondary school’s sport event in Australia.
The 25th Anniversary celebrations included the spectacular Opening Ceremony, which was held in the Outdoor Swimming Pool at MSAC, with a ‘Walk Down Memory Lane’ the highlight on the big screen.
Brighton High School took out the Gerflor Champion School’s Trophy for the second year running, Brighton were also victorious over Girton Grammar for the coveted Open Boys Honours Trophy, with Holland Park State High School claiming the Open Girls Honours Champions title for the first time.
Appreciation for a job well done should go to AVSC Staff, Volunteers, teachers, coaches, students, referees and parents who assisted in getting this competition off the ground or who organised their teams to get to Melbourne. WELL DONE!
Melbourne Sports & Aquatic Centre & the State Volleyball Centre have been announced as the successful hosts for the next 4 years, through to 2012. The 2009 AVSC will be held from the 6th – 11th December.
Full results can be viewed in the AVF website: www.avf.org.au/AVSC
View the ‘Walk Down Memory Lane’ – AVSC 25th Video by clicking on the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2yq0jix2dV0
Junior Women European Tour09
This will be the first of an annual pilgrimage to Europe for the Australian Junior Women, aimed at giving national level players the opportunity to experience a different style of volleyball, and to possibly pursue a club career in Europe. The team will gather in London on 25 Feb and play London Malory
(England Volleyball National League Champions) on Friday 28 Feb. They
will then travel to Bologna Italy where they will play five matches
against various club teams, before heading to Sweden where they are
being hosted by the Sweden Junior Women’s team in Falkoping for a
series of three matches on 10-12 Mar. After a program period of 3 years, the national junior women’s European tour will involve the following athletes and coaches: Lena Skipper, Tenille Ryan, Ebony Greenwood, Courtney Martin, Nikki Bishop, Beth Carey, Loren Cory, Holly Cowell, Kobi Evans, Lydia Upitis, Ellie Simson, Jenelle Gordon, Allan Young, Jenny Becker.
Talent hunt for London 2012 goes online
With competition from other nations increasing, the Australian Sports Commission has developed a world first online electronic talent identification program (better known as eTID), designed to uncover talented hopefuls from every corner of the nation. Greg Nance, ASC Director for Sport Performance and Development, understands Australia’s plight. 'Being a relatively small country we don’t have the resources to invest in sport like the UK, so we need to continuously develop innovative tools that enable us to keep up with the rest of the world. ‘eTID is Australia’s solution to finding talent in a way that is smarter and more efficient,’ Nance said eTID is a simple to use, free, online program that tests an athlete’s sporting abilities.It provides opportunities for aspiring or current athletes and even former elite athletes looking to start a new sport. The athletes’ information is processed and if identified as ‘above average’ by eTID, they are then encouraged to visit a Talent Assessment Centre to have their results verified. Once the Talent Assessment Centre identifies that the athlete has real talent they can then enter the elite sporting system, where they could be supported with coaching, equipment and travel. We encourage all aspiring athletes to log onto eTID today and find out if they have the potential to be Australia’s next sporting champion ausport.gov.au/etid
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What's Coming Up
FEBRUARY
12th Aust Masters Games - Geelong
Aust Junior Women - European Tour
APRIL
Volleyball Masters - Gold Coast
U15 Championships - Albury
MAY
Women AVL - Various Cities
Arafura Games - Darwin |
Victoria Victorious
At the Australian Junior Beach Volleyball Championships (AJBVC), for the first time Victoria has snatched the Andy Burdin Shield, for Champion State, from perennial winners South Australia. Strong performances in the U17 & U19 Women’s divisions, all but secured Victoria’s place at the top of the ladder.
This year’s event was the first time the event was held outside of Queensland and South Australia, with Victoria putting their hand up to host. Special thanks go to Vic Beach for their assistance in the lead-up and during the tournament.
The International attendance was strong again this year, with numerous teams from New Zealand and for the first time ever, four teams from Norway, who used the AJBVC as a warm-up event for the Australian Youth Olympic Festival.
Congratulations to all medals winners
The 2009/10 AJBVC will be held in South Australia, to be followed by Queensland the year after. Dates will be announced on the website.
Full results can be viewed in the AVF website: www.avf.org.au/AJBVC
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Women's 2009 AVL Season
The 2009 Series looks set to gain an extra team in the form of Canberra Heat, pushing the number of teams out to six.
Teams interested in playing the 2009 season include, returning champions UTSSU, Melbourne Monash Uni Blues, Queensland, Western Australia, South Australia and Canberra Heat.
The season is set to kick off on the 1st May.
Draws will be announced shortly.
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Medal Haul for Australia & New Zealand
Australia secured two of the possible six medals on offer at the Australian Youth Olympic Festival, that was held at Maroubra Beach, Sydney, from the 15th – 18th January. Six nations competed in the biennial event, which saw Beach Volleyball included for only the second time since the event started in 2001. Competing nations were; Australia, China, Great Britain, New Zealand, Norway and USA.
New Zealand were a force to be reckoned with in the Men’s competition securing the Gold and Silver medals, but the Australian pairing of Rob Reeves and Pat Mead defeated Norway’s Antonsen/Solhaug in straight sets, to claim the Bronze. Australia’s Leathart/Moore finished a respectable 6th place, in their first-ever outing in international competition.
In the Women competition, Zina Stone and Mariafe Artacho took out the Silver medal, with the American pairing of Ross/Roenicke proving too strong, collecting Gold. Teliqua Clancy and Karly Hynes finished 4th in a tough Bronze medal playoff against Norway.
Thanks to everyone involved with hosting this event, including our volunteers and referees.
For more information about the AYOF, click on the link;
http://ayof09.olympics.com.au/
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Aussie Junior Beach Volleyball Update
Brisbane Open Camp January 2009
The five day Junior/Youth Open camp was conducted January 18th - 22nd in Brisbane at the Sandstorm / QSAC courts. This camp was attended by 58 athletes (23 women and 35 men). The emphasis of this camp was to identify the best athletes for U/19 Youth and U/21 Junior squad selections and future training camp opportunities in Beach Volleyball. Coaching staff also used this opportunity to teach athletes and state based coaching staff the techniques and tactics currently being used on the Swatch FIVB World Tour and the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games by International teams.
Beijing Olympians Nat Cook and Joshua Slack watched the athletes train in several sessions, with Nat playing in some matches with the female athletes during the Wednesday afternoon session, much to the girls delight.
We would sincerely like to Thank Sandstorm in particular Nat Cook and Marty Ermer for their support in conducting the camp, QAS Volleyball, Volleyball Queensland, Griffith University and all the coaching staff who had such a positive impact on the athletes at the training camp (Dan Ilott, Grant Robertson, Rory Read, Adrienne Marie, Boris Geogieff, Lauren McLeod, Adam Maskell, Nat Cook, Shannon Zunker, Dan Carey, Jenny Becker, Craig Marshall, Martin Suan, Michael Nelson, Simon Naismith)
Also a massive Thank you to all the athletes for their continued development during the camp, hard work, camp debrief feedback, and positive attitude throughout the physically and mentally demanding training camp.
The next camp will be the invitation only Youth/Junior Squad camp to be conducted at the AIS Beach Volleyball training base in Adelaide during April. October will see the next of our 'Open training camp' opportunities for young talented Australian Volleyball athletes. |
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