‘Castle News Numbers 77-78I January/February 2013

Contents: 3 – Social Volleyball

4-8 – ‘Castle News updates

9 – Super Saturday

10 – u15 Midlands Champs

11 – Sportset

12-13 – u16 r2 and last 8s

14 – Coaching Edge

15 – Castle Shop

16-17 – u18 r2 and last 8s Submit your own content (please!) to willroberts1981@hotmail.com by the end of each month.

Castle News, no.77-78 Jan-Feb 2013

Welcome from the Chair Its’ another double edition of ‘Castle News – with so much junior team action in January and February we could easily fill many pages full of photos and reflections – but when teams are so busy the time it takes to produce this magazine is tight! No fewer than 14 teams from the club have played matches in National Competitions so far in 2013, with a further 5 playing local league matches! So, we don’t have a team playing at national finals weekend for the first time since 2005... does that mean we have had a bad season? – far from it, read on to find out why!

Colin Roberts Club Chair

6th July – ‘Castle Presentation Night, BBQ and Sitting Volleyball Challenge Sam Allen 100 club

If you still haven’t paid your fees at this point in the season then please get this sorted asap. Everyone involved in running the club is a volunteer and those who collect fees would much rather be focussing on playing and coaching etc than asking people to pay what they owe. Furthermore, fees are absolutely integral to our ability to purchase equipment, book sports halls etc.. THE CLUB CANNOT FUNCTION WITHOUT ITS MEMBERS’ CONTRIBUTIONS.

Last year a significant number of members avoided paying their fees and this left the club in a very weak position by the end of the season with our reserves almost entirely depleted as we sought to continue functioning at full capacity. Please make sure that you have paid your fees, or if there is a challenge for you to do so please let your coach or a member of the committee know so that you can be supported in this regard. If you are not sure of your situation, again please make sure that you ask.

The response so far this season has been tremendous and particular thanks must be made to Dawn Roberts who has led this task with our many junior members. Senior players – please don’t let the side down whether you are NVL or social players you are benefitting from the club’s investment in balls, court hire, equipment and coaching expertise.

2012-13 MEMBERSHIP FEE STRUCTURE

NATIONAL LEAGUE PLAYERS NON NATIONAL LEAGUE PLAYERS

Method Seniors/Full time work

Students 18+ years

Under 18s

TOTAL PER SEASON £279 £179 £118

Per month standing order

£25 £15 £10

One off £250 £150 £100

2 instalments (Oct/Jan)

£125 £75 £50

NVL registration fee £29 £29 £18

Method JUNIORS SOCIAL

TOTAL PER SEASON £60 £144

Weekly cost N/A £3

Per month standing order

£5 £12

One off £60 N/A

Join at Christmas £40 N/A

Join at Easter £20 N/A

Beach Sports Stadium to be built? For the past few years Skegness in Lincolnshire has hosted events that make up part of the Volleyball England Beach Tour (VEBT) and the town has now announced initial plans to build a permanent beach sports stadium on the beach there! (See pic) It seems like the main thrust for this has come from Beach Football but it would seem foolish to leave Beach Volleyball out, as the original and best of the beach sports. Chief executive Gary Shepherd said: "This is an opportunity for Skegness to bring in an exciting new business within the Olympic sports legacy, create new jobs and serve as a long-term driver of economic growth. This is Skegness' chance to begin capturing major international sporting events, especially during what is typically our slow hotel season - as the season will run from April through to late October.”

Dates for the diary • 9th March – Super Saturday fixtures at Keele for all 3 NVL teams from 12noon to 8pm

• 10th March – Mother’s Day Special at Keele! NSVC Men1 v Solent 3pm in Men’s Super 8s

• 12th March - NSVC Committee meeting, Sir Stanley Matthews Suite, Keele Uni, 7.30pm

• 15th March – North Staffs League fixtures - final round

• 24th March – u15 girls and boys Divisional Round, Kettering (‘Castle A teams competing)

• Summer Term Parents Night TBC

• 15th June - “Let’s Play Volleyball” Festival (Junior Teams u11 to u15s) – Madeley High School

• 28th or 29th June TBC – End of Season Celebration

Who’s reading ‘Castle News? Issue 76 of ‘Castle News broke new boundaries attracting readers from no fewer than 12 countries!! Thanks to online promotion through Twitter and the under 16 boys playing in the tournament in Holland we got a significant boost to readers. For the stattos amongst you, by the end of February the readers per country were: 1. United Kingdom – 171 2. Belgium – 7 3. Germany – 6 4. Poland – 4 5. Holland – 2 6. Thailand - 2 7. USA – 2 8. Sweden – 1 9. United Arab Emirates - 1 10. Australia – 1 11. Canada – 1 12. France – 1

North Staffordshire Volleyball League

The local league season run by the North Staffs Volleyball Association is drawing towards its conclusion. As the season has progressed the men’s competition has been close , and going into the final round of fixtures there are still 3 teams in contention: Fenton, Team Gios, and Castle Spitfires. Its’ Fenton who are in the driving seat, but Castle Spitfires are rapidly improving and their match against Team Gios will be a fascinating one. In the ladies competition it will all come down to the ‘Castle Dynamo vs Lady Gios game on the final match night of the

season. The final night of matches will be Friday 15th March – with league trophies to be presented to the winning teams on the night.

MEN Sets Points Pts

P F A F A D

1 Fenton 6 11 1 252 200 52 11

2 Team Gios 5 8 2 187 138 49 8

3 Castle Spitfires 5 8 2 186 161 25 8

4 NuLC 6 8 4 241 217 24 8

5 Keele Uni 6 6 6 234 214 20 6

6 Staffs Uni 6 5 7 217 213 4 5

7 Castle Go Spike! 6 0 12 175 235 -60 0

8 Castle Lions 6 0 12 151 250 -99 0

LADIES Sets Points Pts

P F A F A D

1 Castle Dynamo 3 6 0 150 79 71 6

2 Lady Gios 2 4 0 100 53 47 4

3 Castle u16s 4 3 5 168 145 23 3

4 Castle Go Spike 3 3 3 115 106 9 3

5 Keele Uni 4 0 8 50 200 -150 0

England Juniors in Slovakia In early January the England Junior Men travelled to Nitra in Slovakia for the 2nd round of qualifying for the European Youth Championships. The England squad included current ‘Castle first team players Rich James and Leon Chambers, who along with the rest of the team had prepared hard for the tough tournament of training and matches 5 days back to back. England had been drawn in a tough group with Poland and Bulgaria having seats at the top table of European and World Volleyball, plus the likes of Slovakia and Israel, leaving Portugal as the team most likely to be challenged hard by England, with ‘Castle Junior teams having beaten Portuguese National teams at the EuroVolley Cup in 2010 and 2011.

The lads played well but sadly could not take the win and had some really tough sets against phenomenal future stars of the sport. The full results were as follows: Lost 3-0 v Slovakia (25-15, 25-19, 25-16)

Lost 3-0 v Poland (25-13, 25-14, 25-14)

Lost 3-0 v Bulgaria (25-16, 25-8, 25-17)

Lost 3-1 v Portugal (23-25, 25-16, 25-23, 27-25)

Lost 3-0 v Israel (25-22, 25-12, 25-18)

‘Castle Juniors at Prestigious Camp Three junior members of NSVC were invited by the Youth Sport Trust to attend the recent National Young Coach Academy and National Talent Orientation Camp held at Loughborough University. The camps are aimed at preparing talented young sports people and promising young coaches (aged 13-18) for life as a high-performance athlete or skilled coach. The event gave those selected the opportunity to experience a multi-sport camp, train and share ideas alongside like minded young people; giving the young people an insight into the demands and commitment required to succeed in their sport or what it takes to become a top coach.

The athletes took part in a series of challenging workshops that consider a range of testing situations (personal, sporting, academic and vocational), which they may face on their sporting and coaching journeys. These workshops, along with the intense training sessions, were led by a team of elite athlete mentors, including GB volleyball captain, Ben Pipes, who offered insight, professional guidance and inspiration to the young people.

Hannah Kettle was one of 20 young volleyball coaches at the camp, who developed their coaching skills along with counterparts from a range of other sports. Meanwhile a total of 11 sports were represented in the Talent Athlete element of the camp including athletes from Olympic and Paralympic sports. Rob Bellamy and Rosie Barley are shown below taking part in a physical conditioning session alongside potential future Paralympians.

Super Saturday!!

9th March 2013 @ Keele University – free entry – National League Volleyball

12pm – ‘Castle Men2 v Team Northumbria Academy (NVL 2 North) 3pm – ‘Castle Ladies v Northampton (NVL 1) 6pm – ‘Castle Men1 v London Polonia (Super 8s)

Under 15 Midlands Championships

The weekend of the 2nd and 3rd February saw the Midlands rounds of the National u15 championships. This tournament should now take place with separate events for each region in the first round but the relative lack of entrants from the East Midlands saw those teams travel to play in the West Midlands events. In the girls event held in Wolverhampton, ‘Castle entered 2 teams in what was a hotly contested competition. The ‘B’ did very well and developed their 3 touch game very well, whilst the ‘A’ team progressed into the semi-finals where they lost a tough game. The girls bounced back though and made it through to the Divisional Round in March by winning the 3-4 play-off against Nuneaton. The boys ‘A’ team made it 10 wins in a row in this competition, since ‘Castle re-entered junior boys volleyball in 2004 after a couple of years out. There were 3 ‘Castle teams playing on the day and again all teams did very well playing some good volleyball. The ‘A’ team progress to the Divisional Round on Sunday 24th March in Kettering and hope to make the National Final 6 event in May.

‘Castle u16 teams The under 16 last 8s saw ‘Castle take both boys and girls teams to this stage of national competitions for yet another year – indeed we are one of only 2 clubs to qualify teams in all 4 competitions (the other being Wessex).

The girls were in a tough group with title favourites Tameside (who seem to make the final every year), other giants of junior girls volleyball Wessex, and London Malory Eagles – 4 of the top names in English Volleyball!! For ‘Castle it was not to be – missing players never helps at this point of the season but that cannot be held as the reason for defeats against superior teams from Tameside and

Wessex, but the defeat to Malory was a shame and the girls will reflect on missing the chance to take a victory. That said, the team gained invaluable experience of tough competitive volleyball.

The lads had a 3x per week training programme in place all season and had been to Holland at Christmas to further help in their development as a team and hopefully make it to the final. On the day there were outstanding performances from Will Beacon and Zakk Hadgett, and brave leadership from Rich James who had broken 2 fingers just 3 weeks earlier.

Results:

U16 boys v Nottingham Rockets, won 2-0 27-15, 25-15 v Wessex, won 2-0 25-17, 25-23 v Chadwell Heath lost 2-0 27-25, 25-19

Semi Final v Ernest Bevin lost 2-0 25-16, 25-18

U16 girls v Tameside lost 2-0 25-12, 25-10 v Wessex lost 2-0 25-21, 25-17 v London Malory Eagles lost 2-1 25-12, 15-25, 15-8

The strength in depth of this group of lads was proven on the day with all 12 players playing a meaningful part in the action, but sadly the semi-final proved one match too far and they look exhausted mentally and physically from start to finish, unable to put their opponents under the pressure needed to make it to the final.

Get your essential ‘Castle clothing now – the club t-shirt... perfect for training and supporting your teams... only £15

‘Castle u18 teams Results:

U18 Girls v Tameside lost 2-0 25-8, 25-14 v Tendring lost 2-1 15-25, 25-17, 13-15 v Boswells Blaze lost 2-0 25-13, 25-18

U18 Boys ‘B’ v Nottingham Rockets lost 2-0 25-10, 25-11 v Wessex lost 2-0 25-15, 25-16 v Tendring lost 2-0 25-21, 25-19

U18 Boys ‘A’ v Richmond won 2-0 25-13, 25-21 v Chadwell Heath won 2-0 25-18, 25-22 v Boswells Blaze lost 2-0 25-14, 25-19, 15-8

Semi final v Wessex lost 2-0 25-20, 25-23

The Sunday of last 8s weekend saw 3 ‘Castle teams travel to Kettering as the u18 boys ‘B’ team had qualified in great style from round 2, playing some great volleyball where they pushed the ‘A’ team hard for top spot when the two sides met. The last time ‘Castle qualified a ‘B’ team for the last 8s it was also the u18 boys, but back in 2008 when the coaching team for the ‘A’ team this weekend Sam Allen and James Goodwin, were playing for the ‘A’ and ‘B’ team respectively!! On the day this year, sadly none of the ‘Castle teams fully got into their stride and all of the teams will look at the competition with a degree of regret and a feeling that they could have achieved more than they did... The girls could have won a match, the ‘B; team a set, and the ‘A’ team made the final.

The ‘Castle under 18 girls have made the final in each of the last two seasons so coach Ant Viggars is used to leading teams through the last 8s, but this year we did have a very tough draw, with both Tameside and Boswells having gone on to convincingly win their semi-finals and make it through to the final. With Jodie Amor on great form the girls had some good patches throughout the day and were unfortunate not to take the win against Tendring.

For the boys ‘B’ team, to qualify as a 2nd team is phenomenal & the boys had only lost to the ‘A’ team in coming through the qualifying rounds. In their first 2 matches at the last 8s they came up against strong Nottingham Rockets & Wessex teams, and could not deal with the strength of serving or power in attack, but they recovered well to put in a very respectable performance against Tendring in their final game. The u18 boys had featured in the last 3 consecutive finals, having 2 the title twice. This year’s team again had the talent but had neither done enough work together as a team, or had the lucky breaks sometimes needed to make it through to the national final. The semi-final match against Wessex was a good one, with ‘Castle outplayed for too long in the 1st set to have serious complaints about losing 25-20. However, in the 2nd set ‘Castle were judged by nearly all spectators to be the better team by a long way. Somehow though, they contrived to lose the set 25-23 & the match 2-0. It is a great shame that the final point was so controversial & that the match ended on such a sour note... this should not take away from the achievement of the Wessex team, but it will leave the ‘Castle lads wondering what might have been.