The club was set up in April 2009 to take advantage of the sudden upsurge in young people playing the sport in local schools. With school volleyball clubs running at Oriel and Lynn Grove schools, and with sports unlimited volleyball courses taking place at Cliff Park and Caister High Schools the sport's profile in the area has grown rapidly since September it's reintroduction in September 08.
With some of these students soon to leave school along with the fact that many younger students want to train more often to help improve their own game and also that there may be others where Volleyball is not played so much in school who would like the opportunity to try the sport out, it seemed the perfect time to get the club up and running.
The junior section of the club has ran very smoothly with around 25 young members attending training sessions and improving all the time. This improvement was evidenced by the fact that at the 2009 Norfolk School Volleyball Championships 6 out of the top 9 placed teams including the 1st, 2nd and 3rd positions were taken by teams with members of the club in them.
In September 2009 an adult session was set up to allow older junior members to progress upwards and to allow the healthy interest we have had from local adults to get involved. There is also a possibility that extra junior sessions will be added after we run sports unlimited courses in local schools from September.
The junior and adult sessions are coached by Dave Richards, a teacher from Oriel School who is a FIVB level 1 qualified coach, and in 2008 won the Volleyball England Development Coach of the Year award. Other well qualified and experienced players and coaches have already offered to lend their help to maximise the experience that our young members will get from volleyball.
The club is attracting attention and support both locally and nationally, with the club now working towards a club mark award, and having recieved a grant of £775 from the o2 'It's your community award' and a grant of £3600 from Sport England to purchase better equipment and send people of courses to further their development. The club is now in the process of looking for a sponsor to proudly display on our soon to be ordered kits.
In the upcoming year the club will have a men's adult team in both the Norwich and District local league and the Eastern Regional League. There will be a junior/adult mixed team in the Norwich and District local league too, giving our promising youngsters more chance to play. Our junior members will also enter numerous competitions all the way from u13-u18 locally, regionally and nationally. So as you can see there are plenty of opportunities to play.
For more information visit our website www.gygvc.co.uk
