Volleyball News up to 2004 |
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| Dates are press release or publication date. |
Volleyball News 2005 - 2006 |
State award for regional star, Danielle Stott 9 December, 2004
Danielle Stott has capped off an amazing year winning a States school Sports Award for her contribution to Volleyball over the past 12 months. 14 year old Danielle will be presented with her Victorian Secondary School Sports Association (VSSSA) Sports Award at a special function to be held at the Hilton on the Park in March 2005.
Danielle was nominated after her excellent results and efforts for the state and national age squads during 2004. The Gippsland Sports Academy Volleyball scholarship holder has enjoyed much success throughout 2004, including her selection for the Under 17 Australian team. Danielle was selected for the Australian Women’s Trans-Tasman squad after successful trials were held at Bendigo and Canberra at the Australian Institute of Sport.
Danielle competed in the Women’s Trans-Tasman series for Australia and was the youngest member of the squad. The tournament was held in September this year and involved matches against the strong Under 19 New Zealand outfit, Danielle standing at 184cm tall played in the starting six most games and was the designated setter for all matches. The series was played over five test matches and were played all around New Zealand at places such as Rottorua. "The experience was awesome; the crowds were so big for Volleyball matches!" Danielle explained, although Australia was unable to win a match the opportunity to play overseas and against older players would definitely help with their games back home.
Danielle has seen great success in such a short time, only starting Volleyball after watching her older sister in the Gippsland Sports Academy just two years ago. Danielle has enjoyed the rapid progress and is now involved in activities off the court, the Lakes Entrance youngster contributes to Volleyball in a coaching capacity, helping out the local girls Volleyball team on a Monday night.
Danielle is currently in training for her next challenge, to make the Australian team for the Asian Youth Championships to be held in 2005. Selection trials are being held in Bendigo in the upcoming weeks. The academy congratulates Danielle on her VSSSA Sports Award and wishes her the best in the selection trials for 2005.
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Academy volleyball athletes in Morwell Tournament, 21 October 2004
The Gippsland Sports Academy Volleyball Squad will be participating in the annual Morwell Volleyball Tournament this weekend. The tournament will be played at the Morwell Leisure Centre and will involve 28 teams from all over Victoria.
The squad has been in training since early September and have been building up for this tournament, and feel that they will be very competitive and are confident in playing in the finals of their respective divisions.
The squad will be missing valuable members who have been selected to play in the Victorian Institute of Sport (VIS) squads whom will also be participating in the tournament.
The squad this year is made up of 33 athletes from all over Gippsland, ranging from Lakes Entrance to Inverloch, which according to Head coach Danny Anderson "is a testament to the time and commitment that all involved have contributed." The academy also acknowledge’s the sponsorship contribution from the Victorian Volleyball Development Trust. Without their involvement with the Volleyball program, elite teams such as the GAS team would be unable to compete.
We would like to encourage all interested people to come and support the up and coming athletes from the Gippsland region.
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Academy Volleyball Trials, 15 August 2004
The Gippsland Sports Academy will be conducting trials for their 2004 Volleyball program over the coming weeks in venues throughout Gippsland. This will be the fourth year of the Volleyball program and there will be a range of new components added to the program. Also of major importance is the appointment of Mr. Neil Boyes as Head Coach, who replaces last years Head Coach Mr. Danny Anderson who will continue in a modified role this year.
This years trials will take place at Bairnsdale on the 19th of August from 4:30 – 7:30, 22nd of August at Leongatha from 10.00 – 12.00, then at Morwell from 2:00 – 4:00 with the last session at the Drouin Rec Centre on the 26th of August from 5:30 – 7:30. The Academy encourages all athletes interested and participating in volleyball to attend one of the trial sessions in the relative locality. The age group for athletes is 13 – 19 years of age.
There were 32 athletes involved in last year’s squad and the Academy will be looking at taking the same number of athletes with a ceiling of 38 spots available the squad. The trials will include some fitness, technical and simulated game testing.
Neil Boyes will join the Academy for his first year as the Head Coach. Neil comes to the Academy with a wealth of coaching experience and knowledge and is certain that we can continually build on the strong foundations all ready established by previous volleyball coaches Mr. Dan Higgins and Anderson.
Neil’s previous coaching experiences include being Coaching Director for Monash University Volleyball Club, Mazenod College Head Coach and numerous State Head and Assistant Coaching experiences. Boyes said about the program that "The Gippsland Sports Academy Volleyball program is a fantastic opportunity for young volleyballer’s to be involved in a program comprising elite coaching, sports science and state wide competition that can lead to selection in State and National junior teams."
Mr. Higgins will be continuing in his role as the mentor coach and working relationship with Boyes, as well as Anderson assisting with Academy training where time permits.
The Volleyball program has a great coaching structure with a Head coach, mentor coach, assistant coaches and trainee coaches. This framework has been successful during the life of the program with nine of the 32 athletes in last years program gaining State representative selection along with Danielle Stott from Lakes Entrance being selected in the National Women’s U/17 Team.
This year’s program will continue with the expert coaching, sports science and support services offered to the Academies program in conjunction with a substantial increase in the competition component of the program. The volleyball advisory panel and coaches have identified three normal tournaments along with a beach volleyball tournament. The objective of the tournaments is to improve team performance and cohesion along with the application of the theoretical coaching.
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Great Stott – Danielle off to NZ, 1 July 2004
Gippsland Sport Academy athlete, Danielle Stott has been selected to represent Australia in Volleyball in the upcoming Junior Women’s Trans-Tasman Volleyball Series. The Lakes Entrance Volleyballer made the final cut at a recent training camp, held at the Australia Institute of Sport base in Canberra.
Danielle, 14, was first asked to attend the Australian selection trials at Bendigo in December last year, after she showed plenty of potential at State training in Melbourne and through her competitions. The selectors cut the team down to twenty five at the Bendigo trials, and Danielle was asked to travel to Canberra for the final selection trials. After impressing the selection panel at the AIS again, Danielle was finally selected for the Under 17 Australian Youth Volleyball team.
Danielle is the youngest person in the squad that will travel to New Zealand in late September this year for the week long Women’s Trans - Tasman Series. The twelve young Australian women will compete against New Zealand in a number of matches held over five days.
The major focus of the Trans – Tasman will be to gain a greater understanding of each player’s capabilities and focus on developing team cohesion. Following the Trans – Tasman event the team will compete at the Asian Youth Championships in 2005. Dependent on the team’s performance at the Asian Youth Championships they will then qualify for the World Youth Championships. Given the expectations the major strategic direction will be for when the team moves up an age group to compete in the next Under 20 World Youth Championships.
Prior to the Trans – Tasman event Danielle has an extremely busy schedule, with selection for the Advanced Victoria representative side that will compete at the Australian Under 17 National Championship starting this weekend, before travelling to Adelaide for the National SchoolGirls Titles in August. Then in order to acclimatise and familiarise with the rest of the squad she will spend another week at the AIS in Canberra prior to the Trans – Tasman event.
Danielle will be seeking sponsorship in order to assist her and her family in meeting the financial commitments and allow her to travel overseas to further her volleyball development and expertise.
Danielle is a natural volleyballer having only played the sport for a couple of years however her stature is vital for volleyball, with Danielle standing 6 foot tall. Danielle was identified by then Academy Volleyball Coach Dan Higgins in August 2002 and put on a fasting tracking program.
She has trained intensively under the tutelage of Mr. Dave Smythe whilst competing in the local Volleyball program. Danielle puts all the success down to all the training and hard work that she has put in. She trains locally on Mondays and competes on Thursdays, and then travels 3 hours on a weekend for State training in Melbourne.
Mr. Higgins is the current Australian Women’s Youth Head Coach and given his relationship with Danielle, he has been able to oversee her development. Danielle was selected for the Youth team due to her rapid rise, adaptability and potential. Mr. Higgins said "I’ve got no doubt that Danielle could play Volleyball professionally in Europe by the age of nineteen. Volleyball has a unique system where athletes can be identified at a later age than most sports and Danielle is a prime example where at the age of 13 can progress rapidly. Through the Sports Academies in Victoria athletes can develop to a stage where they can achieve state selection and then national representation within 2 years and with limited exposure may gain the opportunity to play professionally. We already have athletes playing in Europe earning over 20,000 Euro’s in their first couple of years overseas with professional clubs or playing on fully paid Scholarship in the USA at one of the many thousands of Colleges where Women’s volleyball has 12 or more full scholarships".
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End of successful Volleyball Program 2003, 16 March 2004
The Gippsland Sports Academy 2003 Volleyball Program finished on the weekend with the last training session and a graduation barbecue down in Leongatha. The trials for the program began right back in June last year with the athletes being inducted into the Academy in mid August.
Since this period the athletes have accessed all of the Academy services including musculoskeletal screening, strength and conditioning, nutritional sessions, psychology sessions, time management and goal setting as well as attending additional Academy events such as the Academy Athletes Conference day and Annual Awards.
This year’s program was the largest of the Academy with 33 athletes being involved from all over Gippsland. In order to accommodate all of the athletes and to minimise travel as much as possible the program rotated venues with sessions being conducted in Morwell, Newborough, Bairnsdale, Korumburra, and Bairnsdale.
The Volleyball program is the model for other Academy programs in relation to the coaching structure, usage of Gippsland venues and the diverse localities of the athletes. Academy Executive Officer Robbie Coyle stated, "The coaching panel for Volleyball is the ideal as we have a Head Coach (Danny Anderson), a Mentor Coach in Dan Higgins, a number of Assistant Coaches as well as trainee coaches. The athletes in the program come from the majority of the Academy contributing Shires."
The program has also had a number of terrific achievements this year namely the competition results and also the number of State representatives. The Academy recently had nine athletes named in the Victorian State sides, which will compete in the National Championships to be conducted in Perth in July this year.
The athletes and their respective age groups are Adam Rodgers (Yinnar) in the Under 19 Boys and Hannah Lindgren (Morwell) in the Under 19’s Girls, Danielle Stott (Lakes Entrance) and Jan Fletcher (Ruby) in the Under 17’s Girls, Cortney Evans (Korumburra) in the Under 17 Boys, Quinn McGennisken (Traralgon) in the Under 15 Girls and Jacob Lindgren (Morwell) in the Under 15 Boy’s. These achievements are complimented by two selections in the Victorian Secondary Schools Sports Associations teams with Danielle Stott (Lakes Entrance) being selected for the Under 16 Girls and James Shuttleworth (Korumburra) the Under 16 Boys.
The Academy would like to credit Mr. Anderson and his coaching staff, the athletes for their commitment and dedication to the programs and the parents who shoulder much of the responsibility of getting their sons and daughters to trials and training sessions. Finally we would like to acknowledge the necessary corporate supporters of the program in particular Edison Mission Energy and the Victorian Volleyball Development Trust.
This years Volleyball program will commence trials in approximately late July and these dates will be advertised in the near future.
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Volleyball Athletes Invited to National Camp, 2 December 2003
The Gippsland Academy of Sport Volleyball program has been fortunate to have 5 members of the squad invited to participate in the National Junior Camp, on December 12th to 14th in Bendigo
The athletes are Courtney Evans, Danielle Stott, Jamie-Lee Pearce, Jemmi Spriggs & Jessica Lloyd. All athletes have displayed great skills and a keen interest in the sport during the Gippsland Academy of Sport Volleyball Programs training sessions this year.
According to the National Junior Women’s Head Coach, Dan Higgins, "This is a fantastic effort from the Gippsland region in that there is no other program in the country that has this percentage of athletes attending the camp."
The camp will involve the athletes participating in intense training session in front of National coaches and also providing the athletes with incite into what will be required of them if they are if the win selection into the National Junior Volleyball Program.
The resultant benefit upon winning selection is the opportunity to play international Volleyball matches against other junior international teams.
The Gippsland Academy of Sport 2003 Volleyball Squad has now been training and participating in tournaments for 6 months. The program to this point as achieved outstanding results with the success of athletes being selected to the National Camp. A number of the athletes from the Academy squad also competed in the recent Regional Volleyball League Finals, representing their respective associations and achieving some great success.
The squad is now gearing up for preparation to State team selections in the New Year, according to Head Coach, Danny Anderson "We are in a position this year to expect a high percentage of the Academy Volleyball athletes to be selected into a State sides in their respective age groups."
The next training session for the squad will be on Sunday December 14th, at the Morwell Leisure Centre from 10am. The program would like to invite anyone interested to come and see the future of Volleyball in Gippsland go through their paces.
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Volleyball Program appointments, 21 October 2003
The Gippsland Sports Academy is delighted to announce Newborough local Danny Anderson as the Head Coach for the 2003 / 04 Program. Danny has had a significant involvement with the Academy over the last few years having previously being employed as the Project Officer as well as being an Assistant Coach in the Volleyball Program.
This appointment coincides with Shane Carruthers also being announced as the Program Manager for the Volleyball program. Both Danny and Shane have been involved in Volleyball since their childhood days and believe that the Regional Academies fill a significant void in country Victoria. "It is a fantastic concept and allows the young elite athletes to receive terrific coaching, sports science and support services as well as being able to provide easier access to State Teams and professional athletes in the respective sports" said Anderson.
Other Volleyball appointment news includes Dan Higgins, last years Academy coach, being announced as the National Girls Junior Head Coach. This is a terrific achievement to Dan and also indicative of what the Academy is trying to achieve in relation to career development for their coaches.
This years Volleyball program has been operating for approximately 2 months with 12 boys and 21 girls in the program from all over Gippsland. The athletes have so far had a training camp conducted in Bairnsdale followed by another two sessions in Morwell and Newborough. Phil Shelley, Strength and Conditioning Coach, has fitness tested all athletes and developed their home training programs.
Danny is quite adamant that a number of the athletes will make State Teams this year and the Program is also to utilise sports science experts including, Matt McGregor a Volleyball specific Psychologist, in order to assist the athletes preparation.
The Volleyball Program will conduct another nine sessions or events prior to the completion of the program in early April next year. The next session will be the Morwell tournament this weekend followed by a training day in early November in Leongatha.
Currently Volleyball is the only sport within the Academy to not have a Program Sponsor, however they do receive tremendous support and funding from the Victorian Volleyball Development Trust. The Program Sponsor is critical to assist in delivering the most beneficial program for the young athletes as possible. The Program Sponsor receives numerous entitlements and is similar to the naming rights sponsor of the particular sport.
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Academy Volleyball Athletes Competing in Morwell Tournament 21 October 2003
The Gippsland Sports Academys Volleyball Squad will be participating in the annual Morwell Volleyball Tournament this weekend. The tournament will be played at the Morwell Leisure Centre and will involve 28 teams from all over Victoria.
The squad have been in training since early September and have
been building up for this tournament, and feel that they will be
very competitive and are confident in playing in the finals of their
respective divisions.
The squad will be missing valuable
members who have been selected to play in the Victorian Institute of
Sport (VIS) squads whom will also be participating in the
tournament.
The squad this year is made up of 33 athletes from all over Gippsland,
ranging from Lakes Entrance to Inverloch, which according to Head coach
Danny Anderson "is a testament to the time and commitment that all involved
have contributed. "The academy also acknowledges the sponsorship contribution
from the Victorian Volleyball Development Trust. Without their involvement
with the Volleyball program, elite teams such as the GAS team would
be unable to compete.
We would like to encourage all interested people
to come and support the up and coming athletes from the Gippsland
region.
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