Christmas Message.
As the seasonal festivities rapidly approach, I wanted to reach out to you all to share some of the Christmas spirit.
I’d like to start by saying thank you and congratulations for all your hard work getting the 2021/22 season off the ground. From my visits around the halls on the first few weeks of league fixtures I can see how much work each club is putting in to ensure that Volleyball can return safely and in compliance with Government regulations.
Of course it has been difficult not being able to have all of our entire Volleyball community playing indoors but we do hope in the early spring that will change. We have adapted the league calendar to try and ensure as many of our members get to play competitively as soon as regulations allow.
Since I’m not playing myself, it has been a real pleasure to go to other clubs to meet more members and also to see the different levels competing. They are all very impressive! There is such a lot of energy and excitement out there for our sport. This translates to our various Social Media platforms which are hopping these days with the Game of the Week promotion. It’s so great to be able to see what’s going on via the Volleyball Ireland YouTube Channel when you can’t make a match and in particular to see the excitement and the standards of our school players in the Senior Finals over the last few weeks. Fair play to the Volleyball Ireland staff for getting this up and running.
Social Media has also allowed us to see how hard our National Teams are training and the excitement about the upcoming Small Countries Association and CEV competitions is huge. The High Performance Framework developed this year is just in the nick of time to ensure we have a strong foundation for building our teams for these competitions and the future.
Now for the fun bit and the great news… Santa Claus is coming to town 😊. We received amazing news last week of additional Covid funding from Sport Ireland for sports equipment to help rejuvenate indoor sports during Covid times. Since you’ve all been good boys and girls this year, Santa will be delivering 3 x new Mikasa v200W match balls for every team entered in our National Leagues. This will allow all teams to use this International grade match ball going forward.
In addition, every club running youth sessions will be provided with 12 x Mikasa v350L training balls for junior players. These balls will be out to clubs early in the new year.
As a members’ and non-profit organisation Volleyball Ireland are constantly looking for ways to support clubs. We outlined in the 2020/21 Annual Report that Covid-19 impacted our revenues, but thanks to additional Sport Ireland support, careful management of our funds and some negotiating with suppliers we’ve managed to maintain a healthy balance sheet throughout the pandemic. With this mind and in addition to waiving club entry and player registration fees, we are now announcing that club insurance charges for season 2021/2022 will also be waived to help our clubs.
A number of promotional activities and incentive programmes will be kicking off in the New Year related to the recruitment and up-skilling of coaches and referees, as well more support programmes for our clubs and funding to help continue the growth and development of our indoor and beach competitions. We will also be increasing the level of funding provided to our National teams in both formats of the game; to ensure Ireland is best prepared to compete at International level.
Despite Covid, we have entered into a very exciting time for Volleyball in Ireland both on the home and international front. Gary and the team are working tirelessly to ensure we harness whatever support we can to continue the growth and development of clubs and players in 2022 and onwards.
I hope to visit many more Clubs and venues in the New Year to hear from you how we can help further. In the meanwhile, I hope this message brings some Christmas cheer to all members and I wish you all and your families the very best for Christmas and the New Year.
Yours in Sport and Merriness,
Clodagh.
Clodagh NicCanna | Volleyball Ireland President
