Congratulations to Sydney North Volleyball’s Under 16 teams, who both won gold at the 2021 NSW State Cup.

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Please enjoy a video created by Coach Taka Yasutake Presenting the Vipers !

In the second year affected by Covid-19, the Junior SVL players were lucky enough to complete a full Term Two season and thanks to our generous and dedicated coaches, who have taken time out of their lockdown lives to celebrate the achievements and growth in their teams, we are happy to share all the excitement and challenges of the season with you.

Under 18/1 Men – Rebels (coached by Richard Wolken)

For the U18-1 Boys we had a good first half, and had big plans to make a bigger impression in the second one !

A couple very memorable matches in there, 3 great tight sets against Hills Dragons and an awesome draw (WIN) against UTS, the guys can be super proud of.

Really appreciated a couple players that had to mix it up in different positions, thanks Ethan W and Ben.

Had a little challenge with middles since Kaz couldn’t make training nights, but we made it work really well on game nights, and Kaz did a great job!

Great improvements in the season from Alex, Isaac, Jin.

Missed Brian for the first few weeks through injury. You should be confident Brian, you’re a good setter!

Jiefu and Ethan C both did well, improving and learning new skills along the way

Solid work from Sam every game, and great leadership from Nick and Jayden.

They were a pleasure to coach, excellent positive attitude, and good team work.

Under 18/2 Men Phoenixes (aka SNV Chris Kim’s) (Coached by Rebecca Paff)

What an unusual and challenging season it was for the 18 2’s. We started the preseason with a State Cup Silver medal after a few weeks of trials and training. While this helped us to believe in ourselves as a team a little more, and piled on additional expectations and pressure- the mental challenges of this plagued us through our first round of SVL. Due to weekly team roster changes  (injuries, illness, exams) and the fear of losing, it took us a while to find out feet on court. Though, by the end of season I, played a few tight games and even scored ourselves an easy win. While it wasn’t easy to turn up almost every week and not walk away with the Win, I’m grateful to everyone for turning up and trying to improve in each game they played. Frustratingly, our second season wasn’t able to start, so we weren’t able to keep growing our game. Thank you to Ethan, Eliott, Berke, Chris, Jasper, Jack, Preston, Daniel, Daniel, Nathan, Fluen and Sunny for taking on the challenges that I threw at you, and for trying your best each week. Volleyball isn’t the easiest sport, and the learning process can be really rough, but you all started developing new skills and more confidence in your abilities as time went on. This was really exciting to watch!

MVP for the season goes to Ethan. Despite shying away from being a team captain, you demonstrated leadership in every game you played, and some awesome volleyball skills when the team needed to pull together some points. Most improved goes to Jasper and Eliott. Both players showed enormous talent and improved in great bounds during the season. Eliott proved himself as both a formidable outside and libero game after game, and Jasper, a middle who can make points of any ball thrown at him.

Good luck to those completing the HSC this year. Hope to see you all at trials next season.

Under 16/1 Men Raptors (coached by Kai Ta)

Even though the season was shortened due to Covid, what a great season it was! Even with the short time spent with these boys, we had the opportunity to get some good momentum.

I was very lucky to have had the opportunity to coach these bright, intelligent, passionate, driven young men. Their raw talent, determination and motivation made them a competitive team which lead them to win the bronze medal for term 1 SVL.

On and off the court, these boys gave 100% and gelled so well as a team. It’s a coach’s dream to have a strong team who are always looking to improve, learn and have fun along the way.

It is really unfortunate that we won’t get to progress to the second term for SVL. There is so much potential and growth within this team. I was looking forward to stepping it up and taking home the GOLD medal.

Special thanks to Will for leading the team as Captain. I appreciate your maturity, positivity and calm nature. Thanks for being my sounding board and talking strategy and game play with me.

For this year, I wanted to give the Most Valuable Player (MVP) to Joshua Hilman. What a libero he is! His attitude, “I’m a libero – I’d guard your backs with my life if had to” is something he lives and breathes by. He does whatever he can to not let the ball drop His excellent digging, passing, receiving, ups, covers or whatever you call it allowed the team to be a strong offensive team as the ball is always “up”. Not to mention his consistent vocal presence kept the team energized and positive.

For the Most Improved Player (MIP), this was a hard one. So many of the team stepped up and could have received this award, but for this year, I want to give it to Ian Lee. This was Ian’s first year playing in a club and I still remember the first week of training when he came up to me to ask if i could help him improve his game. Throughout the season, I put him in different positions to test his ability out. His versatility and ability to be flexible without any notice is what made him stand out to me. From playing outside, to middle, to universal he was always adaptable and effective which improved his overall game. He took all the challenges on and never complained once, trusting my judgement to give it a go.

I wish all the boys the very best and I hope to cross paths on the court in the future.

Under 16/2 Men Thunder (Coached by Chris Twine)

Going into this season I had no idea what to expect.
I think for most of the players this was our first real experience with competitive volleyball (and coaching), so initially we were finding our feet and working things out.
Throughout the season we had a few really tight games which we couldn’t quite close out for wins which was disappointing. However it was great to see us develop an understanding of the way real volleyball is played.
Going from the start of the season where we had confused looks and a lack of confidence, to the end where everyone was moving around the court like a well-oiled machine was extremely satisfying – and it all came together in our last game of the season for a win!
Unfortunately COVID cut us off just as we were getting going and I think we would have had a very successful season 2.
I really hope everyone comes back to play once we get through the lockdowns and we can continue to develop into great volleyballers!

Under 18/1 Women Phantoms (coached by Kylie Downes)

Unfortunately we didn’t get to part two of the season.   After finishing third in part one, our team was on roll and i’m sure we would have made the final in part 2 . A great group of fun loving, enthaustic ladies who worked extremely hard to meet the  challenge of forming a  new team this year. Our team work, confidence and skills continued to develop through the year. Every game the team never gave up even, when things weren’t quite going our way with a great game against the team that eventually won part 1 of the competition. Only losing by one point on countback . I hope this lockdown has only enhanced your enthusiasm  for volleyball and look forward to seeing you all come back and improve even more next year. Good luck to those doing the HSC in this very disrupted school year.

Under 18/2 Women Seals (coached by Su Garrett)

We decided these 15 year old girls should form a team in the U18 competition and challenge themselves.  They more than rose to the occasion, ending the season with a silver medal.

Their success is true primarily because they are a great group of girls who are kind, supportive and like to play with each other.  They are playing well beyond their years.

Congratulations on the season and I look flat to more success next year

Under 18/2 Women Vipers (coached by Taka Yasutake)

What a year it has been, the unexpected lockdown and the chaotic toilet paper spending spree sure did impact 2020 and 2021. I thought it would have ended soon and didn’t expect it to last so long.

This year we only had play during term 2. What a short season. Even though a short season, looking back on it, it was as equally as memorable as if it had been a full season.

I was introduced to 12 bright young ladies, not knowing their skills, techniques, personality and team chemistry. As the season progressed, I noticed that all of them had mixed talents with experienced and unofficial experiences, however they all had one thing in common. A goal. The determination to win and play to the best of their abilities. Yes, there were lots of hurdles and challenges at each game. Like in all situations in life, some matches were good, some were not as satisfactory, and this brought out the emotions and frustration from the girls. I know it isn’t easy to be motivated however they maintained their aggressive stance and energy on court and fought hard to overcome situations and challenges they faced, persisted, moved on and kept up with the competition.

Many things we had to get through which we worked so hard and got our act together until the end against all odds, amazingly our effort paid off to receive the U 18women’s Division2 Bronze. Hurray!Hurray!Hurray!

I must congratulate to each one of you girls. I do have to admit, I can be strict and difficult to work with, but you girls are strong minded and have the mentality of a battle-hardened soldiers. You left everything on the court, and I am most proud of it. We still have a lot of work to do, but I hope we can all work together again and I am looking forward to working with you all to achieve our goals.

Lastly, the successful delivery would not have been possible without the support from our parents, relatives, friends, SNV coaches and of course, Nerradene , who has always looked after all the SNV members to make sure we can smoothly run our club activities. It was a great display of community service and generosity that we very much appreciate and cherish here. A big thank you to you all.

Congratulations to our season award winners below.

2021 Vipers MVP player is Vanessa Zounis who worked so hard as a setter. I am sure it was a difficult time for her as it was not her favourite position to play, but she took the challenge as well as being the team captain. Despite her having a huge responsibility, she played her best and always smiled and took care of team mate on and off the court. Big thank you and congratulations.

Choosing the MIP player was a very difficult decision because every single player had improved so much but I would like to give this to Louisa Kong. She was desperate to be the court as libero. With her strong growth mind, she gained her confidence throughout the game and supported the team from the back court. Well done Louisa.

Best Assistant- Sandani Perera

Best Attitude- Kayla Van der Plas

Best Blocker- Asma Fofanah

Most Dedicated- Minqing Ning

Best Mentality- Charlie Atzmon

Best Opposite-Greta Stacy

Best Score- Anna Wang

Best Server – Emily Chen

Best Spiker – Jessie Qin

Most Team Sprit- Jacqueline Qin

Under 16/1 Women Snipers (coached by Sheilah Adam)

With all the uncertainties that we experienced since the first time Covid-19 hits last year – our team sport, saw a massive exponential growth with participation. Our team consisted of beginners or inexperienced volleyball players who were all enthusiastic and coachable. Having been in the second place during the round games, the girls were determined to win the finals and it was just an amazing moment to witness on the sideline as their proudest coach how they fought for every point.

The game result in the finals was quite convincing – SNV 2-0 Endeavour of 25:23 and 25:14 (versus one of the strongest junior teams in SVL) proved that “in believing, anything is possible” and they did.

It is a very difficult decision to select the Most Valuable Player and Most Improved Player as when you are coaching a team that has great team work, it is difficult to pick a couple out as all of them are exceptional as a unit. I would like to thank SNV especially to Nerradene Wolken, the team of coaches and families who have all been supportive and understanding with the current situation we are all experiencing.  I am looking forward for all this challenge to be over so we can all go back to our new normal.

After such hard deliberation, I have decided the following:

Most Valuable Players – Lynn Lin, Arianna De La Vega & Jessica Chen

Most Improved Players – Vanessa Liu, Charlotte Dhanu, Caitlin Costello

Or maybe we can call them the Mythical Six (SNV Snipers)

Hopefully see you on the court again soon !  

After Covid-19 put an abrupt stop to SVL preparations, SNV was excited to be able to re-form 11 teams for the reinstated SVL season. You can read the coaches’ perspectives on SVL 2020 below. Many thanks to the coaches for taking the time to write these season wrap ups and of course for their continued dedication in a year that provided more than the usual challenges! Thank you also to our volunteer managers for helping to keep the teams organised, we couldn’t do it without you.

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