Hundreds of matches already contested across Irish school competitions

Volleyball Ireland officially launched the 2023 CEV School Project ‘Play Volleyball – Grow with it’ at VLY. LIVE. School children were invited to join the weekend to take part in coaching sessions run by players of the Irish senior men’s national team and to enjoy a FUN blitz with friends as well. Volleyball Ireland were able to distribute CEV medals thanks to the ongoing support from the CEV Development Department. As part of the launch, new branding promotional boards as well as new t-shirts bearing the CEV School Project logo were obtained for the upcoming actions. 

This year Volleyball Ireland has partnered with Northern Ireland Volleyball to bring an exciting twist to the 2023 project. A cross-federation programme is being delivered in border countries by coaches in each association. Teacher training and allocated coaching time for each school is being provided before both Federations come together for a final FUN blitz. This will be the first time the two federations have worked together on the CEV School Project, but they believe it brings an extra dynamic and excitement for the students. 

Moreover, TY volley leadership in coaching programmes were taken to two schools – Carlow and Limerick Roscommon, thereby involving as many as 52 students, whereas a referee course and a TY coaching course in St Leo college featured 20 students each. 

School Volleyball U19 and U16 competitions have already completed over 500 games in just one month of play, as 4v4 FUN blitzes are scheduled in Galway, Dublin, Cork, and Kilkenny with as many as 173 teams registered. Schools are organising their own sport blitzes and inviting coaches to run the sessions. One such session at Holypark Primary school this October turned into a very successful day, involving and coaching kids from the third and fourth grades, with 20-30 kids per class.

More recently, Volleyball Ireland established a partnership with PDST - which is responsible for the professional development of secondary school teachers. Volleyball has been selected as the one sport to promote and educate the teachers on for the 2023-2024 academic year.