Youth and school competitions continue to flourish in Ireland

Volleyball Ireland launched their Primary Schools Championships this past month with participation of as many as 166 teams. Regional blitzes in Dublin, Limerick, Portlaoise, and Kilkenny were hosted in February with two more coming up in early March. The national final is scheduled for March 11 – as Volleyball Ireland continue to inspire youngsters to play Volleyball with the help of the CEV School Project ‘Play Volleyball – Grow with it’. 

Next to this, student education was delivered to four schools in Dublin, Cork, Mayo, and Wicklow counties. The Irish special schools project continued with Leinster schools, where 96 children with additional needs took part in a volleyball session supported by 17 student coaches, who had previously completed a training programme run by Volleyball Ireland as well. 

The Schools Cup as well as junior 6v6 tournaments entered the latter stages in February and 138 teams have left the competition following their elimination. 

The project involving members of the U20 women’s national team returning to their primary schools is rolling on with videography and the players selected. Filming is due to start in late March. Ireland will be co-hosting this year’s #EuroVolleyU20W later this summer together with Bulgaria in a truly historic endeavour. 
 
Volleyball Ireland will continue to deliver coaching and refereeing courses to secondary schools as a Transition Year programme and in February one such course was run by their Development Officer along with the Cork Sports Partnership, with several schools coming together in one session and 18 students in attendance.