Wapping Wildcats expand from club Volleyball to performance academies in London

The Wildcats Volleyball Club have expanded their junior programme to facilitate high-level performance academies in Greenwich and Southwark. The programme in Greenwich started in this academic year 2022/23 at Shooters Hill Sixth Form College, with the Southwark programme following suit in the 2023/24 academic year. The programmes aim to give students the opportunity to develop into competitive athletes, with the possibility of winning a sports scholarship at UK or US Universities.

“With five years under our belt in the junior side of the club, we know that the biggest factors stopping players from joining are travel and club costs, so it felt only right to bring the sport to them at school. Our club’s goal is to create a foundation for children to develop to the highest potential they want and that they are able to reach - going on their own individual journey. For most children, sport starts and ends at school, and we are firm believers that everyone should get the opportunity to pursue their passion, compete for a scholarship, and reach their highest potential,” explains Elsa Meserlian, Club Head Coach at Wapping Wildcats.

For school year 2022/23, the students of Shooters Hill Sixth Form College have the chance to combine high-level volleyball with their studies at the Vangelis Koutouleas Volleyball Academy. Training sessions are provided up to four times a week as well as Strength and Conditioning sessions twice a week. The performance academy programme is the first of its kind in South-East London, with an equivalent only existing in North-West London run by IBB Polonia LONDON, a semi-professional club competing at the elite level of English Volleyball.

The Academy is open to all genders, with 14 places of the available 20 already taken up, and four athletes selected to represent the club in the NVL M3SE and the LVA W2A league.

With more of an elite performance focus at Bacon’s College Southwark, the 20 spots available will be granted following a series of try-outs from athletes invited across London clubs. Recruitment to the programme is starting at the open evening taking place on November 24. The programme will offer daily volleyball training sessions and Strength and Conditioning sessions three times a week. It will be run by the club’s most senior coaches, with some already serving on the England Cadets & Junior coaching staff.

With a focus on developing individual players, the Wildcats do not mandate that athletes training at the academy should play with the Wildcats at club level. With such a high demand as well as competition level for the sport in London, they want to make sure every one of their athletes are battling on the court and gaining the experience they need to become high performers. They will certainly not achieve that sitting on a team bench.

“We have a performance focus at Bacon’s College as we know the top talent in London may not be able to travel to South-East London, so we wanted to focus our best talent to this central London location making it available to those living in all London boroughs,” said Meserlian. “Without access to elite level training, it is very difficult to compete with athletes from around the world who all have access to professional leagues which develop the talent more structurally than we do here in the UK. Our aim with these performance academies is to plug that gap and offer talented athletes some further opportunities. Two English volleyball centres, Loughborough College and the Leaf Academy in Bournemouth, offered such a programme in the past, with most aspiring athletes eventually earning a college scholarship in North America. London has an incredible pool of young, talented athletes, and we aim to offer them the same opportunities.”

The Vangelis Koutouleas Volleyball Academy is named after the late England and Cyprus national team head coach. Mr Koutouleas was a mentor to Elsa Meserlian, playing a key role in making the idea a reality. Putting together the Shooters Hill Volleyball Academy was one of his last contributions to the sport before losing his battle with cancer in the summer of 2022. To recognise his lifetime contribution to Volleyball in England and across the world, it was decided to honour his memory by naming the Shooters Hill Sixth Form Academy after him.