My IRC Experience 2023 – Vakare Zalieckaite

Each year we ask a number of our youngsters to report back on their SW IRC experience, today we focus on Vakare Zalieckaite (SW Number 7) from our U17 Squad.

Back again, but this year was my last. The weekend started around 1pm on Friday the 26^th of May when our assistant coach, Floe, picked me up in her fancy new hire car. On our journey to Kettering , we stopped at Tiverton services to pick up Heidi and Katie. Whilst waiting for them, Floe and I had a Burger King break. Here I grabbed matching Burger King crowns for the three of us. The rest of the journey consisted of fun conversations and a lot of singing (mainly from me).

We arrived in Kettering around 6pm that evening, just in time for our large reservation consisting of both the girls u15 and u17 teams. I ordered a meat feast pizza, had many glasses of apple tango, and had a large ice cream for dessert. Finally, we got to the hotel and had a quick team talk where we had our brand-new kit presented to us and signed the team photos that Floe and Dave so kindly made for us.

We woke up early the next morning to have a nice filling breakfast to provide us energy for the busy day ahead of us. Our first match was against Yorkshire, setting us off to a good start with our 2-0 win. We then played against Northwest and East, winning 2-0 and 2-1. This left us at the top of our pool. We finished the day with another team meal in a family friendly pub, where both boys teams had eaten just before us. Here I had a chicken and bacon burger, and a delicious brownie. Leaving the restaurant almost in a food coma, we came back to the hotel for our evening debrief. After that we had a bit of time to relax and hang out with our teammates before we went to sleep.

Luckily, this year my alarm went off, so my room had plenty of time to pack up and eat breakfast. Our first match was at 9am in the semi finals against West Midlands. Whilst we tried our best, we lost this match 1-2. We then played in the 3-4 playoffs against Northwest. Despite having won against them in the pool matches, we finished this one 0-2. Everyone played their best and the whole team, bench and coaches included, were part of the game happening on court. All the teams this year were incredibly talented, we placed 4^th out of 9. This is an amazing result.

We finished our day with a final debrief, the last one of the season and with my south west team. We all said our goodbyes, a few of us with teary eyes, and went our separate ways. Whilst I’m sad that I can’t return next year, these two years were an incredible opportunity and have left me with memories I will never forget. I have loved every moment of it, from the monthly training sessions and meeting talented players from all over the southwest, to cheering my team on and playing with them in competitive matches.

I want to say thank you to Dave Gunter (head coach) for having me on his team for these past two years, it was a pleasure to be taught by you. Thank you, Floe, for supporting our team as our assistant coach and teammate from my home team, and for driving us to and from Kettering. I also want to thank Dave Reece for all his commitment behind the scenes. Finally, a massive thank you to my team and those who didn’t make the final selection.

You guys made this experience happen and I’m so grateful to have met you all. Especially our captain, Ena, having played with you last year, it’s amazing to see how much you’ve progressed. Congratulations to you all for being the best team out there, I hope to see you all again soon. Whether that’s on the same side of the net or the other. Good luck with your volleyball futures, and next year’s team, you’ll smash it. I love you all.

Vakare Zalieckaite

My IRC Experience 2023 – Harry Brett

Each year we ask a number of our youngsters to report back on their SW IRC experience, today we focus on Harry Brett  (SW Number 4) from our U17 Boys Squad.

On the 28th and 29th of May 2023, I was selected to represent South West at the Inter-Regional Championships in Kettering. This was My second year at the event however this time I was competing in the u17s tournament.

After a very long drive on the 27th of May, we arrived in Kettering. This allowed us to get a full night’s sleep in preparation for the games on the proceeding day and watch the girls’ final pool matches before the knockout stages the next morning. In the evening we used the time to get all of our kit and have a quick chat about our opponents tomorrow afternoon.

The next morning we woke up early and prepared by having a carb-filled breakfast so that when our games began we’d have plenty of energy to use. On arrival at the national volleyball centre, our team first watched the girls’ knockouts, unfortunately both SW teams lost in the semi-finals but had done extremely well to get there. We made sure to have an extensive warm-up before our first game as it was against London, which we believed would be our hardest game of the tournament.

In our first game, we came out strong with a consistent tempo and a good game plan. Nevertheless, we were unlucky as we dropped the first set our heads fell and this concluded with us losing in straight sets, however knowing this would most likely be our hardest game we were still confident going into game 2. Entering our final game of day 1 we had gone over our mistakes in the first game and took these into account when playing the East Midlands.

This game was tough to begin with, but we made sure to up our level and as a result, we played tremendously winning in straight sets, which was a nice result following our defeat. Personally, I quite enjoyed this game as I got a huge ace on set point. We had now finished the games for day one and had settled into playing as this was only the second time we’d played together in a competitive scenario.

We had to be up early the next day as we had to referee at 9am. We took this as an advantage as we would be more awake than our opponents who didn’t need to arrive until the game against us. On the previous day we had watched the North-West team and from the footage we assessed that they had strong wide hitters and they also defended deep, this led to us using tips to win many points.

In the first set, We came out strong and outclassed our opponents with a variety of different attacks and a well set block which they struggled to get around. However, in the second set we became complacent to begin with, which led to them gaining an early lead which stuck with them for most of the set. Nevertheless after a tactical timeout at 14-18 to them we turned the set around to complete our second 2-0 victory. This win lead us to being second in the pool which meant we were through to the semi-finals.

Now we had made it through the group stages, we were eager to find out who we were matched up against so went to spectate the other pools game. East Vs South East, this was an important game as it would determine who we would face. East came out victorious so that was our next game.

Before our semis we had prepared ourselves as much as we could; this team were the reigning champions so we came in as the underdogs. The Start of the match was good, we kept our cool and stayed confident as we gained an early lead through a spell of good serving. With this momentum we ploughed through them into winning the first set. The second set started even better through the use of our strengths we amassed a plentiful lead heading into the closing points of the set we were 24-20 up.

Then, through an unlucky spell of hits just going out paired with an unfortunate rotation error, we ended up losing the set 26-24. Despite this we still knew we should’ve won and took this forward as a boost going into set 3. So with a first to 15 final set we were in for a tough path to victory as the crowd was going and the air was tense as each point went over the net. Being the first team to 8 we had an advantage going into the side change which would benefit us going into the deciding points which after a hard fought battle we came out winners and into the final against London.

The buildup to the finals were tense, we knew to win we’d have to further up our game to another gear which we had but as a team we were knackered from the semi-finals. Despite this we brought a winning mentality into this game. The first set was unideal, we didn’t play through our strengths and this led to us being lucky to win each point and this unfortunately ended with us conceding the first set.

However, still hungry to win we played a better game in the second set shutting down their hitters and hitting through their defence. This set was extremely close with many points being long rallies which increased the tension as we traded points. This was until they got a small streak and the score was 24-20 to london. I was now up to serve and the crowd was alive and we managed to claw it back to 24-24. At this point the suspense was unreal, in my opinion both these points felt like they were endless. Unluckily we lost both points meaning london won the second set. However this performance was a massive improvement on the first outing so as a team we weren’t fully disappointed with runners up.

With this being many players on our team’s last Inter-Regionals they were delighted to get a medal as it is a memory of the great performance which we had at this tournament. Going from 7th place in the previous year to placing 2nd place and beating the reigning champions in a Semi-Final which was truly incredible and a match to remember. I will be looking forward to next year in the u17s and aspire to do even better.

Harry Brett

My IRC Experience 2023 – Derin Canbulat

Each year we ask a number of our youngsters to report back on their SW IRC experience, today we focus on Derin Canbulat (SW Number 11) from our U15 Boys Squad.

This was the second year I had been selected to play for South West in the Inter Regional Championships. Friday morning’s four and a half hour journey to the National Volleyball Centre in Kettering was accompanied with music and terrible singing. We arrived late afternoon, just in time to see the last of the u15 and u17 girls’ matches of the first day. After providing words and cheers of encouragement to the girls, we promptly headed back to the hotel , where we ate dinner and were allocated our kit. We then went upstairs and explored each other’s rooms before going to bed.

The next day, we woke up around 8:50 and started making our way downstairs for breakfast at 9. After a filling breakfast of eggs, bacon and toast , we went back up to our rooms to complete all our final preparations before we left at 10. We arrived at the Volleyball Centre at around 20 past 10 with the realisation that our first match didn’t start until 2 , meaning we had to idly wait for around 6 hours. The only thing we could really do was cheer on the girls on their very last games of the championship.

Finally, 2 o’clock rolled around, we were placed in pool B with Yorkshire , North West and West Midlands , with our first game being against North West . We warmed up and after a motivational talk from our coaches, me and the other starting 5 made our way on court. Unfortunately, we conceded the first set 25-22. However, we redeemed ourselves with the last 2 sets, winning them both 25-20 and 15-6.

Due to this first game being won, everyone was confident that we would win the next match against Yorkshire as well. 5 o clock struck and it was time for our second game. Our confidence from the first game had waned by now and it certainly didn’t help the team’s morale when someone mentioned that 10 out of Yorkshire’s 12 were England players. Consequently Yorkshire crushed us in 2 sets , 25-16 and 25-18. This was our last game of the day, we then headed back to the hotel for dinner and a debrief from our coaches.

On Monday, breakfast was at 8:30. After, we packed all our bags from the trip, placed them back on the bus and left for the Centre. We would be playing our last pool game today, at 11 against West Midlands. Thankfully, we won the game, although the 3rd set was a tie breaker that put everyone on edge. We won the first set 25-18, conceded the second 25-23 and won the last 15-12. We would now be playing the semi final.

The semifinal was against London and was a tough game; we lost both sets. However the points were very close and honestly, I felt that that game could have gone either way. We only lost 25-23 and 25-21. Due to this loss, we would be playing South East for 3rd place. Sadly, we lost against South East and took 4th place on the final podium. In all honesty, I was really happy with this result as it was so much better than last years and I am thankful to have been able to play with people who love the same sport as me.

Derin Canbulat