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