My IRC Experience 2023 – Alex Johnson

Each year we ask a number of our youngsters to report back on their SW IRC experience, today we focus on Alex Johnson (SW Number 10) from our U15 Squad.

Early on the 27th July: Everyone being picked up from Tiverton (2 fellow U15 players, me and 5 of the U17 players) arrived before 10:15AM, but because of traffic etc the bus ended up arriving over an hour late to our stop. This did cause everyone else to be picked up slightly late, but we managed to make it to Bristol (the final pick-up point) by the planned time.

When we arrived at Bristol where we picked up the last people, we had a 20-minute stop to get food etc, and then we were off in our own buses (1 U-15 bus and 1 U-17 bus). Now we were in our separate bus we blasted our music in the bus as we sang along. After what felt like a very short 2 and a half hours we were at Kettering where we went straight to the hall without dropping our stuff off at the hotel. While we were there, we watched both Southwest girls’ teams play their last pool matches.

Once their games were over, we jumped back on the bus and headed to the hotel (a 5-minute drive from the hall) where we got our room keys, unpacked and then we headed straight backout to eat dinner at a restaurant nearby. The food was great. Once we had finished, we headed back to the hotel.
When we got back to the hotel, me and some of my teammates went to raid the local spar (around the corner from the hotel). We then had a few hours of social time and a meeting where we received our kit for the next day before we settled down for the night.

The next morning, we woke up at 8:15 where we went down to the lobby to fill up on a great breakfast of toast, scrambled eggs, sausages, bacon and baked beans. After that we went backup up to our rooms to grab our stuff and we were off.

Next, we headed to the hall. When we arrived, we watched both the U15 and U17 girls’ teams play in 3rd to 4th playoff, both teams sadly lost and placed fourth in their age groups. A pretty great placing. We then got our teams pictures taken by professionals and got prepared for our pool games to start.

Our first game was against Northwest where we sadly lost the first set through lots of mistakes, but then quickly stepped up and got our heads in the game before easily winning the next 2 sets, overall winning us the match. We then had a quick chat about the game before we scored and refed our first game of the competition.
Straight after that game had finished, we got on the court, and warmed up ready for our second game against Yorkshire. We went in expecting to win but sadly went on to lose straight sets against their fast-paced playstyle. Non the less we had our heads held high ready for our next day of games.

After another quick briefing we headed back to the hotel for a quick shower before leaving for the restaurant. We then spent the rest of the evening in the restaurant (eating, talking and taking turns playing on the pool table they had). Once we arrived back at the hotel at 10:30 we all went back to our rooms to settle down and go to sleep.

We woke early the next morning for a quick breakfast and to pack our bags before checking out of the hotel. Once we had checked out, we headed to the hall to finish our last pool game. After arriving we warmed up and played our first match of the day against West Midlands. We easily won the first set 25-18, lost the second to a close 23 – 25 and finally won the 3rd set securing our place in the semis. Extremely happy we went upstairs to eat lunch (sandwiches with crisps, biscuits and granola bars). As we ate, we watched London play Southeast as we were eager to see who we would play against in the semi-finals. After a very intense game between the two. London won.

We knew we would have to step up our game and give it our all to beat London, the reigning champions, so after an hour-long break we went into the next game against London ready to give it our best against the giant players and the favourites to win the whole tournament.

We started the match strong winning the first 3 points. Unfortunately, they then started to rack up the points but at that moment we took a great time out at 9-4 shutting down their streak and putting us back in the game. They then got another streak turning a score of 11-8 to 18 -11. Where we took another well-placed time out. After trading points, they won the set by a close 25-22.

After the tight set we knew we would have to reduce our serving and server receive errors to win. Still believing we could beat them as we were playing the best, we had so far in the tournament we started the next set. But sadly, after an even tighter second set and almost making it a deuce after getting 3 points in a row from 24-20 we sadly lost the set 25-23 sending us to the 3rd 4th playoff against West Midlands.

After the devastating loss against London, we watch the U17 team beat East and make their way to the final against London. We then headed into our next game against West Midlands not feeling too positive after missing out on the final. This stopped us from playing our best, but we still gave it a go but sadly lost the first set (28-26). The second set wasn’t as close as we ended up losing (25-21) putting us in 4th place out of 9 teams.

After the game we had a chat about our performance and what we had achieved, and how we had improved greatly from last year’s placing of 7th. After this we watched the finals of the U15 and U17 boys. It was a great achievement by the Southwest U17 team to come 2nd.

After the achievement ceremony we got changed and headed back to the southwest on a very quiet bus. We were all worn out from the 2 days before and some of us even slept on the way back. Overall, 4th is a pretty good position. Even though we were distraught at us missing out on the top three we were overall proud of what we had achieved and delighted at our improvements since our first outing at Exeter challenge. I can’t wait to play with the U17’s next year and I aspire to do even better.
I would like to thank the people who planned for training, transport, food and where we would be staying. And another thanks to the coaches for the opportunity and helping us improve and prepare for the tournament.

Alex Johnson

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

My IRC Experience 2022 – Jarryd Mossman

Each year we ask a number of our youngsters to report back on their SW IRC experience, today we focus on Jarryd Mossman (SW Number 3) from our U15 Boys Squad.

I was very fortunate to have been selected to represent the South West playing in the U15 Boys Team at the Inter-Regional Competitions in May 2022. We were picked up on the Saturday by the minibus which had a group of U17 Boys onboard as well, who were really enthusiastic and helped us to get hyped up. We swapped buses and that’s when we had the full U15 squad on one bus. We sang lots of songs on drive up to Leicester.

We got to the hotel and once we were settled in, we went and had dinner. After dinner we were given our South West team kit. We spent the rest of the evening relaxing in our rooms and preparing for the next day.

It was an early start the next day, Sunday. We had breakfast and made the journey down to the venue. Arriving at the venue we watched some of the U15s girls matches before getting on court to warm up and prepare for our matches. The first match was close with us just losing by a small margin due to player errors. Our second match was against East. We lost, though none of our team seemed disheartened. We were all just grateful to be there and taking part. And we had more matches to look forward to the next day.

We had another early start on Monday morning. We had breakfast and set off again to the venue. Our first match was East Midlands. They were a fierce opponent. Although we won the first set, East Mids eventually got the better of us. Then it was the knockout stages next. Despite being in the knockouts, it felt like the team was relieved of pressure and the play flowed much better against London. We might have lost the majority of our games that day but there wasn’t a moment when I can say that any of my teammates had lost faith in ourselves. I like to attribute our unwavering positivity in the face of these losses to the amazing time we spent bonding in time beforehand.

We finished the day with a speech from our head coach. We took team photos and headed home in the minibus. On the journey home, one by one said goodbye to each other. I’m thankful for the time I got to spend, not only playing volleyball, but meeting amazing people like me who love volleyball.

Jarryd Mossman

My IRC Experience 2022 – 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 4) from our U15 Boys Squad.

I represented the South West at the Inter Regional Championships in Leicester, competing in the U15 boys category. We were picked up by a minibus to take us up to Leicester, where we would be playing. Halfway through the journey we switched players with the other minibus who had picked up a mix of U15 and U17 players. When everyone was on the right bus, we resumed our journey with music being played and enthusiastic singing all the way up.

When we arrived at the hotel we were allocated our rooms, but we all pooled together in one room to chat and have fun. We were called down for dinner at eight, and afterwards the kit was allocated, so as to not waste any time in the morning sorting it out. Everyone then went to bed, excited for the next day.

The next day we energetically woke up at around eight, straight away putting on our kit before heading down for breakfast. After breakfast we collected our bags and headed to the venue in which we were going to be playing. Our team had been put into Pool B, with North west, East, and East Midlands. As we were going to be playing the first match of our pool, we got warmed up promptly after the game before us ended. We were going to be playing North West first.

In the first set against them we lost the set 20-25 due to frequently occurring errors such as service mistakes or net touches. In the second set we improved but still lost 23-25. Considering this had been the first match our team had played together I thought it was a good result. We then played East, managing to steal the first set from them 25-18 . We lost the second set but fought fiercely for the third, losing it only by 2 points. Upon our return to the hotel , I saw a lot of tired and disheartened faces at dinner and in the evening.

On Monday morning, we reluctantly woke up at six so that we could get an early start on the matches because our team had been scheduled to play 4 that day. Our first match that day we played a tough and close game against East Midlands with a similar result to the game against East, losing the first set but winning the second and losing the third. We had already lost three games since we arrived, and we were finding it hard to stay motivated. It was now time for the Knockout phase. As we had lost all our games, we were bottom of our pool and were playing the top of Pool A: London, a team notorious for hard attacks.

Everyone expected us to lose, which we did but only did so by a few points in both sets. The whole team agreed that although we lost, the flow was better, and it was a lot of fun playing them. We then heartbreakingly lost a playoff against East for 5th place. At this point in the day we were quite mentally defeated, but I still tried to have hope in the last game.

After a motivational talk from our coach, we proceeded into the first set of the playoff for 7th place against East Midlands. This was the last game that we would play so we needed to put everything into this game. Although I didn’t play in the first set, I led the cheering and the chanting from the side. We swiftly won the first set 25-18. We were halfway there. The second set begins and the cheering and chanting continues. The tension rises as we take the lead at 19-17. The coach then subs me in. I switch with the other outside hitter and walk onto the court receiving high fives from each side. A few mistakes from both sides lead the score to 24-21 to us. A great hit from the middle wins us the game, securing us 7th place.

Although we might not have won, the atmosphere was amazing, and it was great playing people on different skill levels and I will certainly be using this experience for future games. A big thanks to the coaches for preparing us and advising us. This was certainly a great experience where I got to meet a lot of new people and bond with my teammates.

Derin Canbulat

My IRC Experience 2022 – 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 6) from our U17 Squad.

On Friday the 29^th of April, we left Exeter St David’s Station carpark at around 2pm. Whilst travelling to Leicester, was filled with fun conversations, singing, and music from our very own u17s playlist, a journey that should have been around six hours ended up taking a lengthy eight and a half hours. After arriving at the hotel at 10:30, we had a quick team talk before settling down for our games the next day.

Waking up early on Saturday morning, we filled our stomachs with a fulfilling breakfast of eggs and bacon for the busy day ahead of us. The hotel by Leicester Stadium was only around 15 minutes away from the sports hall, so after a short journey, we reached our destination. It was filled with teams from all over the UK. Our first match was also the first match of the day, against North West.

After a slightly rough start, the match ended, giving us our first win. The rest of our day was filled with successful games and checking out our opposition’s gameplay. We finished the day winning every match in our pool. Heading back to the hotel after a long day, we arrived an hour before our joint dinner with all the South West teams and all of our coaches. Due to the large size of our group, we had a special room booked for us and a small buffet provided with a delicious chocolate torte for dessert. Once dinner was finished, we had a couple hours of social time before we settled for bed.

Unpredictably, my room’s alarms didn’t ring on Sunday morning. We woke up with ten minutes to get dressed and make sure everything was packed. Thankfully, a couple of our team mates had taken us some breakfast for the coach ride back to the sports hall. Once again, the first match of the day was also our first match against West Midlands. We won 2-0! The finals was against London, the girls played extremely well and had incredible plays and saves; however, in the end, London won this match. After this long weekend, we placed second in the u17s girls IRC, an incredible outcome!

After the small celebration ceremony and our last team meeting, we all said our goodbyes. Whilst I didn’t get to play much that weekend, this was an unreal experience, and I loved every moment. I spent part of my time on the side-lines with my fellow cheer squad, supporting my team and ending the weekend with a lost voice. Over the weekend and previous SW training session, I met so many new people and made some friendships I never thought I would have. This was my first year attending anything South West related but luckily not my last. I hope to get this experience again next year as I made an abundance of long-lasting memories.

Thank you to Dave (our head coach) and Laura (assistant coach) for leading us over the past year and all the hard work you put into our team. I would also like to say thank you to Dave Reece, for organising the weekend, driving our minibus all the way from Exeter to Leicester and back, documenting the weekend through some great photos, and making this opportunity possible for me. And finally, a massive thank you to this year’s swu17 team. You all made wonderful contributions and we couldn’t have gotten this far without everyone. It was lovely to meet every single one of you, although some of you aren’t able to come back next year, hopefully we get to play with or against each other soon. Congratulations, you were amazing, and good luck in your future volleyball endeavours!

Vakare Zalieckaite

Inter Regional Champion 2019 – My IRC Experience Kaja Jankowska

My IRC Experience – Harriet Bentley