A Christmas message from Volleyball England's CEO

As we approach the festive season, I want to take a few moments to express a heartfelt thank you on behalf of everyone at Volleyball England. This year has been truly remarkable, filled with progress across all levels of the sport. 

While I can’t thank each of you individually, I want to emphasise how deeply we appreciate the time, effort, and commitment from our largely volunteer workforce. Your dedication continues to inspire us, and, without you, none of this progress would have been possible. 

I’d like to take a moment to recognise some truly outstanding achievements from this year: 

• Glynn Archibald was selected as a referee for the 2024 Paralympics in Paris. 
• Richard Osborne received an MBE in the King's Honours for his services to disability sport. 
• Alex Smith became the first English woman to be qualified as a CEV Beach Volleyball supervisor. 
• The Bello brothers made history by winning a gold medal on Copacabana Beach at the Beach Pro Tour Elite16 event—arguably the most significant achievement by an English volleyball team to date. 

Of course, there are countless other contributions and achievements we are grateful for, and we celebrate every single one of you. 

This year, 2024, has seen tremendous strategic advancements for the sport, and I’d like to highlight a few of these. 

On the international stage, England has elevated its presence within NEVZA, CEV, and FIVB through hosting events, leading on strategic reforms, and ensuring English representation in various commissions and working groups. 

As part of these efforts, we successfully hosted the NEVZA Youth Beach Championships at Bridlington South Beach earlier this year, earning several medals for our pathway athletes. I’m thrilled that we’ll be hosting the event again in 2025, alongside the Senior NEVZA Beach Championships. Huge thanks go to Penny, Dave, Pete, and everyone from Leeds Gorse/Skyball Beach Volleyball for making this year’s event such a success. 

In September, we made history with England’s first Queen & King of the Court event (pictured top), held in the heart of London’s Canary Wharf. Hosting such a unique spectacle in one of the world’s largest business districts was truly extraordinary, capturing global attention for the sport. My thanks go to Mark Kontopoulos and his incredible team of volunteers from SideOut Beach Volleyball Club for their dedication in making this event happen. Plans for 2025 are already underway, and we look forward to sharing more details soon. 

Beyond the beach, we partnered with the British Volleyball Federation to deliver the Golden League Sitting Volleyball event in Nottingham. This initiative is part of broader plans to grow sitting volleyball, with invaluable support from the Volleyball England Foundation. 

In indoor volleyball, we’ve made significant strides to enhance the Super League. Alongside the introduction of the Final Four event in Kettering, we launched Super League Live. November and December saw two fantastic broadcasts with London Giants at Crystal Palace and Leeds Gorse at the Ruth Gorse Academy. Super League Live is just the beginning of our efforts to bring live-streamed games to broader audiences, with a professional, standardised look and feel. We’re excited to continue this journey at Essex University in January. 

From a youth perspective, the U18 Super Series, introduced for the 2024-25 season, has already proven to be a monumental success. It provides junior clubs and teams across the country with a platform to compete at consistently challenging levels, fostering growth and excellence. 

In workforce development, we’ve made impactful progress. This year saw the launch of the Her Call programme, supporting female referees in England. We’ve also redesigned development pathways for refereeing, coaching, and volunteering, and hosted the inaugural UK Volleyball Coaching Symposium in Kettering, featuring keynote speaker Jim Stone, an acclaimed American volleyball coach (pictured above). 

Finally, alongside a group of experienced volleyball members, we have also embarked on a Volleyball in England Heritage Project. Our vision is to be ‘an organisation that creates a deep-rooted sense of belonging for everyone within our community’ and therefore, to achieve this, we need to ensure that we can connect the present and future of the sport to the past. 

Ultimately, our hope is that the project will culminate in the creation of a digital/physical archive being established and heritage assets (videos etc) being used across the Volleyball community to help cultivate the desired sense of belonging.  

I’d like to extend my gratitude to the Volleyball England Board and the various sub-committees and working groups, whose tireless volunteer efforts often go unseen but are instrumental in our success. 

To our partners that have been with us for some time, or joined the Volleyball family this year, the value and confidence that you place in us has enabled and provided the firm foundation for growth. 

To the Volleyball England Hub Team, I am incredibly proud to work alongside each of you. Together, we push boundaries in our pursuit of progress, always balancing ambition with thoughtfulness. Whether we win or learn, every step we take is meaningful and impactful. 

Looking ahead to 2025, we are excited about several upcoming milestones, including: 

• The Five Nations Championships. 
• The release of the People Plan and DIAP. 
• The launch of the new Learner Management System. 
• The opening of the Indoor Beach Centre. 
• The enrolment of the first cohort into the High-Performance Beach Programme. 

I wish you a very Merry Christmas and a New Year filled with peace, happiness, and blessings. Thank you, and have a wonderful holiday season.