Volleyball England official Barry to act as technical delegate at World University Games

Lenny Barry was nominated at the recommendation of FISU Volleyball Technical Delegate Melanie Sanford of Canada, due to his extensive knowledge and experience of the multi-sport event.

In his role, he will act as a “guardian” of the Games, ensuring that all the technical requirements specified for the event are met.

This includes matters such as training courts, training schedules, the provision of training and warm-up balls and being courtside during every match to ensure that the rules and regulations are followed.

 Prior to matches starting, Lenny will also be on hand to complete inspections of the competition courts and training halls, as well as validating team eligibility, inspecting uniforms and helping to answer any queries.

The FISU World University Games takes place this summer, having been postponed from 2021 because of the Covid-19 outbreak.

“I was delighted when I was nominated and I jumped at the chance,” said Lenny. “My ambition was always to try to get back to the FISU Games, where I had “learned my trade”, and made so many friends and contacts.

“I appreciate the opportunities that being a Technical Delegate bring. It is long travel, and very long hours working at events, usually 14 to 16-hour days, but it enables me to see and be involved in high level volleyball and, hopefully, bring some new knowledge, experience or ideas back to help volleyball in England.”

Lenny has a long history within student sport, and volleyball in particular, having played, coached and officiated whilst at the University of Glasgow.

He has subsequently maintained links with universities on a local and national basis, first organising, managing and coached Scottish Universities and then English and British Universities when he moved to Liverpool in 1991.

He was Team Manager for GB Women at the World University Games in Zagreb 1987, a senior volunteer within British Universities when Sheffield hosted the World University Games in 1991 and had four years as Chair of British Universities, whilst remaining as Chair of BUSA Volleyball.

Lenny was later invited to act as a Juror / Jury President at the Universiade in Izmir 2005, Bangkok in 2007, Belgrade in 2009, Shenzhen in 2011, Kazan in 2013 and Gwangju in 2015, overseeing more than 175 matches during that time.

After the 2015 Universiade, FISU and FIVB signed an agreement whereby FIVB would appoint the Technical Delegate and Jurors, rather than FISU, which brought his involvement to a halt, as he was not a FIVB Technical Delegate at that stage.

However, he then worked with Volleyball England to be nominated as a European Volleyball Confederation Supervisor and, in 2022, was accepted as one of five FIVB Technical Delegate Assistants before being selected for this role in China.