England Head Coaches reappointed for men's and women's teams

Simon Loftus and Maria Bertelli have been reappointed as Head Coaches for the men’s and women’s England national senior teams, Volleyball England can confirm.

The latest appointments will take them through until September 2028, covering the next Olympic cycle that follows Paris 2024. 

Vastly-experienced coach Loftus has coached at universities in the UK and USA and was coach of a professional volleyball team in Sweden. 

At international level, he was part of the Great Britain volleyball coaching team for the London 2012 Olympics, has coached the Scottish national sides at junior and senior level and, in December, led England’s Senior Men to their first every Novotel Cup victory.  

Bertelli played football in the FA Women’s Premier League before turning to volleyball and playing for Great Britain in the 2012 Olympics. 

She has subsequently coached both domestically at MAAREE Women’s Super League team Darkstar Derbyshire and internationally, heading up the England Senior Women since 2018. 

In extending Maria's and Simon's appointments with the England senior teams we're providing a level of stability at a time of significant change in the England Talent Pathway, but even this encapsulates some meaningful changes,” said John Forman, Volleyball England’s Strategic Manager for Talent. 

“Most notably, we're introducing U22 teams for both the men and women, which will fall under the purview of the Senior coaches. We see adding these teams as an important bridge between the more junior players and the full senior teams. 

“At the same time, U22 competition at the CEV level represents an opportunity for our coaches to lead teams in major international competition. 

 “Of course, broadly speaking, the plan is to progressively move our senior teams toward regular high level international event participation. 

“The men have taken part (and had success) in interesting events over the last year. We now want to bring the women up to match that level of involvement and experience, and take both programmes forward incrementally toward our long-term goals. 

“We’re in the process right now of building the capabilities of the coaching staffs throughout the Pathway to help make that happen.” 

Further details of coaching appointments for the England Talent Pathway will follow in due course.