New Coach, New Approach for UEL Volleyball

Declan McCarthy talks to new Volleyball coach Simon Loftus about his hopes for the season.

Volleyball at UEL was a huge success last year. However, the start of a new term brings about many changes to each club and Volleyball is no different.

Key third year players have left both the men’s and women’s squads. However, the two sides did not have to just cope with the departure of players, but the arrival of a new coach.

New coach Simon Loftus has been selected to take the team through this transitional period.

Coach Loftus, came to UEL with a vast amount of experience behind him. He was the head of Volleyball for five years at Leeds Beckett, while involved in many major championship tournaments over his career, even participating in the London 2012 Olympics.

After the Olympics, he coached in America and now finds himself at UEL as, head coach of the Men’s and Women’s Volleyball team, as well as being the assistant of Team GB’s Volleyball side.

The quality of coaching in English Volleyball is regarded as one of the best in the world, but Team GB failed to secure a medal in the 2012 Olympics.

Loftus believes that England lack the Volleyball tradition seen in other parts of the world, and that this is an area that needs improving if the country wants to move forward in Volleyball.

“Europe and anywhere around the world are culturally well ahead of England. The pyramid system is quite small in England, However the coaching in this country is second to none, coaching in England is very good technically, but in size of volume it is still quite behind.”

After managing the first two games of the season, UEL currently find themselves in a mid-table position.

Building a solid team

Loftus realises that it will take time for the new players to gel with the rest of the team before he can repeat last year’s results.

“I understand that there were some really good Americans last year, we have got one this year but he’s a setter. So we don’t have that flamboyant point scorer that there was in the past.

“We have seven first-year students with scholarships. So my job is to coach that professionalism and get them working to get better and not take things for granted.”

The UEL Women’s volleyball team are competing in the Premier South for the first time, and Loftus states he is impressed with what he has seen from the girls so far.

“The Women’s team operate from a much smaller group, the likes of Alex [Vajdova], Beth Gunter and Patricia [Co], they bring a security to things, but we have supplemented that with new players and they are doing really well.”

The Women’s team have only played one game this season and Loftus isn’t sure what to expect from them this year, but insists they have ‘one or two’ players that are ‘very good’.

Loftus added: “It’s their first year in the top league and we have some very good players who have played at the Super 8 standard in the national league, which is great!

“Alex is the easy choice, she is a quality player, but we have a new player Anna [Huttu], who is doing a fantastic job in the middle, her enthusiasm is excellent. Teresa [Mateju], again off the radar, she has just turned up and is doing really good things.”

Loftus has also been impressed by a number of players on the men’s side. Jermaine Miles has caught the eye of Loftus and he feels extremely fortunate to have him.

“We are very lucky to have Jermaine Miles, who is a first-year student. He spent a year in America at different colleges. I’m excited to have him for three years.

“Mark Garica-Kidd has been fantastic too, even helping me integrate with the guys! It’s been invaluable really. They are the kind of guys we will be building the team around this year.”

The men’s 1st’s will travel to Portsmouth on Wednesday, while the women’s team will travel to Cambridge on the 18th November.

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I'm an Editor at Risingeast.co.uk covering East London based side, Leyton Orient football club.
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