Volleyball in the United Kingdom – it’s not a very famous sport but in the University of East London volleyball is one of their biggest and most successful clubs. The east London club have made some tremendous progress and they achieved so much in the last six years. Most important of all their achievements is the fact that the club this season managed to fill four teams for the first time in their history, on a weekly basis.
After a successful 2014-15 season the UEL teams stepped up their game in the next season with a change in the coaching staff. The new volleyball coach was Simon Loftus who came in from America’s NCAA Volleyball to coach both men’s and women’s UEL teams.
Simon was a coach with a lot of experience and with a very rich resume. He brought into the UEL teams many experiences from the Senior Men Scottish National Team when he was head coach in 2009-2014 but also experiences from the 2012 Olympics as he was an assistant coach in the GB men’s team.
Inspired
Simon stepped up his work in the UEL teams from the first day as he increased the training sessions from once a week to five times a week. The increased training sessions inspired the teams to approach the sport with more professionalism and he piled on the pressure to perform.
Simon’s transformation of the clubs was very effective from the first season of 2015-2016. The women’s team was promoted to the Premier South league for their first time and managed to win it in the same year. Also, they have finished the year as the third best team in the country in the “Final 8s” Championship.
The men’s team on the other hand were runners-up on their Premier South league and they have finished as the sixth best team in the country. However, the first obstacle for the volleyball clubs arose from the Christmas break of 2017 when Simon told the team that he was leaving.
New Management
After that shocking departure, the wheel of the clubs was taken by another two-world class and experienced professionals, Jefferson Williams and Ian Legrand. Jefferson’s experiences are coming from the Super 8 division, the highest in England and he is currently the head coach of Malory Eagles Volleyball club. He is also the former Head Coach of the England senior women’s team and he attended the 2012 Olympics as part of the coaching staff.
Ian is the Head Coach of Great Britain’s women’s Paralympic team, and he was the coach of London Docklands, a team from the Super 8 league. He was also awarded as the High-Performance Coach of the Year 2012 at the Volleyball England annual awards. With all of these background experiences, UEL knew that after Simon’s departure the clubs were again in good hands.
Nevertheless, one of the biggest challenges that the UEL teams are facing is the fact that most of the scholars are usually staying in the team no longer than one year. For instance, this year, the men’s team have only three players from the last year’s successful team. However, all the credit goes to the UEL coaching staff who they managed to pass their ideas and philosophies effectively in only a couple of months. Hence, the positive outcome for UEL’s long-term success in BUCS competition each year, is the ability to mould different groups of individuals into collective winners.
New Squads, New Goals
Rising East spoke to the men’s and women’s first teams’ captains and asked what are their targets and ambitions for this season.
Corey Pieper, the men’s captain said: “So far I believe that we are a very strong team all the way around. We have entered a bit of a rough patch right now, however I have confidence in us going far. Once we solidify who we are and how we function we’ll be unbeatable. We all believe as a team that we have the potential to win the Premier South league.”
Katarina Boletou, the women’s captain added: “ We are a fairly new team. The starters are all new players and we are working hard to create chemistry. Our goal is to go as far as we can in the championship. My personal goals are to help the team go as far and possible and at the same time to improve my skills and performance.”
Second Best In The Country
Moreover, the biggest achievement for the volleyball clubs happened in the last season. For their first time in their history the men’s team advanced to the final of the BUCS Volleyball 2017/18 Championship. They played against the Northumbria University in the hope of winning the double as they already won the league.
Unfortunately, the East London team was defeated by three straight sets in the big final and they finished the season with the title of the second-best team in the country. Although the women’s team did not reach the finals they managed to finish as the third best team in the country for their second time in their history. They also managed to win their BUCS Premier South league for the second successive season and more than that, they won eight of their ten league games in straight sets.
The previous teams have set the goals and the ambitions for the next year’s teams very high. This year’s hopes for the UEL teams would be to finally bring one BUCS Championship trophy to East London.
