Birmingham Volleyfest Success
Tuesday 14th July 2009
Games Underway at Birmingham Volleyfest 2009
On the 4th July 2009 the club ran its first outdoor grass tournament – Birmingham Volleyfest – as part of Volleyball England’s regional grass series. The event was attended by 20 teams from all over the West Midlands and as far afield as Reading and Preston.
The day represented a huge success for the club in getting the tournament established and in the calendar for future years. The funding from Volleyball England helped ensure that activities for young children were available and the club put flyers around the local community advertising the day. The winners of the men’s event were the University of Birmingham, winner of the women’s competition: Lady Gios from Newcastle (Staffs) VC, and in the mixed competition: South Birmingham VC.
Birmingham Volleyfest was not just about the adult competition but also promoting volleyball in Birmingham and giving young people the opportunity to come along, join in and spend a day outside in the sunshine. The club provided two coaches throughout the day for young people, a bouncy castle and other activities for a fun day. Rachel Roche from West Midlands Refugees Project brought along twenty or so young people and had this to say afterwards:
I just wanted to say a big thank you to you and the coaches for last Saturday! It was a great day and the young people really enjoyed it.
We really appreciated receiving such a warm welcome when we arrived and that the coaches were ready to get everyone involved straight away, and it was really good to be able to join in and play with other people.
Finally, on behalf of the club, a big thank you to the chief organisers: Laura Beckmann, Tracey Blackwell, Tomasz Tomczak, Ben Boagey and Claudia Pietzsch; and of course to all the people who helped out on the day... too many to list. Special thanks also go to King Edwards School for allowing use of their field for free.