The Game Plan - quarter two updates (from July to September 2025)

A Club Welfare Officer Workshop, attended by 30 individuals, was held with guest speakers from Sport England’s Safeguarding Welfare Network, building expertise to support their clubs. Click here. 

Clubs were supported in how to raise funding through a Raising Money workshop, held online for affiliated clubs. Click here. 

The monthly Club Newsletter has been refreshed in a bid to better engage club officers on key topics. 

Volleyball England has collaborated with Berkshire Volleyball Association to onboard them onto the VolleyZone platform to strengthen their digital relationship with their clubs. 

The 25-26 HEVO Programme has been launched, celebrating its 15th year. The conference took place in September at Loughborough University, with 65 HEVOs and seven Senior HEVOs attending. 

The participants at the HEVO Conference have received training in supporting the running of sitting volleyball sessions. 

353 Clubs have affiliated and 5,417 individuals have been registered on VolleyZone by the end of September. 

As part of affiliation and registration of members for the new season, the guidance documents were refreshed, along with information on affiliation and membership benefits. Click here. 

A meeting of the Regional Chairs Meeting at Opening Weekend has been scheduled to discuss closer working. 

Launch of the VolleyZone Club Dashboard. 

Launch of the 2025-26 Club Survey in December. 

263 coaches successfully completing the new Volleyball England Safeguarding Children and Adults course. 

Greg Thompson gained his qualification at the first-ever World ParaVolley Beach Referee Course held in Turkey this October. 

Dee Wauchope was appointed as a jury member for the European Sitting Volleyball Championship in Hungary. Click here. 

Four new Beach Volleyball Referee Developers successfully completed their training at the Home Nations Championships and Bournemouth Grand Prix. Click here. 

New Grade 4 Sitting Volleyball and Beach Volleyball Courses have been introduced, including, self-directed study, online sessions, an exam and a practical assessment. Click here. 

Steph Coroi and Nick Sampson have represented England at the annual CEV Coaching Convention Zadar, Croatia. 

22 coaches completed the practical session of the Club Coach Award at Loughborough University in September. 

A Continuing Professional Development (CPD) session was delivered by Beach Volleyball Performance Director Kirk Pitman, with participation from 11 coaches representing the Beach Volleyball Development Centres and engaging 63 junior athletes. 

Launch of the Safeguarding for All Course. 

The first ever Beach Futures camp was held at Sideout (Leyton) in July, incorporating a coach development workshop into the programming. Click here. 

A team of England athletes competed in both the Senior and Junior NEZVA Youth Beach events, with the best athletes selected for the CEV Youth European Championships. Click here. 

England’s U22 women (in Slovakia) and U22 men (in Italy) competed in Euro qualification for the first time at that age group, providing sub-enior athletes valuable transitional competitive experience. Click here (men) and click here (women). 

U18 teams (Student Cup) and U20 teams (National Cup) have been entered in domestic events to increase competitive opportunities. Click here. 

Work has begun to integrate DiSE delivery with Perfbook to increase participant engagement and improve progression through the programme. 

A second round of cardiac screening for the Juniors took place at August camp. 

Two facilitators have been agreed and university partners engaged for running national team coach development, funded by the FIVB Empowerment programme. 

The first full Juniors training at Loughborough, after the move from Kettering, scheduled for December. 

U17 and U19 teams to compete at NEVZA – the U17 teams for a spot in the CEV European Championships. 

Senior England teams are to make use of the dedicated breaks in the Super League calendars to have regular training camps. 

Cardiac screening for Seniors to be scheduled. 

Joel Brannigan, from TASS, to present his S&C programming to Pathway athletes and their families, with community-wide distribution to follow. 

The Junior five-year vision has been created, aiming to create a more inclusive, connected and sustainable junior volleyball programme, and is to go out for consultation. Click here. 

Senior and Youth NEVZA Beach events staged across six days of competition in Bridlington, with England, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Iceland all competing. The Youth section acted as qualifiers for the CEV European Beach Championships. Click here. 

Enhanced standards and support provided for Player Registrations including a visa and extensive Internal Transfer procedure. 

New standards implemented into the NVL through 25-26 regulations, with new rule interpretations embedded into the NVL and wider national competitions. 

A first Media Day was hosted at Loughborough as part of the aim to professionalise the Super League. Click here. 

The MAAREE partnership – headline sponsors of the Women’s Super League – has been continued for a third year in a row, with new activations planned. 

A Queen & King of the Court Crown Series Event is to be hosted at Crystal Palace with operational and marketing support to be provided to event deliverers SportWorx. 

Super League Opening Weekend will be the first major event hosted at Loughborough, with a VIP reception, Regional Chairs meeting and National Referee Development Programme session to be held alongside eight matches. 

A stakeholder meeting to discuss the future of the Super League and its standards is to be held in October. 

Feedback is to be gathered from the Junior five-year vision consultation ahead of its launch. 

To mark the end of a 16-year relationship with Kettering Leisure Village, a series of articles and videos were released to pay tribute to the venue and highlight the important role it has played in the sport’s recent history. 

A long-term partnership agreement was signed with Loughborough University, designed to deliver a range of mutual benefits beyond facilities use, including enhanced early career pathways, volleyball-specific research initiatives and broader engagement with Loughborough’s student population. Click here. 

The newly-established Player Community Group has formally defined its purpose and agreed its Terms of Reference. This marks a significant step in formalising a mechanism for player voice. 

Board member, Jill Osleger and Charlie Ford met with Greg Brown and Janet Inman from the Foundation to explore closer alignment ahead of the Foundation finalising its new strategy. 

In collaboration with the Volleyball England Foundation, a hardship fund is being established to support talented athletes on the England pathway who are facing financial challenges. The fund will be named after Ann Jarvis to recognise her status the highest England caps holder (176).  

As part of National Inclusion Week, GNG Bedford founder Rajinder Singh was a guest on the Digging Deeper podcast, sharing his journey in the sport and his experiences growing up as a young Punjabi man in England. Listen here. 

Volleyball England inducted its biggest cohort of Student Placement Officers (SPOs), with seven students coming into post. Click here. 

Player Community Group will meet with the Board to explore ways get the player voice better heard across the sport.  

The Hub Team, Sub-Groups and working groups will be reviewing progress of the current annual operating plan as part of planning for 2026-27. 

A new partnership with a mental health and wellbeing provider to be formally launched.