Volleyball: Bay thrives on perfect storm of excellence

The Bay of Plenty continues to be a talent factory for volleyball against the larger populations of Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch. Photo / Andrew Warner

The Bay of Plenty Times recently provided excellent coverage of the Trans-Tasman Volleyball Secondary School Championships.

This caused me to reflect on how the game has developed and how the Bay of Plenty became such a hotbed of volleyball talent.

For people not familiar with the sport, volleyball evokes images of young fit athletes in board shorts or bikinis on the beach during summer.

Volleyball however is so much more than that, incorporating a number of versions of indoor volleyball supported by officials and administrators, through to athletes studying and competing on the world stage.

Arguably one of New Zealand's most successful volleyball exports is coach Hugh McCutcheon, with his 2008 USA Men's gold medal at the Beijing Olympics followed by his 2012 USA Women's silver medal at the London Olympics.

McCutcheon recently returned to Christchurch for a family visit and very kindly worked with Volleyball New Zealand to provide a weekend of coach development.

Thanks to BayTrust coaching scholarships, Volleyball Bay of Plenty was able to send a group of coaches to soak up new knowledge and hear from the very best.

This is seen as a significant investment in the ongoing development of volleyball in the Bay.

Bay of Plenty has more than 50 age-group athletes in New Zealand indoor programmes and a further 29 age-group athletes in beach volleyball programmes. China, Portugal, Cyprus and Mexico are just some of the destinations young athletes from the Bay will compete at this year.

So why does the Bay continue to be a talent factory for volleyball against the larger populations of Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch? At recent Volleyball NZ high-performance camps held in Wellington, 55 per cent of female athletes and 61 per cent of the male athletes were from here. A further 18 are believed to be on full US university scholarships.

There is no single contributing factor, but a concept known as "the perfect storm". It is due to the fact boys and girls get to train and compete at the same locations, attend the same tournaments, learn the skills and tactical challenges of the game, the beautiful beaches of the Bay of Plenty, excellent coaching, councils providing beautiful facilities like ASB Arena, Volleyball Bay of Plenty and local clubs providing multiple opportunities and on-going media coverage - all combine to create the perfect storm that is volleyball in the Bay of Plenty.

Greg Cummings is the Chairman for Volleyball Bay of Plenty.