Volleyballers suit up

BY DAVID BERRY

The next generation of Volleyball Horsham members will take the next step on their development pathway when they pull on the purple-andblack Phantoms uniform this weekend in Ballarat.

Ella Van Duren, Clare Whyte, Sebastian Maggs, Jack Snowden and Caleb Smith will all suit up for the Phantoms in the 43rd annual Skins Tournament.

Accompanying them will be the Volleyball Horsham Academy girls’ team, who will play their first tournament for the year as they prepare for Junior Country Championships in Mildura in June.

The Ballarat tournament serves as a last chance for Phantoms teams to get valuable match play prior to the start of the state league season, which gets underway on April 15.

More than 40 teams have entered, with three divisions for men and women, giving participants the chance to play against teams they have not played before.

In the top division, Caleb Smith will step up into the Phantoms men’s team, giving him the chance to play alongside former Australian team member Paul Sanderson, who will also be playing his first game for Phantoms.

They will be joined by familiar Phantoms faces in captain Cam Robinson, setter Nathan Berry, the improving Jack Exell and club veteran Josh Gordon, who makes his first appearance for the year.

“I’m excited to be given this opportunity and I really do look forward to playing alongside Sanderson,” Smith said.

“I got a taste of what he has to offer at a training session a couple of weeks ago and it will only serve me well going forward.”

In the case of Maggs, he played well in the men’s division three team at Warrnambool and is keen to keep on improving his game.

“It was great playing with other players in Warrnambool. It gave me a really good understanding of where my game was at and what I need to keep working on to hold my place in the team,” he said.

Snowden has made significant steps this year after coming off a serious shoulder injury last year.

Kara Johnson and Tamikah Dockrill will play with a much stronger women’s division one team than the one that played in Warrnambool, with key inclusions Kate and Holly Eason and Keely Knight.

Paige Hemley will get to put her experience from Warrnambool into practise in the division two team for this tournament and could be joined by Van Duren and Whyte along with the returning Mercedes Arnott, with teams still to be finalised.

For the Academy girls, it will be all about development as they step up into senior competition.

Assistant coach Kimberley Crabtree said as long as players showed continual improvement and learned as much as they could, she would be happy.

From a Volleyball Horsham perspective, the more opportunities these members take the better off the association is going to be.

Association stalwart Kara Johnson said to get the opportunity to play against new opposition and play with different players from other associations, in the case of the Phantoms players, would only improve a player’s game.

“And they then bring it back to our competitions and help improve those,” she said.

“It is great these kids are prepared to take these opportunities and face the challenges head on, because it will only be good for them in the long run.”

The Ballarat tournament starts at 8am on Saturday with men’s games at the Ballarat Minerdome, while the women will get the chance to play on the newly redeveloped Phoenix College courts in Sebastopol. Finals are on Sunday.

Ackland trio play triples

Coughlin Park Irish Triples tournament was a family affair for two Ackland brothers and their cousin.

John, Bruce and David Ackland formed a team to play in a tournament together for the first time last week.

John said they had been trying to arrange to play together for three years and the tournament was the perfect opportunity.

“I play at Sunnyside, Bruce plays at

Edenhope and David plays at Coughlin Park,” he said.

“We had shirts made with the Ackland family crest for the occasion.

“This is a great tournament and to see 25 clubs represented is fantastic. “We’re definitely going to try and get together to play as a team again.”

The tournament-winning team, hailing from Cohuna was Keith Foreman, Dallas Mathers and Rick Parr.