Manchester Marvels, not just teammates but best friends.

1.    Tell us a bit about your club, history, achievement over the years

Work on setting up the club started in 2011, with University of Manchester Volleyball Club women’s coach Thomas Atkinson (previous VE and Tameside development officer) and the UMVC Club chairman at the time, as there was no National League men’s team in Manchester after Manchester VC folded in 2010. After a year of recruiting players from the Greater Manchester League, with full support from the UMVC committee and their men’s coach Howard Ainsworth (now of Urmston Grammar), the club officially formed in 2012 and entered both men and women in NVL division 3. Both teams won their respective leagues in their first year; this success was quickly followed by entering 2nd teams the next year and 3rd teams another year later, becoming one of the biggest NVL clubs in the country. In its beginnings, the club’s mission statement was to provide everyone in Greater Manchester the opportunity to play National League volleyball; over the years the club has expanded on this to providing volleyball to as many people as possible, no matter your playing level and experience. The club grows continuously and we pride ourselves on being open and welcoming; seeing the club grow is what gives us the most joy.

Our development officer – now chairman – has always been very active in the community, engaging schools and colleges in volleyball, so in the last couple of years we have been able to develop our own players as a club. It is amazing to see the development of local players, girls going to scholarships abroad, players moving away and performing well in higher divisions, including the Super League. We have a lot of talented junior players coming through the girls academy this year, something that the club is keen to expand on and improve. Another new introduction is the development team, who have been playing in the local league and national cup, giving players of all ages an experience of competitive volleyball before they play in the NVL. It’s humbling to see the amount of support the senior players give to juniors and development players; it’s a reflection of volleyball in this country, everyone wants to see others enjoying the sport they love.

2.    How has the COVID 19 impacted on your club? 

Similarly to all volleyball clubs, we have had to cancel all our activities mid-March onwards. This also meant the cancellation of our 5th annual Manchester volleyball festival, where we get players from all over Manchester and beyond coming together; it’s normally a celebration of volleyball at the end of the season, so it’s a shame we can’t do it again this year.

We have a lot of enthusiastic beach players and in the summer the club travels all over the UK to take part in various outdoor tournaments and beach volleyball competitions. This year, players were also due to compete in tournaments in Italy and the Netherlands. Due to COVID-19, we’re all being forced to experience a very different summer to what we’d envisaged.

3.    In addition to not playing and training are there other ways you have been impacted?

For a lot of our members, the club is a very big part of their lives; even more so, their teammates are some of their best friends. We are all used to seeing each other regularly and the club has a lot of social events and takes part socially in many other sports, so not being able to get together in person in any way has been the hardest thing. Our Men’s 1st team didn’t get to take part in playoffs; they got promoted to division 1 and cannot get together to celebrate, which is a very odd feeling for the guys.

As a committee we’ve been trying to keep ourselves busy and motivated, fundraising over the summer to compensate for lost income from events, to enable us to return to the sport we love as soon as it is safe to do so. We have been successful in our bid to the Sport England Community Emergency Fund, but we are not stopping there as we look for sponsorship support and ways our teams can fundraise for themselves.

4.    What have you been doing to keep in touch with your players/ members?

At the start of lockdown, we produced a volleyball-specific exercise programme to do at home. We gave out balls so members could practice at home. We also have outdoor equipment available for members to use in line with government guidance.

We have taken this opportunity, when everybody has a bit more time, to conduct a club survey to gain feedback and advise from all club members, to assist the committee in improving the club so that we return stronger than before, providing what our members want.

We are, however, a big club, with more than 60 members and countless pay-as-you-go friends, so it’s hard to keep in touch with everyone. Teams and small groups of friends have been meeting regularly via video calls to have a chat and play some games. The club’s WhatsApp group chat is always busy, with people supporting each other / poking fun at each other; we even have a club member currently stuck in Brazil, but he seems quite content with that!

5.    Tells us about any of your club’s members who have gone above and beyond during this difficult time?

We are proud to have NHS workers in the club. One of our former committee members works as a nurse in Manchester and another women’s player’s work involves testing for COVID-19 infections. One of our current committee members is caring for a vulnerable child, alongside her full time job and club work. We have many other key workers in pharmacy and manufacturing doing invaluable work. The club are planning to raise money for charity and our players were given the option to donate their May’s monthly membership fee to charity rather than cancelling the payment.

6.    What do you think will be the biggest challenges when returning to the court?

We believe that will be working with Dean Trust Ardwick school. We have a close relationship with the school; we introduced volleyball to the school, our junior sessions are free for their students and we have plans to get more of the students and staff involved. However, we do not know how schools will be affected and whether that will in turn affect how much we can work with them. It’s very important to us to re-establish that friendship and support their staff once we are able to return to the volleyball court.

7.    What support could the Foundation offer clubs once the lockdown is over?

A large number of clubs run tournaments to raise funds; if, like now, this is not possible, are there any alternative fundraising activities?

In addition, it would be very helpful to receive any advise on how to work with schools/venues and what has been successful for others. It would also be good to know what funding is available to support school volleyball activities.

Thank you Tom Atkinson (Manchester Marvels VC Chairman) and Alia Paschali (Club Secretary).

To find out more about Manchester Marvels go to http://www.manchestermarvels.com/