Volleyball England Foundation caught up with Wayne Barber Chair of HEYVA to see how their sitting volleyball team development was going.

Why did Wayne apply for the funding support from the Foundation? “We applied for funding as Sitting Volleyball was something that was part of the medium term plan for the HEYVA region. However, after having some enquiries regarding whether Sitting Volleyball was available in the area and seeing the funding become available, it was an easy decision to apply for it.” said Wayne.

 “The award of the funding was an essential part of us being able to offer sitting volleyball, although we had all the basic equipment such as balls, we didn’t have any equipment that would have made an acceptable sitting volleyball net. Additionally as the COVID took hold the provision of a COVID cleaning kit has meant we could start sessions as soon as restrictions allowed.”

Getting a new venture off the ground is always difficult what did you do to get things going?

 “In order to promote the new sessions, we have promoted heavily through social media.” Wayne explained “I have also been in contact with all the clubs in the HEYVA region as well as promoting through several disability and veteran charities. The response has been positive from most but the btw test generated has been minimal. We are planning to do a poster/leafleting campaign at local charities, leisure centres, gyms, physios, etc… in other to hopefully broaden our reach.”

What have you found to be the biggest challenges in getting sitting volleyball going? “The most challenging aspect has been getting people to commit longer term to the sitting session. It has also been challenging to secure court time as the club have many teams and a limited amount of court time.”

 What are you plan for the future?

Wayne told us about his long term vision “Our aspirations going forward are to attract extra players and thus give us the ability to compete in the national Grand Prix competitions.”

Thanks to Wayne for his insight into the development of the sitting volleyball team in Hull and East Yorkshire.