2022 Youth Beach Phoenix – Australian Youth Beach Volleyball Championships

This beach season was an overwhelming success based on the challenges we as a community overcame while widely increasing the quality and quantity of competitive athletes across NSW. Athletes had more robust development opportunities through Performance Camps while having more opportunities to compete at the youth, junior and senior levels.

We also experienced a boom in the U14 & U15 age groups thanks to the contribution of local clubs and which is a hugely exciting area of opportunity for learning and fun play.

Our state team program expanded to offer a new “squad” selection camp which boasted a record of 100 athletes vying to represent VNSW at Nationals. More athletes, more coaches, more regional participation across the state and more competitive opportunities made this a great year a huge win despite the impacts of COVID.

From Sunday 27^th March to Thursday 31^st March, Volleyball NSW Youth Beach Phoenix Teams travelled to Coolangatta, QLD to compete in the 2022 Australian Youth Beach Volleyball Championships. With a record delegation of 66 athletes and 16 coaches, this season was the largest cohort ever sent to nationals.

These athletes battled it out against not only some tough competitors from around Australia and New Zealand but also against the elements playing through torrential rain, strong winds and the occasional sprinkle of sunshine.

We would like to congratulate all NSW athletes on their performance in what was a week of incredible highs and some tough learnings. We are extremely proud of the effort and determination of our NSW athletes and excited for the future. I want to thank the athletes, parents and coaches for growing with us this year. We faced many challenges together, however, we persevered by working together through what we could control while letting go of what we couldn’t. What matters most is that the athletes had a memorable season that will support their growth as athletes and human beings.

Lastly, I want to highlight how special our NSW culture is. We as a team truly embraced representing NSW with pride, composure and character. Not only did we receive a lot of positive feedback on our style of game, people went out of their way to share how everyone wearing the Phoenix jersey were positive, supportive and well behaved. It is amazing that our genuine love of the game and desire for our teammates to do well is what other people notice about NSW. We have something special, lets keep growing together.

Martin Reader – Head of Pathways

Please see pictured below our medallists in 2022. We would like to say thank you to Rogue Gun Media for these images. You can find them on Instagram @rogue.gun and on Facebook at Rogue Gun Photography.