Dan Catchpoole has been hitting the peaks of volleyball in the Blue Mountains from driving the inclusion of volleyball in the Western Sydney Academy of Sport (WSAS), to organising multiple Spikeroos programs, socials comps, and team tours. Thanks to Dan there is an opportunity for everyone in the Blue Mountains.

Dan shares with the community what’s been happening in the mountains:

Wycliffe Christian School Volleyball Program

This has been running since 2008 (recently reignited after Covid) and has a keen group of youngsters working hard every Friday morning from 7am (in mid-winter) to hone their volleyball skills and learn to play a sport none of them have had experience playing before.

Over the years we have produced:

• 2 x NSW State Athletes
• 6 x NSW Combined Independent Schools (CIS) athletes
• 10 x NSW Christian Schools Sports Association (CSSA) athletes.

The school enters teams in the CSSA Gala days (now a two day event with 50 teams) and NSW Schools Cups and I have run 3 tours to the Australian Volleyball Schools Cup in November.

Wycliffe Community Social Volleyball

Is a competition at the school – which this year has seen 8 teams form consisting of students, teachers, families, associates and even NSW Volleyball staff! – for a competition where it’s just about the fun and fellowship of it all. We get great joy in just seeing people playing the great sport of volleyball together no matter their age, ability, or athletic skills – welcoming our special needs kids into our teams to join in. It’s a hoot!

This is our 10^th year of running the comp…. and is our largest to date.

Spikeroos Programs

These have been running in Katoomba, which is above the snow line for the past couple of years. We have a small but keen group of kids learning the sport with local coaches starting to emerge. A number of these kids are starting to join other programs such as WSAS which sees kids travelling from as far as Hartley to be at training and games.

Western Sydney Academy of Sport (WSAS)

Had its first run at Volleyball this year with several athletes from the Blue Mountains entering the program. As WSAS covers the region from Parramatta to Mount Victoria in the BMs we decided we should have some of our ‘camps’ there – holding two camps (4-hour sessions) in Warrimoo and Katoomba, highlighting what can be achieved in our area.

“Dan Catchpoole has been a fantastic advocate for our sport. As a coach and mentor coach based in the Blue Mountains, Dan has worked hard to develop connections and grassroots participation which has seen great success. Dan’s passion for people playing and enjoying the sport has been fundamental to the growth of volleyball opportunities in the Blue Mountains”

Head of Participation, Tijanna Bibis