Volleyball NSW and Regional Academies of Sport (RASi) hosted the first ever RASi End of Season Championship. It started on Saturday the 6^th of August where the Head Coach of VNSW Chris Todd led the training and education session. It was followed by Pathways games where the RASi participants played against the Youth Phoenix teams. On the second day, the athletes from RASi competed amongst each other in the inaugural VNSW RASi Championship.

We have seen athletes and coaches from five different regions of NSW. North Coast Academy of Sport (NCAS), Hunter Academy of Sport (HAS), Western Sydney Academy of Sport (WSAS), Southwest Sydney Academy of Sport (SWSAS) and Illawarra Academy of Sport (IAS).

This Championship has been the peak of the season for Regional Academies where athletes could interact with other regions and play their best to be crowned as Champions in either Junior or Senior categories. The RASi programs have been training for this event for 4 months and it was inspiring to see so many athletes from across NSW play at a such a high level.

VNSW Head of Pathways Martin Reader said –

Our partnership with the Regional Academy network is new and a huge area of interest for us. Supporting regional athletes is one of our key interests and it is so exciting to see so many athletes from across NSW playing and competing. This is such a promising program that will play a significant role in the expansion of youth Volleyball in NSW as well as performance development for our Phoenix Pathway.

It has been an incredible weekend with more than 140 athletes and 20 coaches from five different academies participating and competing against each other. The championship concluded with 4 finals games where IAS has dominated in girls’ categories and SWSAS taking over the junior and senior boys’ categories.

Final Division Standings: