If you want a life in Volleyball – get the wife involved!

My exposure to volleyball initially came about at school where French teacher Philip Downes ran a team at Manchester Grammar School. I didn’t play as I was mainly a swimmer although I represented school in various sports – but not volleyball. It did mean however that I got the chance to try it out at some of the annual school camps that they ran

At University in Newcastle I continued my swimming and water polo, despite not being very good at either. I was however reliable, and my administrative skills were also honed as secretary of the swimming club and captain of water polo – much to the amusement of my former school mates when I met them at an inter universities tournament in Scotland! Once again, I sampled volleyball at a taster session and soon found myself playing a season for a university team. Although I lacked skills, my general athleticism and height at 6 feet 2 inches proved useful on the front court.

Leaving university after 5 years, I was looking for something else to do. I joined British Telecom in Newcastle and supposedly they had a volleyball club run by coach Richard Gill. It soon became apparent that not only was I reasonably tall, but I had a very good standing jump. The net result was that I gradually improved my play with blocking becoming my speciality. Over the next 4-5 years I played and helped run a number of clubs in the North East and came under the wing of Newcastle volleyball stalwart Ian Berry and his daughter and later England Ladies Captain Wendy Gate. My masterstroke was in persuading my wife Sandra to play and with Wendy’s brilliant coaching, captaincy and superb play, she was bitten by the bug too as the ladies won the league in her very first season of playing. At least that meant that she too shared my passion and our social life therefore revolved around the sport. During my time in the North East, as well as playing, I took on various roles for club and as competitions secretary for the North East Volleyball Association.

A job move to the Midlands meant a search for a new club. The first to show any interest was Tamworth VC then under the guidance of Ian Wall. Caravan Club volleyball also became a focus and we were key members on the Midlands Centre for many years playing against such seasoned volleyball campaigners as Dave and Penny Speers, Paul and Rich Bohannon and Keith Edwards amongst others. Nearly 25 years in the Midlands were spent with Tamworth in a variety of playing roles as well as filling every job on the committee at various times. I also spent over 20 years on the Birmingham and District and West Midlands Volleyball Association committees finishing as chair of WMVA for a number of years until moving back to the North West some 4 years ago. Whilst in the Midlands I also graduated through both coaching and refereeing grades.

A job move back to Lancashire has been a major change in lifestyle and a need to connect with a whole raft of volleyballers – many of whom I had only previously encountered on the court or in meetings. Current involvement includes helping to run and coach two clubs in Northern Manchester Bees and Preston Panthers. My playing days are slipping away due to bad knees, but still try to train or run sessions. I am also a relatively active NVL referee and weekends are still therefore often spent on the side of the court. I also now sit on my third regional committee as part of the North West Volleyball Association and this season I volunteered to chair the Greater Manchester Volleyball Association.

A year or so, one of the local volunteers demanded to know what I knew about the sport. When I mentioned the various roles I had occupied, he was slightly more understanding of me.

My work life is very different from volleyball which has always been my relief valve and birthdays and other events have always taken a back seat to volleyball matches etc.

Bryan, the young man on the back row No.11

Bryan’s real-life outside Volleyball and how he is supporting others during COVID 19.

I am a Chartered Surveyor and town planner by training – although retirement beckons. After many years working in property for restaurants (5 years running my own McDonald’s franchise ) and retail, my current role is as Group Head of Property for Mydentist which is the largest group of dentists in Europe with some 600 dental practices across the UK. I have a team of about 40 people who are responsible for acquisition and disposals, managing the leases, building and maintaining the practices, facilities management, planning, equipment , record keeping, etc, etc. Despite most of our practices being closed during the current crisis apart from telephone triaging emergency cases, the workload has increased as some members of the team have been furloughed and other work streams have come on line.

We are now planning the opening of Urgent Dental Centres with some 21 opening this week alone. Plans to re-open more widely are also taking shape as the NHS and the Chief Dental Officer develops safe procedures for staff and patients. One of the key issues for us after ensuring that the business is secure has been how we can operate without aerosol generating procedures which could spread the virus. All these matters are being considered very carefully so that we can build the confidence of patients and of our own staff in the coming weeks. We have been watching the experiences of other countries in dentistry and applying their lessons to our response. In the coming years I think we will all see greater digitalisation of dentistry with more use of scanners and other less hands on processes.

And in his spare time – he’s just going to build a house!

Luckily, I finished building a new house on a Lancashire hillside last year. Had we been building this year it would have been a costly (many materials have increased substantially in price) nightmare.  At least that means I have lovely walks down the hills around Accrington to break the tedium of sitting in my study in front of a computer screen. Watching the new lambs across the fence in the good weather has been a frequent pastime. My diesel bills have also plummeted as I am not travelling the country at present. After being used to rushing from one activity to another as well as travelling the UK, spending long days in one room has had the effect of dissuading me spending personal time on volleyball matters on the computer however. Switching off the screen is a must these days. Thankfully the volleyball admin. Is reduced at present

Looking forward to celebrating his 40th Wedding anniversary after the lockdown.

Keeping going is purely about grinding it out. Even simple things like going for a quick pint at weekends (I hate fizzy beer) or taking the caravan away for a short break are things to wish for. We should have had a holiday in Madeira and celebrated 40 years of marriage over the Bank Holiday weekend in Italy with friends. Instead, it looks like a take- away for two in front of the TV!!! It will be great to have the odd trip to look forward to again. At least some sports are now re-opening and I’m still trying to work out how I’m going to change to take my Phantom sailing dinghy out for a blast without shocking the wildlife with views of senior citizen flab! The challenge going forward will be dragging people back onto the court after the enforced layoff. Hopefully, everybody will be raring to go and we can build bigger and better clubs.

Have a lovely anniversary Bryan and Sandra, love from your Volleyball Family.