Each year we ask a number of our youngsters to report back on their SW IRC experience, today we focus on Vakare Zalieckaite (SW Number 6) from our U17 Squad.
On Friday the 29th of April, we left Exeter St David’s Station carpark at around 2pm. Whilst travelling to Leicester, was filled with fun conversations, singing, and music from our very own u17s playlist, a journey that should have been around six hours ended up taking a lengthy eight and a half hours. After arriving at the hotel at 10:30, we had a quick team talk before settling down for our games the next day.
Waking up early on Saturday morning, we filled our stomachs with a fulfilling breakfast of eggs and bacon for the busy day ahead of us. The hotel by Leicester Stadium was only around 15 minutes away from the sports hall, so after a short journey, we reached our destination. It was filled with teams from all over the UK. Our first match was also the first match of the day, against North West.
After a slightly rough start, the match ended, giving us our first win. The rest of our day was filled with successful games and checking out our opposition’s gameplay. We finished the day winning every match in our pool. Heading back to the hotel after a long day, we arrived an hour before our joint dinner with all the South West teams and all of our coaches. Due to the large size of our group, we had a special room booked for us and a small buffet provided with a delicious chocolate torte for dessert. Once dinner was finished, we had a couple hours of social time before we settled for bed.
Unpredictably, my room’s alarms didn’t ring on Sunday morning. We woke up with ten minutes to get dressed and make sure everything was packed. Thankfully, a couple of our team mates had taken us some breakfast for the coach ride back to the sports hall. Once again, the first match of the day was also our first match against West Midlands. We won 2-0! The finals was against London, the girls played extremely well and had incredible plays and saves; however, in the end, London won this match. After this long weekend, we placed second in the u17s girls IRC, an incredible outcome!
After the small celebration ceremony and our last team meeting, we all said our goodbyes. Whilst I didn’t get to play much that weekend, this was an unreal experience, and I loved every moment. I spent part of my time on the side-lines with my fellow cheer squad, supporting my team and ending the weekend with a lost voice. Over the weekend and previous SW training session, I met so many new people and made some friendships I never thought I would have. This was my first year attending anything South West related but luckily not my last. I hope to get this experience again next year as I made an abundance of long-lasting memories.
Thank you to Dave (our head coach) and Laura (assistant coach) for leading us over the past year and all the hard work you put into our team. I would also like to say thank you to Dave Reece, for organising the weekend, driving our minibus all the way from Exeter to Leicester and back, documenting the weekend through some great photos, and making this opportunity possible for me. And finally, a massive thank you to this year’s swu17 team. You all made wonderful contributions and we couldn’t have gotten this far without everyone. It was lovely to meet every single one of you, although some of you aren’t able to come back next year, hopefully we get to play with or against each other soon. Congratulations, you were amazing, and good luck in your future volleyball endeavours!
Vakare Zalieckaite
