Our FEIA Girls' Volleyball is Up and Running!
By Michael Clarkson
When Jenn Kelly signed up with FEIA, she thought she was going to be “just” the coach of our new girls’ volleyball team.
“I found out quickly I’m holding many roles,” she laughed recently at the team’s Rivergate Academy practice facility. “I have to also be a nurse, a counsellor, parent and sometimes a translator.”
The team’s 11 competitive and four developmental players hail from Serbia, Spain, Brazil, Russia, South Korea, Montenegro and Kazakhstan.
“We have quite a diversity of players,” said Kelly, who is also the director of the FEIA program. “We have four super good players and others with not as much skill. But we will develop at the season goes along. They are great kids, a fun group.”
The international players were discovered by FEIA’s recruiting agents in those countries.
For its inaugural season, the Falcons will largely play an exhibition and tournament schedule in an under-18 age group, including an event on Oct. 13 in St. Catharines and another in January in Welland.
The Falcons are looking for more action, perhaps three games and one tournament per month. Many of their contests will be against the Niagara Rapids Volleyball Club of St. Catharines, who they defeated in a friendly match on Sept. 21.
On the competitive roster are Kristina Bubnova, Valentina Castano De Oliviera Veloni, Damija Hadzic, Isadora Holanda Fontes, Alissa Junissova, Ana Milosevic, Jovana Raicevic, Masa Tanasijevic, Jovana Vojinovic, Valeria Garcia, and Anna Carolina Lopes Feil.
Jenn said starting the club with all foreign students at first seemed overwhelming. “The players are away from home and away from their parents, so they need support. I’ve learned so much about them, and about myself as a coach.”
Right now, many of them are playing the same positions, but that will change as they develop. “As a team, we’ll be competitive.”
The Falcons expect to lose just two players to graduation.
Jenn has coached volleyball for 12 years at club levels and for Brock University and Niagara College. “Right now, we’re developmental, but we hope to move into a high-performance program, like basketball has,” she said. “We can build something really cool from scratch here. Any athlete getting involved now will leave a legacy here.”
Jenn, a Niagara Falls resident, works at a Welland law firm for “dispute resolution” issues.
As with our other sports, the FEIA volleyball program gives the students opportunities for college or university scholarships.
Meanwhile, FEIA continues to grow its athletic program. The boys’ soccer team has expanded to two squads in its second season under coach Aleks Balta, and a golf team is in the planning for next year.
