Volleyball Players - Join FEIA's new developmental program!

By Michael Clarkson

Attention volleyballers – come to the net!

The newest program in an ever-expanding FEIA is girls’ developmental volleyball, and its director, Jenn Kelly, is seeking players.

“We welcome athletes at different stages of their volleyball journey,” says Kelly, who has coached the sport for 12 years at club levels and for Brock University and Niagara College. “Athletes from other sports are encouraged to apply. Skills such as strength, agility, leadership, tactical thinking and communication often translate exceptionally well to volleyball.”

The program, which starts this September for Grades 9-12 students, plans to have scrimmages against club teams, tournaments and perhaps travel to the United States.

Recruiters from Brazil, Spain, the United States and Canada are working to find players. “Right now, we’re developmental, but we hope to move into a high-performance program, like the basketball program has (at FEIA),” she said. “We can build something really cool from scratch here. Any athlete getting involved now will leave a legacy here.”

The program will give players opportunities for college or university scholarships, which FEIA is known for in other sports.

Kelly, a Niagara Falls, resident, is currently a lead assistant for the men’s volleyball team at Niagara College where her daughters, Tess and Tia Kelly, are players. When the head coach was away, she became the first woman to coach a victory on the men’s side.

Jenn works at a Welland law firm in “dispute resolution” which is a skill she transfers to her volleyball coaching in settling disputes among coaches, players, officials and parents.

She is impressed with the FEIA culture, which helps to balance the lives of student-athletes, giving them more time to focus on athletics and academics. In a non-prep school environment, she said, athletes often get exhausted from their daily grind of “rushing from strength conditioning to practice to their parents and personal lives while neglecting their meals. They are constantly making sacrifices and can start losing the joy of their sport.”

At FEIA, she added, “they don’t have to worry so much about time management. Their nutrition is taken care of. Recruiters take care of their post-secondary needs. They’re in small classes with teachers who know their names. Life balance is built into their curriculum. It takes some pressure off – they can have time to be teenagers and to love their sport. They can have a life, and the best of both worlds.”

While they have made good strides in recent years, women in Canada still hold only about one-third of the college and university coaching jobs in girls and women’s sports. “We’re getting there, and funding is increasing,” Jenn says.

Kelly is a coach and on the board of directors for the well-established Niagara Rapids, one of about 100 volleyball clubs in Ontario. “There has been a huge push for women’s volleyball since 2022. It’s a fun sport; you and 12 girls and have fun relying on your teammates. It becomes a family activity involving the parents, friends, grandparents, coaches. The games are not true rivalries. We want to see all of us succeed and lean on each other, and to develop.”

Her philosophy is about balance – “to have accountability and competitive nature but still find joy in volleyball.”