Once upon a time……If this were a fairy tale that is how the story that ensued would have begun. However, in the beginning, GB Volleyball was far from a fairy tale. However it has not been without it’s main characters. Those pivotal players/athletes/men who were there from the beginning.
Something that has to be made clear straight away is that these great players we are about to talk about had the option to embark on this historic sporting journey because of those coaches, teachers, parents who guided their Volleyball careers.
In an ere when volleyball lived and breathed on the sacrifice and enthusiasm of the volunteers, the fanatics. Giving up so much to help those who are now in the British National leagues, the Home Nation’s National Team’s, British National Team’s or even playing professionally with a goal of being a part of a home Olympics.
Here at SIXVSIXVOLLEY we hope to bring you the un-sung heroes story soon but until then we will come back to those we have named ‘Founding Fathers’.
The ‘Founding Fathers’ were all around pre-GB and had come through their respective Home Nation systems to reach the heights of their respective countries Senior National Team.
Then, having played against one another, came together, as a united front to start the GB journey to the 2012 Olympics.
Those players are Andrew Sinclair, Alistair Galloway, Alex Porter and Jonny Hurley. Sadly they are no longer with the GB team but their mark will always be etched in British Volleyball history.
As with all the other players who are no longer with the squad they will be carried to the home Olympics on the shoulders of those lucky enough to make the final selection. As much apart of the journey as those leaving their blood, sweat and tears at Earls Court.
Part III – Alex Porter
Firstly, how would you describe your journey through the Home Nations National team?
I was one of those ‘ones to watch’ when I was 16-17, not surprising as I was already 6’8” at that point. I got my first cap for England aged 17 against Scotland and was then part of the squad for every match/tournament (excluding injury) until I retired. During the 1997-2006 period I had the pleasure of playing with some of England’s greatest players.
When and how did you start playing Volleyball
I started playing when I was 11 years old at school (Tendring Technology College) and I use the wording playing very loosely. Although my team had some early success I was anything but the star of the team, aged 11 I was 6 foot and couldn’t catch let alone dig, set or hit. At 13 (year 9) I got my first rejection, I had a trail with the East U15 team and didn’t make it but my friends did. The next year was when everything changed, I found myself playing for Essex, East of England, Central England and England Juniors. At this point I was still only playing local league and needed to step up, so I signed for Essex Estonians (NVL Div 3) in the 96/97season and spent most of the season on the bench. At the end of the season my England Junior coach, Ian Legrand invited me to play for his team Croften in NVL Div 2 only for the England Senior coach Jefferson Williams to come along and ask me to play for Malory(97-99) where I was starting 6. From here I won the league and cup and then moved to play for Croften/London Docklands(00-01) and Sheffield(01-03) where I was a member of the England development squad. I then moved to Europe to play professionally, first in Sweden for Vingaker(03-04) and Sokel V(04-05) in Austria.
I gained my first England Senior cap at the Perestroika tournament in Huddersfield, I was with the juniors where we were playing Scotland Juniors before the main event of England Seniors v Scotland Seniors. While warming down after humping Scotland 3-0, Ian Legrand and Jefferson Williams walked over and asked how I was feeling which I replied good. They looked at each other and then said stop warming down you’re in the squad for the seniors. I remember being scared to death for the next 5 minutes until the warm up started. I had the best warm up and came on at the end of each set, winning 3-0.
Before the current GB program I was part of its predecessor which was more of a training agreement (high peaks) with a few matches thrown in for good measure. These were 2 week camps for juniors and seniors where your playing level went through the roof. These were held in England, N. Ireland and France and typical, the senior part stopped as I became a member of the senior squad.
I was part of the current GB program from day 1 but after a number of surgeries on my knee I had to retire from playing at the top. I now play for Tendring VC along with fellow former England Cadet/Senior/Docklands player Neil Masters where we have been prompted from Div 3 to Div 1.
What are your fondest memories of the Home Nations times?
There are too many, I’ve been on so many trips in so many countries that its difficult to pin point 1 or 2 but here goes.
Playing Wise
It’s weird because I can tell you more about the changing rooms and how I felt before/after a game than actually what happened in matches, but there are few occasions that I remember. These being my first cap as mentioned above and the wonderful world of Upper Heyford, where you slept on the floor in all your clothes, ate microwave meals and took antibiotics just in case. These weekends spent at Heyford were horribly but also fun, we pushed each other’s skills, became a team and dreamed of what we could do with a full time fully funded program.
Off The Court
A team mate wasn’t feeling very well on a bus journey from Belarus to Lativa, it just happened that the moment we got to the boarder he needed to be sick. The bus door was opened very quickly and he jumped out and proceeded to be violently sick right in front of the heavily army Belarusian boarder guard, missing his shoes my centimetres. At the time it was scary to say the least but highly amusing afterwards.
While in Belfast for a home nations tournament Andy Sinclair, Neil White, Efe Eruero, Tom Ward and I were very bored in the kitchen and tried to come up with games to pass the time. The first one was a kitchen obstacle course for bottle tops, it started off as just flicking the tops to the other end of the work surface but finished with us creating an entire course using the work surfaces, cooker, chairs, frying pans, tables, dustbins and anything else we could get our hands on. After that we played a bit of word association which for most people can be mildly amusing, the problem was every other person kept on saying Wardy’s mum, which as you can imagine got more and more provocative, especially when Wardy said his mum. Bless her she’s a lovely lady. Still to this day I don’t think I have laughed as hard as I did for those 20 minutes.
I have to mention the fact that when we were in Saudi Arabia we had one Arabic speaker in the squad, Yassir Sliti. We were taken into Riyadh for some sightseeing and shopping and were given an hour to go off and explore. We were told to meet at a certain mosque at 8pm. Everyone got back to the coach safe and sound except the group that contained Yass, how can the only person who speaks the local lingo get lost? If there was ever a problem you know it would involve him (and probably Weemes), he turned up over 30mins late saying he’d got lost and was taken to different mosques when asked for direction.
Who was most influential in your early career or Home Nation career?
I’ve had the privilege to have been coached by the best coaches England has every had, without all of them I probably wouldn’t have achieved what I did, so mention only 1 would be an injustice.
Ralph Hippolyte – When he spoke you listened, when he told you not to eat tomatoes you didn’t, he had some crazy ideas but it worked. He would come over and say “Alex, how many time do I have to tell you? Put your elbow here” and he would move my arm in a way that felt uncomfortable. I’d then hit a middle ball and bounce it into the roof, I’d try again and it would go half the height. He’d come over again and move my arm and again I’d bounce a ball into the roof. I wish I had more time with him
Keith Trenam – Keith coached me at England cadet level and then again in the England Development squad. I’d say he is the best technical coach we have in England and without him I would have never of played professionally. I use to live around the corner from him in Sheffield and we had some good conversations on the way home, he always thought of the bigger picture, of where we should be.
Ian Le Grand – Ian coached me in the England Juniors, he asked me to join the juniors a cycle early and from him I learnt many things especially that he doesn’t speak Serbo Croate J. Ian likens volleyball to business, everything has a process. He got the team to buy into a plan, so if A happens 80% of the time then do B 100% of the time and you will win but if you deviate from the plan then you let yourself and everyone else down. He must have stacks of books off all the statistics he made from games. He is probably one of the best match day coaches I ever had, ie I had to describe him in three words it would be “preparation preparation preparation”
Jeff Williams – Jeff was my coach at Malory and when I first broke into the England seniors. The first time I meet Jeff was in a friendly between England juniors v Malory, I remember him hitting a ball through 2 onto the 3m line, I was stand 6m back from the net and was lost for words. As a coach Jeff is a combination of the above 3 but with a more relaxed approach.
Player wise – Matt Jones, when I was 18 I meet him for the first time when we played Scotland in Scotland. He scared me but he was THE MAN, he oozed confidence and national pride and that’s what I wanted to be like.
What were you initial thoughts when the winning bid was announced? Did you know straight away that there would be a British indoor volleyball team going to the games?
My initial reaction was YES YES YES but then it dawned upon me that I’d be 32 and we would need to be of a competitive standard as the BOA wouldn’t want a repeat of the Italian 2006 Winter Olympic ice hockey team performance (bottom of table, 1 goal for, 32 against). Although on reflection neither my age nor competitive standard wouldn’t have been a problem.
Were there any funny stories from the beginning when the Home Nation players were coming together?
As Sinks and Ali have already said, Yass whipping Tommy and the squad waxing Yass are high up there. The other moments have to include “The pharaohs dog” , Spider Todd, Ali’s birthday and Gomo falling out of a tree. We were on a 3 week trip in France for the first GB away trip, indecently the same trip as the whipping and waxing, and it was Ali’s birthday. I cant remember how it came about but we found a stretcher, bed sheets and string/rope and decided that we would tie him to the stretcher, carry him around and leave him in random places. He found himself outside the canteen, student residential blocks and a few other random places, I got a funny feeling we was also covered in something… oh yes toothpaste on the face and water in the groin region. Oh happy days
Spider Todd! Just think spider pig from the Simpsons
Which British Volleyball memory still gives you goose bumps?
Easy, there are two.
2007 in Poland, our first game in the Hubert Wagner Tournament was against Germany. It feels me with pride when I think that I lined up before the game as captain, realising we are now playing with the big boys.
The following game we played Poland, the then world no 2, live on Polish TV and in front of a packed stadium. We lost the first set 25-20 and towards the end of the second set I came off, I sat on the bench and then looked up at the score, it was 23-23, I get so focused that I rarely look at the score in a game. We won the set 26-24 and as we walked around to the other side I knew this was a moment in history. The crowd was silent and a Polish friend of mine said the commentators were destroying the Polish team.
What was your biggest dream for the British team when you started?
Everyone dreams of winning gold at the Olympics but you have to be realistic, my dream for the team was to get to the Olympics and then make it passed the group stage. To achieve this with the budget that we had would be remarkable, a feat that no one would expect. The second part of the dream would be that the squad/sport is recognised by the British public, to have their faces in the paper alongside the other ‘major’ sports.
Toughest moment in volleyball?
I can pin point it exactly, I was sat on the toilet in my house in Holland with team GB/Martinus and I couldn’t get up, I physically couldn’t stand up. I’d given everything for team GB, my job, my girlfriend, my house, blood sweat and tears and the last thing I could give was my body and as I sat there not able to standt up, I knew that I’d now given my body. This was when I knew I had to leave, I had to go home and have my surgery on my knee which would end my career. This makes me well up writing this.
Which time in volleyball will you never forget?
I’ve been involved in volleyball for over 20 years and I’m only 31 and I remember hardly anything from primary school, so volleyball has been my life so I will remember all of it. If I have to pick a couple of times they would be winning my first England senior cap, 5 years in Sheffield, 1st year as a pro and the France trip.
What is volleyball for you now?
I now play/assistant coach for Tendring in NVL Div 1 and coach one of their other teams there, Neil Masters and I also coach the England Junior South team.
Known within the British Volleyball family as some of the founding athletes and influential characters how do you look back on your GB/International career?
One word – Pride.
How do you see the future of British Volleyball?
The program has made so much progress since the beginning, if we can keep this up British volleyball will have a very rosy future. The standard of play has greatly improved, the number of club training ever day has increased which will only result in the sport being better supported. With this support and the clear pathways we now have in place I wish I was 11 again. I look forward to them becoming recognised internationally as a force to reckon with.
In your career what was the biggest lesson you learnt?
Have a plan , play the system and mental confidence, which all link in together. The first two can be taught or handed to you on a plate, the third is more difficult to obtain but comes from believing in yourself. When you’re on the court a serve is a serve, forget the score and play it like you do every time. All 3 lessons can be applied on and off the court.
What would be your best piece of advice, having experienced all that you have?
Look after your body, no one else will, do the stupid little exercises even when u think they don’t do anything and if u want to get to the top you have to fight for it because you are the only one that’s going to make it happen.
It is clear that you have the respect of all of your British Volleyball peers so describe to us what it means to pull on the National Team strip (answer for your respective Home Nation or GB)?
Last weekend I was given my England top with my name on from over 5 years ago, I didn’t know I was going to receive it and it brought back so many memory but more than anything it made me so proud that I actually found myself standing up straight. To wear the shirt is a privilege, there are 62 million people in this country and very few people get the chance. When the shirt goes over your head and you pull it down, everything else has to go out of the window, arguments, frustrations, shopping lists etc. The last thing you have to be when you’re playing for your country is responsible, you have to do the right thing at the right time.
Ports
