Norwood’s women’s volleyball team head to Asia for games and orphanage visits
NORWOOD’S senior women’s volleyball team is preparing for an end-of-season trip with a difference.
NORWOOD’S senior women’s volleyball team is preparing for an end-of-season trip with a difference.
The Bears’ 12-strong squad will head to Myanmar and Thailand tomorrow for a two-week tour that includes nine games and cultural outings.
Among the highlights of the state league club’s itinerary are holding volleyball clinics at an orphanage in Chiang Mai, Thailand, staying at a monastery and playing Myanmar’s national team to open the country’s new volleyball stadium, which holds 11,000 people.
Bears coach Andrew Hunter says the idea for the trip emerged about 18 months ago after speaking to his friend, Trevor Wilson, a former Australian ambassador to Myanmar.
“It’s more than a sporting tour — it’s a genuine intercultural exchange,” says Hunter, who has helped to organise the trip.
“I really saw an opportunity for our group of intelligent, young Australians to go out and see the world but also use volleyball as a means of interaction.”
Norwood’s men’s squad embarked on similar trips to India in 2012 and Japan in 2008.
Bears women’s captain Frances Duddy, 21, says it will be a “once-in-a-lifetime trip” for her squad.
“I hope I’ll learn a lot volleyball-wise but also culturally,” Duddy says.
“Their cultures are so different ... so we’re really excited to learn and get to know the people there.”
Hunter says playing international opponents can only improve his team, which finished fourth this past season and was winless in 2011.
“We play in front of a couple of hundred people for a big game and in Myanmar they play in front of 10 or 11,000 people,” he says.
“This is something that will be unique in the girls’ careers, unless they go on and play for Australia.”
The trip is supported by Study Adelaide.
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