Volleyball: Seven teams qualify for nationals

Stuart Henderson celebrates with his team after winning the 2004 New Zealand Secondary Schools Championship. Photo / File

Otumoetai College will have the largest representation of any school in New Zealand at next week's secondary school volleyball nationals in Palmerston North.

Four girls' and three boys' teams qualified for the nationals after standout performances at the Bay of Plenty secondary school finals last weekend at ASB Arena.

The man synonymous with volleyball at Otumoetai College is Stuart Henderson.

He is into his 35th season in charge of the programme and his passion for the sport is as strong today as it was in 1980, when he started.

"It is a big family affair," Henderson said. "We are so lucky that we have our sports co-ordinator Paul Braddock's three daughters who coach girls' teams and his son coaches a boys' team. They all played volleyball for the school and went through our system. It is really good to see them putting back into the school.

"The key is we train three teams together twice a week on our three courts and then we scrimmage against each other at the end ... We have a culture and we try to develop it.

"If you want a tall pyramid you've got to have a broad base and that has always been the philosophy all the way through."

Henderson's team defeated Mount Maunganui College in the Bay of Plenty girls' senior A final to claim yet another Bay title last weekend.

"They were third last year and we were second so it was always going to be a tough game," he said. "They have two very good outside hitters and we knew we were up against it. We played them in the prelims and beat them 3-1. We had played Tauranga Girls' and won that 3-1 then we had to play our B team in the semifinals, who we beat 3-0.

"Our girls had been waiting for this final game all weekend. They played really well, particularly in the first and third sets. Our error rate was really down and the girls were really quite focused."

Henderson was impressed with the overall standard shown by the top schools.

"This is what makes this area quite strong. We have ourselves Mount, Tauranga Girls' and our B team finished fourth, which was really pleasing."