12U Program Still Thriving

One of the guiding principles of Seaside has always been development. The club has never wavered from these principles evident in their ever growing and thriving 12U development program. "The roots of the program started off quite small" says Shane Donen club president and head coach for the program. "In our first year, we only had about 20 grade 6 girls. However, it quickly grew to 60 and has stayed that way till today". Many of Seaside's alumni who have gone on to play post-secondary volleyball started in the 12U program.

The success of the program is due to several key factors: First, the club has always made sure that the coaches running the program were highly qualified. Second, the program is supported by the older players in the club who devote their volunteer time to assistant the program lead. This results in a high coach to player ratio, critical to skill development. Third, the location has always been at the same school, Morgan Elementary for all these years.

The future is very bright for the development programs at Seaside. "Our pilot Bring Your Own Parent (BYOP) program is in its second pilot phase and we are hoping to expand the program to boys as well" comments Shane. "This coming season we have expanded to a full-on 12U Girls team, still running our 12U development program. The club would love to expand the program but we are limited mostly by facilities that we have maxed out. Our hope is one day soon to get our own training space which would serve the community that desperately needs gymnasium space."