fireball beach volleyball devon
Fireball Beach Volleyball was founded by me, Sam Dunbavin, in late 2019. Here’s
a little bit about us, and how Fireball was created. In autumn 2019, I’d just
spent my first summer competing and training full time, and I’d decided that I
wanted to try to forge a path for myself to make a career and a living from
coaching the sport I loved: beach volleyball. So that’s what I did: I set up
Fireball Beach Volleyball, took over the lease of Fireball Beach, in London, and
started creating a series of beach volleyball events that would happen over the
course of 2020 at our venue in London. Then the pandemic hit, and rather than
living in London with no income, I moved back home to Devon, and started
figuring out how that would affect Fireball. I realised that, in order to really
spread the sport, staying put in one venue wouldn’t do. I wanted to spread my
love for beach volleyball to as many places in the UK as possible; I wanted to
help grow the game, and bring the game to pockets of the country that often
don’t see it. So that’s what we’re about now. In 2022, after two years of
massive growth, learning, feedback, more learning, listening and asking
questions, we are still following that goal. We are aiming to take our Southwest
Series, our flagship tournament series in the Southwest and Wales, to eight
different beaches this year. We will be running a beach volleyball camp in every
single school holiday, to make sure that all those juniors who love to learn
from us can do that. We will be expanding the junior sessions we are running in
London, after the incredible demand last year, and adding some regular adult
training sessions and leagues, too. We’ll be running an elite series for the
country’s top players, including our Barry Island Grand Slam. And we will keep
taking our beach volleyball camps across the country, spreading the beach
volleyball love and knowledge. Of course, I wouldn’t be able to do that without
an incredible team, whom I’m proud to have invested lots of time and energy
into. I’m firmly of the opinion that, in order to grow beach volleyball
properly, we need to invest in people. Coaches, referees, organisers and parents
are the lifeblood of the sport in our country, and we are proud to be supporting
them-in 2022, we will be issuing bursaries to put five of our coaches through
courses. We are also launching our bursary programme for kids, where they can
apply to come to our events for free if money is a barrier to them attending.
Just some of the small ways I’m proud to be giving back to the sport we all
love.
