As you are aware, students from across GORSE took part in NEVZA last week. The 2025 NEVZA (North European Volleyball Zonal Association) Youth Beach Volleyball Championships were held at Bridlington South Beach, bringing together elite U18 and U20 teams from across Northern Europe. Over three days of intense international competition, athletes from England, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark, and Iceland competed at a world-class level in both male and female divisions. Please see write up from Elaine on how our students performed!
After helping to secure the hosting bid for last year’s event (widely regarded as the most successful Beach NEVZA to date), Pete once again supported Volleyball England as the Championships returned to home soil. Due to that success, CEV (European Volleyball Confederation) awarded the 2025 edition qualifier status, meaning that teams could earn international ranking points toward European Championship qualification. The added stakes raised the level of competition significantly.
With so much at stake, all participating nations brought their top athletes. The level of play was exceptionally high, particularly from Sweden, Norway, and Finland, whose top pairs are already competing internationally, with some having secured U.S. university scholarships and several projected to represent their countries at the 2032 Olympic Games.
Congratulations to Lauren Thorn (BA), Krystina Ngatcha (TRGA), Daniella Tchandeu (LMaS), Josh Cosgrove (EHC), Maks Makowski (EHC), and Emmanuel Oretoye (TFA) who all gave phenomenal performances alongside their beach partners.
Elaine and Pete also coached for England and played a key role in supporting our students. Their efforts helped ALL of England’s GORSE student teams reach the quarterfinals, and one U20 men’s team from Leeds to compete in the semifinals!
- Lauren and her partner got off to a great start defeating Denmark and Iceland comfortably earning a bye to the quarterfinals. They just missed out on a place in the semifinal to another English pair; not bad for her first season and first international debut!
- Krystina and her partner defeated Iceland B in two quick sets and battled hard against Denmark, Iceland A and Norway. She received praise and compliments from other coaches throughout the week for her power and vertical jump.
- Emmanuel earned two strong wins against two different Iceland teams, and battled closely against a tough Finnish team. Teams were blown away by his impressive vertical and smart decisions.
- Josh and Maks annihilated Iceland and another English pair, but had a tough draw falling to the powerful Sweden and the overall Champions, Norway. They fought with everything they had and often stunned their opposition with their speed and tricky plays.
Team Norway was on another level winning the U18s girls, U18 boys and U20 girls divisions. Denmark gave an impressive performance to win the U20 men’s title. This was a great experience for England to understand what peers of the same age are capable of and will no doubt inspire and elevate the level of play for the future.
Building on this momentum, it has been confirmed that Bridlington will once again host the NEVZA Junior and Senior Championships in 2026. This a major milestone for the growth of beach volleyball in England.
An unexpected but heart warming element of the event came through the pre-tournament connection between the English and Norwegian teams. In April, while training in Spain, our students happened to share the same beach with the Norwegian squads as they all attend a specialist volleyball academy in Norway. We played several friendly matches and the coaches and players built a strong connection for future possibilities. That friendship was rekindled at NEVZA, along with new friends from Sweden. The players spending time together, sharing meals, and supporting each other throughout the competition. This camaraderie has led to plans for a potential joint England-Norway training camp in 2026 creating an exciting development for both programmes.
On 12-13 July, Leeds will host the biggest beach tournament in the UK in order to fundraise for the Yorkshire squads to remove financial barriers. We also look forward to hosting our Volleyball reward trip on 14 July at Bridlington South Beach, which is now the largest junior tournament in the UK.
With great anticipation, we are eagerly looking forward to our very own GORSE beach courts at The Farnley Academy due for completion in September!
