Scottish Beach Volleyball community celebrate past while building future

In a time where many would normally be making the final tweaks to their domestic Beach Volleyball programme before it gets underway in May, the Scottish Volleyball Association (SVA) are instead using these days to reflect on what they have achieved as a sport with the help of the Team Scotland media team.

Over the last few weeks, Beach Volleyball has featured heavily in Team Scotland’s Sports Focus Spotlight. They have been looking back at everything from the first players in history to represent Team Scotland on the world stage at the Commonwealth Youth Games Bahamas 2017 to further history making with the senior team success in the sports debut at the Commonwealth Games, at the Gold Coast 2018.

Team Scotland spoke to Emma Waldie and Jenny Lee, who represented Scotland at the Youth Games in 2017 (see Facebook video here) as well as to the senior Commonwealth Games athletes (Melissa Coutts, Lynne Beattie, Robin Miedzybrodzki and Seain Cook) about their experiences at the Gold Coast, what it meant to them and what their favourite memories are.

For Robin and Seain’s account of their Gold Coast experience, read the full article here.

To find out about what the Gold Coast meant to Lynne and Melissa, read the full article here.

Further to this international success, the SVA have been working closely with the British Volleyball Federation and the other home nations, to build a case for Beach Volleyball at the performance level going forward to Birmingham 2022 and beyond. This work is ongoing, and they hope it will only present further opportunities for future generations of Scottish athletes to follow in the footsteps of previous Commonwealth Games athletes.



It is important to recognise that the success the Scottish Beach Volleyball community has had is not only at the playing level. There has been great success with Jamie Salvin as well, completing his qualifications to become an international beach referee officiating at FIVB, CEV and Zonal competitions all over the world, with this also contributing heavily to putting Scotland on the international Beach Volleyball map.

It has been inspiring to look back at these insights and successes, but this is only the beginning. “What we have achieved so far will be used as a platform to launch our sport to the next level with Birmingham 2022 and other exciting opportunities on the horizon. This means working to develop, not only our performance pathways, but also our club and community engagement where we are steadily building demand and capacity in our sport for all levels and abilities,” says Lynne Beattie.

A great example of this is the inception of a brand new beach volleyball club in Ayrshire. West Coast Beach Volleyball (WCBV) have followed in the footsteps of Edinburgh Beach Volleyball club in the East of the country who have seen a massive surge in interest for Beach Volleyball at a community level, at their permanent hub in Portobello.

As a governing body, the Scottish Volleyball Association are also involved in some fantastic ‘Changing Lives’ project work in Edinburgh, aimed at breaking down the barriers that some communities face to sports participation, as well as using sport intentionally to support skills development opportunities for young people, encouraging positive destinations when they leave school.