With the closest volleyball available over a 120km away, we started up in June 2022 with a Sunday weekly volleyball session at Shepparton Sports Stadium. Initially booking for just three weeks, and promoting on social media and school newsletters to gauge interest, with our main appeal to high school students. What started off as primarily social volleyball for 12-14 year olds soon expanded due to demand and became the highlight of the week for most of us!
Our start coincided with an article in the Shepp News about the sighting of Magpie Geese at nearby Reedy Swamp, "...it’s been nearly 30 years since Magpie geese were spotted in the Shepparton-Mooroopna region, with the last sighting occurring at Gemmil Swamp, Mooroopna, in 1992." It turned out it'd been an incredibly similar absence for volleyball, which used to be huge here. And Reedy Swamp? Well that's on the doorstep of Shepparton Sports Stadium and why it's affectionately called the swamp! So when it came to creating a logo it was an obvious choice to feature a Magpie Goose, particularly given their ability to fly, their loyalty and their formations. They are also the inspiration for the black, orange and white in our logo and team colours.
In early 2024 the stadium offered us a Friday night session which doubled the weekly volleyball and attracted new players. We entered a team in our first tournament in Maribyrnong in June 2024, with our first playing uniform and great success finishing with a silver medal. Our players were incredibly keen to enter more tournaments which we did, taking two teams to Bendigo for Junior Dragon City and Melbourne.
In September, Volleyball Victoria connected us with Max Vollebergh who'd been coaching at a few schools in Greater Shepparton through the Sporting Schools Program. We were able to coordinate Max to come up from Melbourne and coach a two day holiday camp in Shepparton. Pinching ourselves at this point.
We were still growing but limited by court availability so our next step was to form an Incorporated Association which we did in October, 2024, electing a committee of 9 with a mix of parents and players.
We polled our community at the end of 2024 on what they wanted for 2025 and more than 90% voted for a competition. On the first weekend of March 2025 we'll be holding our inaugural tournament, Shepp Revival, inviting teams from our local communities and further afield to join us for a fun weekend of volleyball and some fierce competition!
