Who We Are

With the closest volleyball available over 120km away, we started up in June 2022 with a Sunday weekly volleyball session at Shepparton Sports Stadium. 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 nine with a mix of parents and players.

On the first weekend of March 2025 we held 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, we had 24 teams play on the three available courts.

Following that, we ran a 7 week competition, GVVL Season 1, Sunday nights from April 6 with both Men's and Women's divisions, then season 2 in July and August! 

Excitingly, 2025 saw us play in our first Country Championships, with senior teams in Bendigo in June and our Juniors playing in Horsham in September, with the girls coming home Under 19 Junior Country Champions. Whilst the Junior Dragon Tournament was cancelled, we had three teams play at Dragon City in October with our Men's Team winning Div 3 and our Women's team finishing Runners Up in Div 3. 

With successful State and Local Government grants, we've been able to pay for volleyball sleeves for two new courts at Shepparton Sports Stadium as well as purchase the equipment needed for these courts, taking the number of competition volleyball courts at Shepparton Sports Stadium to 4 with a further two at Visy Stadium, just 500m along the road. 

This year we were named Most Outstanding Association at the Volleyball Victoria Annual Affiliate awards with our Association President also recognised with the 2025 Volunteer Achievement Award, highlighting her dedication and contribution the the sport.

We took two teams to the 2026 Victorian Country Championships with both teams making the grand final and our Women's team winning the first ever gold for Goulburn Valley in the history of the competition and our Men's team silver. Goulburn Valley had last won a gold medal in 1990, 36 years ago in Men's Div 2. These two wins resulted in us winning the Chairman's Trophy in a tie with Volleyball Ballarat, a feat never achieved before by either Association.

Having started from scratch in the last few years to bring volleyball back to the Goulburn Valley region, we have funded new equipment, doubled the number of courts at Shepparton Sports Stadium, funded coach and referee accreditations, and attended tournaments through successful State and Local Government grants often with our own matched funding whilst primarily trying our best to keep costs low for players to support active participation in a low socio-economic area.

We want to further support our accredited volunteer referees with the purchase of purpose fit volleyball referee stands for competitions, so they can have optimal sight on court whilst meeting OHS for safety of players with the required padding. To date we have borrowed cumbersome umpire stands from a local tennis club which have been difficult to transport, oversized and don't allow our referees to stand, making them difficult to get in and out of as well as a hazard for player safety. With your help, we can purchase a referee stand for each court which can be stored onsite, easily brought out for competitions and ideal for referees being fit for volleyball especially.

We're passionate about volleyball in our region and always up for a chat about new opportunities to grow the sport.