Volleyball
17 January, 2025
Matthew Berry to lead Phantoms
Phantoms Volleyball Club will enter the new Victorian Premier League season with a new coach at the helm of the premier men’s team.
President Ben Hassell said longtime member and foundation player Matthew Berry will take the reins of the premier men’s team for the 2025 season in a non-playing capacity as the club ramps up its men’s program in order to take the next step.
“Matthew’s involvement with the Vipers program over the past two years has seen him build a strong rapport with a lot of the younger players in both programs as well as veteran Paul Sanderson, and we all agreed that now was the time for Matthew to take over.”
“Matthew’s knowledge of the game and his use if data during this period has helped the Vipers take two bronze medals in Superleague, as well as our boys make the finals in Premier league.”
“Matthew has some great ideas for the men’s program, especially with his work with Rad Centre’s Chris Radford, and we believe he has the right ideas to get the men’s team deep into finals contention.”
The Phantoms will kick off season 2025 with selection trials on February 1 and 8 at the Red Energy Arena in Bendigo.
Hassell said the trials have been split into premier league aspirants in the morning and state league players in the afternoon.
“We have found in previous years that the gap between the premier and state league players has been too great, so to ensure we get to see as many players as possible in their rightful divisions, it was best to separate the trials to give coaches the best look at how our teams can be formulated.”
“On February 1 the premier aspirants will trial between 10-12pm while the state league players will come in from 1-3pm, both men and women. There will be a club information session for all players between 12.15-12.45pm.”
Hassell said a key plank in the club’s preparations is the annual Seaside Tournament in Warrnambool over the March long weekend, and this year will be no different.
“We’ve had to get our entries in early for Warrnambool as they are capping their numbers and have bought their closing date for entries earlier than usual, hence the reason why our selection trials are so early.”
“We look forward to seeing as many Western Victorian players at our trials to continue our push to get all teams into finals, as we had four of seven make it last year.”
Hassell said the women’s program will have a familiar look to it as David Berry takes over from Paul Freckleton.
“Dave got the girls into premier in 2016 and coached them for three years and is keen to finish the good work Paul did when he got the girls back into the finals last season.”
“A lot of the girls in our premier women’s program have been coached by Dave as juniors, so they know what to expect, while Dave is excited about the prospects of the newer players that have come on board in recent years.”
Hassell said that following the trials, further coaching appointments will be made for premier 2 men and women, as well as State League one and two men and women.
“We’ve had good interest from coaches for all teams, but we need to complete our trials before we make any further appointments to ensure we have all concerned catered for with the right team.”
Players from Volleyball Horsham keen to trial are encouraged to do so by registering their intention on the Phantoms website.