Cowlesy Volleyball League

League Information

The Cowlesy Volleyball League (CVL), which is a subdivision of Cowlesy Sports Association (CSA), was founded in 2008 and is the brainchild of the gifted Michael Cowles. The league is an elite Volleyball competition and boasts some of the finest junior volleyball players in South Australia. The league is privately owned by an investor who is believed to have connections with local gang Tim's Pirates. The league plays on average 4-5 games every week and uses a time based system where the team with the most points at the end of 40 minutes is declared the winner. The league consists of six teams each with a five man roster. Apart from the scoring, the league follows the traditional rules of indoor volleyball. The league attracts on average 150 fans per game. The 2008-09 season is currently underway and each team will play a total of 90 games in the regular season. Following this the top two sides will face off in a do or die 90 minute Championship game, the winner receiving the Brockford cup. The Championship game takes place on the first Friday of March.

Teams

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Jack Sledgehammer (C)

Davo the Man

T Mack

Mark Winemaker

Dazza

The Superstars have quickly established themselves as one of the most physically imposing teams in the league, boasting three players over 6 foot 10 (Jack, Davo and T Mack) who have proven to be near unstoppable at the net when they get their game going. Unfortunately they have had troubles with their backcourt combination of Mark and Dazza who have not been able to successfully defend enough spikes to put the team in winning positions. The team also unfortunately has the lowest points won on serve percentage (39%). The team is sitting in fifth position on the ladder as of October 26th and are still a mathematical chance of making the Championship game and claiming the very first Brockford Cup, but this is considered unlikely unless they can acquire some new personal during the trading period (November 18th-27th).

Mac Nap (C)

Tomas Irishman

Matty P

Burnsy

Ryan Droppy

Led by the talented natural athlete Mac Napper the Rams have shown that they are legitimate title contenders. They currently sit in second place on the ladder and are proven big game players, having conquered Cowlesy's Cannons by one point in a enthralling match that occurred during the half time break of an LBA playoff game. With a front court combination of Matty P, Burnsy and Tomas Irishman they clearly are not going to be blocking many spikes from the opposition team but more often than not the opposing team will groan in disbelief as there hit is retrieved by a diving Napper or Ryan deep in the court. Ryan has proved to captain Napper that his serve can win matches and he leads the league in the aces catergory (78 aces).

James L (C)

Johnny L

Ali Legmeister

Scotty Lav

Theo Nizzle

The first season of CVL has proven to be a disaster for the Jaguars. They lost there tallest player Nic Doolander with a knee injury that is going to take 9 months to heal before the opening match of the season and were forced to hastily replace him with the inexperienced Nizzle. The team features some very talented players such as Ali and Johnny L but have really struggled with their on-court communication and too many times have we seen two players both going for the same ball. The Jaguars are sitting last on the ladder and have not shown any signs to give fans hope that they are not going to stay there. It appears that this season is a lost cause for the Jaguars but they can at least give their younger players such as Nizzle and Lav some important experience for next season.

Andy Smid (C)

Liam B-ra

BJ Tall

J Stew

Jackie Chan

Sitting just behind the Rams on the ladder, Andy and the team really should be thinking about that one special day in March and the fact that if they continue to play like they have in the past month they will make the Championship game. The Stingrays have gone 17-3 in the past 20 games and there combination at the net of BJ, Chan and Smid have been mainly to thank for this. BJ leads the league in Blocks per game (5.2) and is third in Spikes to Points won percentages (62%). Their serving specialist Liam is one of the premier backcourt players in the league and if Stew can keep his focus on the game and not the young girls in the crowd he can potentially become one of the finest setters in the world.

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Cowlesy Stojakovic (C)

Tim Crabman

Louis Banno

N Redhairus

Sammy P

When the Cannon's owner paid over $3000 in transfer fees to secure the services of European players Tim and Louis there was a lot of excitement amongst the teams staff that the season was going to be very successful. Their excitement has proven to be warranted as the Cannons have imprinted themselves as the outright best team in the league. Led by their "Big Three" players- 7 foot 2 big man Cowlesy, Tim and Louis, the team has passed through the season to date only losing a handful of games. The big three players are all hot favorites to be selected onto the CVL team of the year while Sammy P and to a lesser extent Redhairus have proven to be handy foils as they are often targeted by opposition teams and have stood up under immense pressure.

Gizmo Thomson

Casey Sauceus

Fergus Baskatus

J Baggins

James Whanny

Armed with three very competent players at net, including the leagues strongest player Casey, the Guardians line up appears to be quite strong. Unfortunately they have been let down by Baggins who has endured an atrocious season and ranks last in several key statistic categories including overall efficiency rankings. Baggins constant flow of errors really makes it hard for the team to compete with the highly skilled teams such as the Cannons and though the Guardians are more than good enough to knock of squads such as the Jaguars they just don't have the personnel to be legitimate title contenders.

Venue

All of the games in the CVL take place in the Torrens Park Gymnasium Complex where there is two quality volleyball courts and seating that can house up to 200 spectators. Admission to the complex to watch games this season is $4 for children and concessions and $6 for adults.

Awards

At the end of the season several awards will be given out to worthy players. The awards are:

H.K Edwards Prize for the leagues Most Valuable Player

Billets Sportsmanship Award

Notyre Serving Award

LBA Net Player prize

On top of these awards, the five best players in the league will be selected into the CVL team of the year. The five next best players are given CVL second team honours. The current squad of players nominated for selection to the teams consists of:

T Mack

Andy Smid

Casey Sauceus

Gizmo Thomson

BJ Tall

Jackie Chan

Liam B-ra

Ali Legmeister

Tim Crabman

Louis Banno

Cowlesy Stojokavic

Future of the CVL

The CVL certainly has a bright future ahead of it with the league owner granting licenses to two new teams for next seasons competition. The CVL hopes to inspire more young people to play the game of volleyball and get people off the couch and out playing sport. For this reason the league has rejective several lucrative offers from local TV stations who wish to broadcast matches live as the league owner feels that this will mean fans will stay at home and watch games and not get active. The league has also secured several new sponsors for next season that will be revealed at the end of season dinner at the Edinburgh Hotel.

All information derived from the manuscript Cowlesy Volleyball League-A New Hope

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