About the Club
Santry Volleyball Club has been a pillar of the sport community in Artane since its formation in
1994. Originally formed as an after-school volleyball group, today the club has developed into one
of the biggest women's volleyball clubs in Ireland with 150 members, of which 70 members
are under 18. This year, our club has enthusiastically embraced the addition of a men's team.
We work with our National Governing Body, Volleyball Ireland, to promote and develop volleyball and sport activities in general in our community. Our club has 11 coaches and 9 referees who help facilitate training sessions and matches as well as support our national league teams and youth players. We strive to support diversity in sport and we are happy that our athletes come from 25+ countries, of all age groups, with different professional and family backgrounds.
Our Mission
The Mission of Santry Volleyball Club is to promote the playing of volleyball at all levels in a safe, fun and friendly atmosphere. We aim to create an environment that allows everyone to practice sport in a respectful manner and maintain a healthy lifestyle through movement. We strive to give women and young girls throughout the Dublin area an opportunity to learn & play volleyball while simultaneously learning the important lifelong lessons of teamwork, integrity, leadership, resilience and compassion.
Our Vision
Our club has ambitious goals to continue growing our junior teams and provide a clear development path for youth players. The vision of Santry VC is to compete at top levels in the Irish National Volleyball Women's league, with a squad predominately made up of 'homegrown players'. Aside from volleyball, we aim to grow as a club organisation and we always support our members to develop as leaders in other club roles as well, such as coaches, referees, and club committee members.
Our recent achievements
- Santry's Premier Calypso team won Gold in the premier Irish National League (2022/23) and in the Cup Shield (2022/23)
- Santry Nova were runner up in the junior championship (2022/23)
- Santry Division 3 were runner up in the National League title (2022/23)
- Santry players won 13 All-Star Awards from Volleyball Ireland in the last 11 years, with 3 awards won in the last season 2022/23
- Santry VC was nominated for a "Women in Sport 2020" award by the Federation of Irish Sport
- Santry VC was awarded with the Volleyball Ireland Clubmark Programme. This programme focuses on Effective Management, Safety in Sports, Quality Assurance and Development
- READ a FULL LIST of Santry VC AWARDs here
Club reviews
Santry VC is proudly sponsored by
We express our gratitude to our sponsors for supporting the growth and development of our club and contributing to the local volleyball community.
[History] So how it all started?
Santry VC was established in 1994, but it all started in school way back before that.
The club originated from Margaret Aylward Secondary School in Whitehall in the mid-eighties by Denise Tallon who was a teacher in that school at the time. She was an instrumental figure in setting up the club and she remains a key figure today. At the time, Santry VC had an important tie-in with the school and that was a good source for attracting new players.
In the early days, an after-school volleyball group was formed and as well as playing in school competitions. The group decided to play in the National Division 3 League which they played from 1985-1988 and were runners up in the cup final in 1987. Unfortunately, that group broke up due to lack of commitment of players to train once they started in college.
The next group then began in 1988 and only played National League for one year. A two-year break from the sport followed from 1991-1993 because of loss interest in volleyball in school. Arising from the school success, Santry VC was formed in the spring of 1994 when a very interested group of first and second years came together. This group won the Cadette B final in 1995 and were runners-up in Cadette A in the following year in a school's competitions. More players started to arrive in the club following this success.
In 1994, the group entered Division 3 of the National Volleyball League and won the Division 3 Cup in 1995, which they promoted to Division 2. They finished second in Division 2 the following year and won the promotion to Division 1. It was also around this time that a junior team was entered into Division 3.In 1996-97, the group were runners up in the senior A section of a schools competition. The following year, the group won the senior A title. In the years since, many girls in the school have played the sport and reached in All-Ireland quarters and semi-finals but unfortunately never made the big break-through.
Between 1998-99 seasons, a breakthrough for Santry's senior came when they won Division 1 of the National League and the Intermediate championship, which they then promoted to a top flight in volleyball - the Premier League. The junior team were promoted to Division 2 in 1998 and won Division 2 in the 2000/01 season- this earned them promotion to Division 1.
At the start of 2000/01 season, a third team from the school started to play in Division 3 of the National League and they finished third in their first season. Over the years, Santry VC has had players represented on the Irish Junior team.
During the season of 2012/13, our Premier Women team has won different tittles at a different tournaments. Many of those players, at the time, have been in the club since it started but later left due to having families of their own and/or focusing on their own career. As a result, the club lost potential players, but new members coming in and out every year from different countries all over the world, and some of them stayed. During seasons 2016/17, 2017/18 and 2018/19, historic years was made where Men's team was created. The success of the club follows through the year up until now where the number of juniors continues to increase every year.