The South East Volleyball Association is the latest sporting body to emerge from shutdown, launched its new season.

A total of 11 teams were in action across two divisions at Mount Gambier High School, with players shaking off the rust and spiking balls over the net.

The on-court return is a huge shot in the arm for the association after COVID-19 cut short its original 2020 season.

The long and unexpected break did concern the committee, but South East Volleyball Association president Cambell Baker said he was pleased with the end result.

“Obviously last season was cancelled after three or four games due to COVID- 19, so we were not sure how this whole season was going to go,” he said.

“We could not plan anything because everything was so reactive in terms of rules and restrictions, so we are super pumped to get something together.

“Although it is only a nine-week season, it was a lot better than we initially thought.”

The current competition is five weeks shorter than the pre-COVID-19 schedule, but many players have still made the effort to play again.

Five teams are lining up in the competitive top division, with six sides competing in the more social Division 2.

Baker said he was worried lockdown might have impacted numbers, but was impressed with the turnout on opening night.

“I was not sure what was going to happen given there could have been a real drop off had things turned sour,” he said.

“But the fact people have been cooped up at home for so long means they are keen to do something.

“Last season we had 14 teams and now we are back to 11, which is still a really strong number and we are happy.”

Baker said the association had chances to return earlier, but tight restrictions meant matches would have been played with heavily modified rules.

“Initially there were a lot of hoops to jump through, but luckily we are governed by Volleyball SA and worked very closely with them to make sure all of our COVID-Safe plans were up to scratch,” he said.

“Although volleyball is not a contact sport, everyone is touching a shared ball with two sets of rules, so the way things were planned were a little bit crazy.

“You were not allowed to block or dive on the ground, which presented a sport we did not want to promote.

“We did not want to take a backward step after working so hard to get the sport going in the area, so we bided our time and Volleyball SA was supportive of that.”

Despite Monday night’s encounters being played with full rules, there were still many COVID-19 measures.

The ball and net were sanitised at the end of each set, while the playing surface was also cleaned before each game.

With the opening round now completed, Baker said he was proud with how the young association responded to the recent challenges.

“COVID-19 really threw a spanner in the works because we are still very much in our infancy trying to build something from scratch,” he said.

“I thought we managed it really well and people were excited to play again with a couple of new teams, which sends an excellent message.”

The first Division 1 encounter went to Karenni, which defeated All Stars 3-1 with Ku Dee and Ben Clark the best players, while Norf overcame Leftovers on a count-back after Tim Scarth and Steven Speck performed.

In Division 2 Super Bomb proved too good for Pro-crastinators 4-1 and the best players were Shar Say and Sam Potts.

Anand Ghataura and Johnny McBain starred in Rock Stars’ 5-0 win over Kayla’s Angels, while Hope defeated Giants 3-1 with Khu Ta Lee and Tom O’Connor the best players.

Interested players who missed the opening round are still welcome to join a registered team with games played every Monday night.