Dave Falla

Dave Falla was a nursery plant grower and the dedicated youth club leader of probably the most popular youth club on Guernsey, Capelles Methodist Youth Club. He was awarded the MBE for his services to youth work.

Dave a very keen sportsman, promoted all sports to the young people in his youth club. Volleyball being one of the sports. Back in the early 70’s, on a Friday night, at one of the club meetings, Dave suggested that he was going to introduce volleyball to the club members on the following Tuesday and if anyone was interested, they should come along. Dave turned up on the Tuesday to a hall full of club members, with a string net, a volleyball and a ‘How to Play Volleyball’ book. The members proceeded to tie the net string between 2 netball posts. Teams were selected, the book was scanned through to establish the basic rules and there it all began.

This continued every Tuesday night for many years. Dave encouraged club members to improve their knowledge and skills. Dave suggested to The Youth Service that they introduce volleyball as one of the inter club tournaments. Therefore, expanding the volleyball played in Guernsey. Dave allowed the Youth Service team to train every week for free at the youth club for many years.

As volleyball grew in Guernsey, Dave continued to follow with real interest and presented the Guernsey Volleyball Association with a plaque to be presented annually, the recipient was chosen by the GVA committee, the much coveted, ‘The Dave Falla MBE Contribution to Volleyball’, for which he would present personally to the recipient at the annual presentation night.

The very first recipient of The Dave Falla MBE Contribution to Volleyball award was Steve Le Poidevin.

Steve Le Poidevin

Steve Le Poidevin’s earliest exposure to volleyball was when he played for Vale Youth Club as a teenager in the Youth Service Inter Club Tournaments.  

When Beau Sejour was opened in 1977, Steve was employed as the Sports Hall Booking Officer. One of his tasks was to create leagues for different sports to utilise the new sports hall at Beau Sejour. For instance, 5-aside football, basketball and of course volleyball. The main aim was to sign up business house teams to play in the leagues. The Youth Service was also approached by Steve as he knew they already had knowledge of the game and would be able to compete.

An organising committee was created, headed up by Andy Castle and the committee members being Steve Le Poidevin, Tony Martel, and Peter Walden with Jane Breton as the secretary. They set up and ran the volleyball leagues and from that committee The Guernsey Volleyball Association was created.