Overview

Welcome to 2025! We are so excited to begin our 26th year and the next chapter of what we hope to be another 25 years of volleyball in Antigonish. Practices will start this Sunday, January 12th.

Please take the time to read the following sections carefully to take note of your team’s practices times. Also note that some of our processes have changed since last year.

What’s New

We are ringing in 2025 with a new Board Executive! Amy MacDonald-Dee is the new President. Trudy Delorey will serve to assist this transition as Past President. Charles MacDonald remains on as Vice President, Andrea Brophy is the new Treasurer and Dina Bell as Secretary. Many thanks to Jody Cook for her work in the executive over the past number of years as President, Coaching Coordinator, Treasurer and Coach. Thanks also to Jen Farrell who was our previous secretary but is now working as our web admin and registration coordinator.

Over the past 5 years our club has been successful in fostering a positive, inclusive, and respected club culture both on and off the court, locally and across the province. This has been particularly highlighted through our adoption last year of the True Sport Principles (www.truesportpur.ca) as our guiding values and principles, which we lean on as we navigate the challenges of providing both competitive and development pathways for our athletes.

Continuing from last year, all Stoírm teams from the 13U-18U age levels are considered Travel Teams, where we will all be competing and representing the club at tournaments across the province and at Provincials in Halifax in April. Seeding and Tier placement is determined by the SuperSeries tournaments. New for this year, because of the explosion in the number of 14U teams, this age category will now attend 2 SuperSeries tournaments like the 15U-18U age categories do. The dates of these are noted below along with the dates of our Welcome Day and Team NS Canada Games Training Weekend which will be held at StFX mid-March. The locations for the SuperSeries tourneys are still tbd but we hope to be able to host as we have in previous years. VNS Championships will be held at the Canada Games Centre and CP Allen High School/Bedford Hammonds Plains Community Centre.

Leadership Stream:

Stoirm Buddies: Leadership and Service are values that Stoírm leans into with all their participants. Without these, we simply wouldn’t have the club. In 2023 we created a Leadership Stream with our senior athletes called Stoírm Buddies where our older athletes had the opportunity to help coach our younger development athletes once/week.

We are looking to continue this opportunity this season and plan on sharing this opportunity across our 16U-18U squads. Athletes will be both the online and free SafeSport training module (45min), and Anti-Racism module (45min) which will also provide the athletes an NCCP coaching number. As this opportunity develops, we will reach out to the coaches and teams with more information.

Officiating: We have had a surge in the last couple of years with new referees, which is incredibly helpful for us, our neighboring clubs, and VNS with regards to game and tournament organizing. Parents or athletes who are interested in becoming officials can reach out to the club and we will provide more information. It’s a great side hustle!

Registration

Registration will open on Wednesday, January 8th at 4pm, through to Friday, January 31st at 4pm. Please read carefully the information below as there are some changes both to payment processes and sibling fees.

Fees this season for all travel teams at the 13U-18U age categories will be $375: $325 + $50 (refundable jersey deposit at the end of the season). These fees are the same as 2024.

Due to administrative changes at the Volleyball Nova Scotia (VNS) level, we have had to slightly change our payment procedure.

This $375 will now be paid across both the SportHub and SportLomo platforms:

  1. SportLomo: https://volleyballnovascotia.sportlomo.com/

Our $375 fee includes the $84.00 VNS and Volleyball Canada (VC) fee.

In previous years, families were asked to confirm their information for VNC/VC on the SportLomo website, so the majority of you have a SportLomo account. Due to changes at the VNS level to ensure the information is accurate, families will now have to pay the $84 fee through SportLomo:

  1. SportHub: ca

The remaining total, $291, will be paid through the usual steps on SportHub.

*NEW* Sibling fees: $116.50 for each additional child. (This is a 40% reduced rate of the $291. The VNS/VC fee for each athlete does not change and must be paid in full on the SportLomo site for each athlete).

If you are new to either of these sites, please take your time to acquaint yourself with this platform and payment process. Please note, SportLomo will only take credit card payment for the VNS/VC fees. The remaining club fees can be paid through SportHub or via e-transfer (SportHub is preferred if possible).

If you need assistance with SportLomo, please reach out to stoirmvolleyball@gmail.com.

If you need assistance with SportHub registration, please reach out to support@playfinder.ca or stoirmvolleyball@gmail.com.

Please follow this link for information on funding programs to help support the cost of registration if applicable: https://www.antigonishvolleyball.ca/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Athlete-Registration-Funding.pdf

Payment

Sibling fees: $116.50 for each additional child. (This is a 40% reduced rate of the $291. The VNS/VC fee for each athlete does not change and must be paid in full on the SportLomo site for each athlete).

For the 2024 season, Stoírm will accept payment via the Sporthub Platform, or e-transfer to stoirmvolleyball@gmail.com. 

Note that payment is not required until registration status has been confirmed, after registration closes.  You will receive an email and see the status change on your Sport Hub account when you are confirmed. Be sure to keep an eye on your junk mail, and mark us as a “safe sender” so future emails are not missed.

When you have received the confirmation email indicating you can now pay, please follow these steps if you are paying via the SportHub platform:

Payment can now be made online right from your Sport Hub profile! Log in and scroll down your family profile page until you see the tabs and select the "Fees" tab. Beside the Stoirm registration and fee you will see a big blue button called "PAYTODAY".

Click this, and a credit card portal will be opened for you. 

Note: Review the Terms&Conditions of PayToday online payment portal here, anytime! 

We will also accept e-transfers to stoirmvolleyball@gmail.com Please add in the memo section the first and last name of the Athlete. 

If you have any questions please contact stoirmvolleyball@gmail.com and/or support@playfinder.ca 

Teams and Scheduling

Teams have been notified of practice times and locations. 

Note that we have gym times currently booked at Saint Andrew Junior School (SAJS), Antigonish Education Center (AEC), East Antigonish Education Center (EAEC) and École acadienne de Pomquet (POM)

Without the use of each of these locations we would not be able to accommodate the level of interest we see on an annual basis.

Fundraising & Welcome Back Serve-a-Thon

We are currently working on organizing our 3rd Annual Serve-a-Thon! This was such a fun Welcome Back event and Fundraiser, so we're doing it again on Saturday, January 25th in lieu of pratices that day. Save the date!

We are also part of Sport Nova Scotia’s SportSplit monthly 50/50 draw via Rafflebox (same platform as the provincial Firemen’s 50/50). It is a monthly, province-wide, multisport, online 50/50 raffle. We will work to push this platform on our social media channels this season.

To buy tickets, go to www.sportsplit.ca, click “Buy Tickets Now” in the upper right-hand corner, choose your entry. At the end of the Billing Information section, you will see a drop-down menu titled “I would like to support:” and you can choose Antigonish Stoírm Volleyball. Thanks in advance for your support!  

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