Adelaide, Australia, October 31, 2016 – Volleyball Australia is excited to announce that successful international beach volleyball coach and former Australian player, Victor Anfiloff, has agreed to take up the role of Technical Director – Beach Volleyball for Volleyball Australia and the helloworld Volleyroos.
Anfiloff, who founded and developed Australia’s first beach volleyball school in 2000, has spent the best part of the past decade masterminding the emergence of The Netherlands as a world beach volleyball powerhouse.
“It is such great news for beach volleyball in Australia that a coach and athlete of Victor’s standing will be coming home to help guide us back to the top of the world rankings,” Volleyball Australia President, Craig Carracher, said.
“Victor helped steer the Dutch to become one of the top four beach volleyball nations in the world with his holistic approach to coaching. His role in Australia will be to restructure and evolve our sophisticated program to the next level and build the competency of Australia’s coaches nationwide to deliver sustainable and repeatable success in the global stage.
Anfiloff was part of the AIS beach volleyball program as a player in the lead-up to the Sydney Olympics, but then turned his attention to coaching.
He was appointed in 2008 as the head coach of the Dutch women’s beach volleyball team, and then oversaw the introduction of an international beach volleyball program in The Netherlands.
In 2013 he was promoted to Performance Manager and Head Coach Talent Development in The Netherlands.
During his time working with Dutch teams he coached at both the Beijing and London Olympics, and saw youth and senior teams win world championship titles.
“We had great success in qualifying two women’s teams for Rio, and our top pairing of Louise Bawden and Taliqua Clancy had a fantastic competition, finishing fifth,” Carracher said.
“Our goal is to get back on to the Olympic medal podium, in both women’s and men’s beach volleyball. We haven’t qualified a men’s team since 2008, and we haven’t won an Olympic medal since the fantastic Cook/Pottharst gold in 2000.
“We remain third on the all time Olympic medal tally for Beach Volleyball after Brazil and USA and have been guided by some wonderful coaches who lead the world in technology, innovation and strategy, most notably Steve Tutton and no doubt much more will be said of his contribution and those of all our coaches over the coming period.
“We firmly believe Victor will infuse his passion for our sport, an Australian philosophy to high performance and, supported by a restructured team of coaches, deliver on the potential that our incredible athletes offer.”
Volleyball Australia will shortly announce the appointment of two senior coaches, who will work under the guidance of Anfiloff based at the National training Centre in Adelaide.