York VC has become the 40th club to achieve Clubmark/Volley 123 accreditation ensuring Volleyball England has met another Sport England Key Performance Indicator (KPI) well in advance of the final deadline of March 2009. York VC achieving Volley 1 also means that volleyball now has at least one accredited club in every region, as they are the first club to achieve accreditation in Yorkshire.

Mike Turner, Chair of the Yorkshire Volleyball Association said "I am delighted that York Volleyball Club has attained Volley 1 status. Achieving Volley 1 is testament to the dedication and hard work of the club committee and also shows the intent of the region to clearly support and facilitate a successful junior development programme ensuring the players of the future have well run clubs to join. Hopefully the other clubs in Yorkshire will see the benefits of being an accredited club and accelerate their applications. A number of clubs are already at various stages of reaching the Volley 1 status."

York VC have slowly but determinedly worked through accreditation since engaging with the scheme in 2006 after a conversation with the former Club Development Officer Laura Brown. The club initially found it hard to make the appropriate links with local schools but through a targeted recruitment process eventually came across a player who was able to access a school for the club to link with. York VC are proof that whilst the accreditation process is not always easy with the support of Volleyball England and an enthusiastic committee any club can achieve Volley 1 accreditation as Tim Godson, club chairman explains:

"We struggled for some time until through one of our players we made connections with Huntington School, the Ebor School Sports Partnership and York Council. With regular volleyball starting at the school, we entered a team in last summers ‘Lets Play Volleyball Festival' hosted in York and we were under way. It soon led us to develop an After School Club and a regular Friday night session, with mostly U16 boys, who also play in our Yorkshire Division One team, which otherwise would have folded. Volley 1 helped us to put all the correct training in place for the volunteers who run the club and get more people to help out. The team is keen to find other U16 teams to play!"

Tim goes on to explain that Volley 1 has inspired the club and helped create a positive attitude towards the continued development and expansion of the club,

"The recognition of Volley 1 status is a great reward for all this hard work by the whole Club and it is a springboard to aim for even more achievements over the coming years."