Hawks show heart- Melbourne Uni’s Tom Hodges couldn’t get his spike past Eastside’s Tony Valena and Curtis Stockton in Eastside’s 3-1 win in the VVL. 63916 Picture: Jarrod Potter

By Jarrod Potter
THEY may be called the Eastside Hawks, but the spirit of this club in the Victorian Volleyball League belongs to Berwick.
Club president Tony Valena said the majority of the players on the team were from Berwick; ties forged through growing up and playing together at high school in the early part of this century.
“The club was formed in Springvale in 1981, where it was continued by Chris Lim at Berwick Secondary College. We all got into it at high school where he was our teacher. We all started playing in Year 8, which was about 2002.”
“Lim eventually followed other passions, golf, teaching (at Caulfield) and family so it was forced on the players to start running it ourselves.
“My dad was president for a while, but then I’ve been president for the last couple of years.”
The team roster for the Eastside Hawks Men’s reads impressively, boasting 15 former state representatives with Valena a junior national representative in 2004 and Eastside Hawks Women’s players Rhiannon Watt, Kat Chen, Shae Sloane and Louise Bates currently on the Australian women’s senior national team as well as four current Victorian representatives.
Playing out of the State Volleyball Centre in Dandenong, the Hawks are off to a great start, defeating the Melbourne Uni Renegades 3-1 sets in their Premier grade first-round encounter, while the Hawks Premier Women lost to last year’s champions 1-3.
“It was a good consistent effort, we didn’t have one star player but everyone was great.”
The Hawks play the Yarra Ranges this weekend, finalists from last year.
“They were a strong team last year, but lost in the finals. We train next to them, so we think we know them well,” Valena said.