Description of the role
Over the last few years, we have seen a change in the provision of courses for beach volleyball coaches in England – Volleyball England are now offering specific beach volleyball coach and assistant coach courses, which is fantastic. However, there is often a lack in high-quality coaching opportunities for the people that do these courses – they come, do the course, and then go back to clubs where they don’t have mentors or someone who can help them develop their coaching.
Our brand-new beach volleyball coach internship programme sets out to change that by providing loads of opportunities for beach volleyball coaches to improve their skills and work with our experienced Fireball coaches to build and develop their coaching through the year. If this sounds like it might be you, keep reading!
This scheme is designed to provide an incredible programme of support for aspiring beach volleyball coaches, with lots of opportunities to work alongside some of the top beach coaches in the UK and to practise coaching in supportive environments with lots of feedback.
The coach apprentices will get support throughout the summer from Fireball CEO Sam Dunbavin. Sam is one of the leading beach volleyball coach tutors in the UK. He is an accredited tutor and assessor and delivers the Beach Volleyball Club Coach and Assistant Coach Award for Volleyball England. Sam is also a coach for the national junior teams and has years of experience as an international level beach volleyball player.
The interns would get ongoing mentoring with Sam and with other leading Fireball coaches. Initially, this would be in the form of assistant coaching and shadowing, before hopefully progressing to supervised delivery of parts of sessions and whole sessions with detailed debriefs afterwards.
This programme is designed to supercharge the development of some committed and talented beach coaches, with considerable investment by Fireball of time and resources. In return, Fireball are asking that coaches meet the following conditions.
The right applicants would:
- Display excellent knowledge of beach volleyball AND/OR a track record of working in sport education or coaching.
- Show a positive attitude and a desire to consistently reflect on their own practise and improve.
- Share Fireball’s values of high quality, community and warmth.
- Be looking to work within beach volleyball in the future.
- Have, or be willing to undergo, full safeguarding checks to be able to work with children.
- Be available for most, if not all, of the below dates.
Internship Dates:
Key Dates – we would expect interns to be available for most, if not all, of the below:
- 3-6 April
- 23-25 May
- 1-9 August
- 15-28 August
Other Dates – we also have other camp dates available, including an opportunity for one intern for a placement for the whole of July. We would discuss all dates at interview.
NB – if you are a keen coach but can only attend some or one of these events – do get in touch. We won’t be able to offer you the full internship package with ongoing support but may be able to involve you in some way.
Qualifications
We would consider applicants without any existing beach volleyball coaching qualifications; for the right person, Fireball can arrange for them to undertake these qualifications.
Pay and Expenses
The placement is unpaid, with Fireball covering all reasonable training, food and accommodation costs for the intern. The coach will start as an assistant coach and may eventually lead their own group(s) with supervision, depending on progress. They will receive ongoing training and support.
Application Process
Please send an email to hello@fireballbeachvolleyball.com with ‘Coach Internship’ in the subject field. You should include the following details:
- Why you want to do the internship
- What you would bring to Fireball
- Your experience
Please do not use AI to write it. We don’t care about spelling mistakes (this isn’t an English teaching internship…) but we do want to hear about you from the horse’s mouth.
Please apply by the 14th February 2026.
Sam Dunbavin – Fireball Founder & CEO
