Sports school's volleyball team joins Baltic league

Audentes Sports High School (Audentese spordigümnaasium) youth volleyball team, which has so far played in the top domestic league, is being promoted to the Baltic Volleyball League for next season.
This move comes after the youth team finished fourth in the domestic Esiliiga at the end of the last club season.
This makes the team the fifth Estonian club to take part in a league which unites the best teams in the Baltics.
The others are: Selver x TalTech, Tartu Bigbank, Pärnu VK, and Võru Barrus.
The development marks a return to top-level competition for Audentes, which last played at the highest level in the 2014/2015 season under the name Danpower/Võru Volleyball Club. Since then, there have been discussions about needing to take this step again, but no final decision had been made. Now the board of the Estonian volleyball federation (Eesti Võrkpalli Liit) has decided that it is time to give this opportunity to the Audentes youth again.
The team will continue under Latvian head coach Lauris Iecelnieks.
Kert Toobal, the federation's sports director, said the timing of this decision is deliberate. "This issue has resurfaced more in recent years. Since last year more boys graduated from Audentes and many young ones came in too, it was not the right time, since going straight into the Baltic League in the first year of high school would have been too abrupt," he said.
Toobal emphasized the program's developmental role, noting that top Estonian clubs are highly competitive, limiting playtime for youth.
Audentes Sports High School is a sports school in Tallinn, with a branch in Otepää too, and allows gifted pupils to gain experience and skills. The school's girls' volleyball team already has long competed in the women's Baltic League, and the plan now includes seeking sponsors to support both teams equally.
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Editor: Siim Boikov, Andrew Whyte