Formed just five years ago, a Kent club’s senior men’s side are preparing to play in the National Volleyball League for the first time - supported by some French friends.

The outfit had been known as Invicta Volleyball, based in Canterbury, but have changed their name as it’s a National Volleyball League requirement to have a geographical reference within the team name.

Kent Invicta Volleyball will be in Division 3 South East this season.

But head coach of the men’s programme, Luke Thomas, says they have worked alongside Calais-based professional side LISSP Calais as they aim to ensure their Division 3 stay is a brief one.

London Wildcats, Northampton, Leicester and Essex Estonians are among their league opponents.

Thomas said: “In Division 3, where we are, it’s kind of regionalised.

“Our intention is very much to get out of Division 3 in the first year so we’re taking this very seriously.

“We’re training quite a lot. We’re training a minimum of three times a week which - for an amateur club - is quite a bit.

“But in the UK, there isn’t any professional volleyball. We want to be one of the clubs that changes that.

“We want to turn an amateur sport into a professional one.

“So we’re working with a club team in France. We went over to see them at the beginning of the summer and played a friendly match against them.

“They’re one of the best junior clubs in France and they have a professional men’s team.

“We’re going to be playing some more matches with them and working more closely to get an understanding of how professional volleyball is structured and expose our players to a level of volleyball that they won’t get in England.”

This term will see Kent Invicta Volleyball make their NVL debut on October 15 against Northampton and London Wildcats, with games played in a triangular format.

Before then, though, their first National Cup clash is against Maidstone Rocks this Saturday at Maidstone Grammar School for Girls.

“It’s the first time that we have stepped out of Kent with a senior team,” Thomas confirmed.

“We played in the National Cup a couple of seasons ago to see how we would fare at that sort of level. We did quite well - got through the First Round - but this is our first big adventure outside of Kent Volleyball with our senior team.

“We’ve done very well with our junior team. They won the National Grand Prix in Tier 1, they’re a competitive team, and that’s the core squad that’ll be playing in the senior team.

“There’s a lot of homegrown players.”

Indeed, two England juniors have committed to Kent Invicta Volleyball’s senior side in middle-hitter Jacob Lloyd-Williams and Mickey Hawney.

Thomas, who oversees the rest of the club, as well as coaching the senior side, admits their success - and that of Stuart Perry, Tabitha James and Tope Olusola - helps inspire others.

He explained: “Obviously, they’re motivated to see what they can achieve as well.

“But seeing those players at the top of our club go into that level, that does have a motivational impact on everybody else.

“They can see ‘There’s not much between me and them, so maybe I can go and do that’ so we’ve seen more of our players go out for England trials and they tend to do very well there.

“They might not get in but they often come away with really positive feedback and things to work on.

“We also have Stuart Perry in our club.

“He’s not committed to our NVL team yet - we’re hoping he will be - but Stuart is mainly focused on the beach, which is why he’s not committed to our indoor programme yet.

“He’s at the stage of his career where, at some point, he’s going to have to make a decision over which one he really wants to focus on.”

Visit www.invictavolleyball.com to get involved.