The Ballarat Grammar physical education teacher will leave for China next month as assistant coach for the Australian women’s indoor volleyball team as they battle to keep an Olympic dream alive.

Asian Women’s Volleyball Championships boasts nations ranked in the world’s top 16, like Korea and Kazakhstan, which play pool round against Australia and the Philippines. 

The top three nations earn spots in next year’s world Olympic qualification tournament with host Japan.

Sullivan said the Aussies had a tough road ahead. “We’ve got a relatively young team this year and this team will differ from the one we take to the world grand prix later in the year,” he said.

“It’s two weeks of gyms and hotels and we spend a lot of time scouting the opposition.”

The 12-strong Australian team draws on elite players in Europe, the American college system and home-based talent.

Sullivan is assistant to new Australian head coach Mark Barnard, who lives in the United States and coaches at Oregon State University.

Volleyball Australia has moved to a camps-based program since Sullivan’s last stint as an assistant coach for the women’s team in 2005 – players come together for designated training or trial blocks.

Sullivan said it had made a vast improvement.

In the past year under Sullivan, Australian women’s world ranking has climbed from 104 into the high-40s.

“Keeping tabs on all players can be hard, whereas when the program was full-time we had their results on tap and could work with them every day,” Sullivan said. 

He has extensive experience coaching in the sport, including 15 years in the Victorian program, the state under-21 women’s team and junior and youth Australian programs.

He has mentored and remains good friends with Olympic volleyballer Tamsin Hinchley, who took up the sport at Ballarat Grammar and went on to represent Australia in three Olympic Games, one for indoor volleyball in Sydney 2000 then swapping to beach volleyball for Beijing 2008 and London 2012.