David Waite

Sports Hall of Fame Inductee

The 1970’s saw the introduction of Volleyball to Shepparton as a competitive sport.  We even had a police team known as the “Blue Lights”. It was very popular and enticed some athletic youngsters to play the game.

Tonight we induct one of those players into our Sports Hall of Fame as a volleyball exponent who would spend ten years as a part of the Australian Volleyball Squad.

David Waite was born and bred in Shepparton and was educated at St. Georges Road Primary and Wanganui High school. He was a well-built lad with natural sporting ability.

He was introduced to Volleyball in 1982 as a student at Wanganui High School, coached by Peter Dunkley and played in the GV Association, coached by Bob Crozier, both of whom were teachers at Wanganui at the time. David’s talent saw him have a fast progression through the sport. He was selected to represent the Association at both junior and senior levels at the regional championships, then moved on to the Victorian Championships. He was chosen to represent Victoria in the Youth team in 1983.as he rose through the ranks he was a member of the Victorian Under 17 team in 1984, the Under 21 team in 1987 and the Victorian Men’s Open team. He came under notice of the national selectors and was selected in the Australian Under 21 team and the Australian Open Men’s team.    He was then given a wonderful opportunity to improve his game when offered two scholarships with the Australian Institute of Sport from 1991 and 2 then from 1994 to 1999.This enabled David to play at the top level and travel the world as a part of the Australian team. During his ten year career as an Australian player he was capped 260 times for his country at events such as World Cup and Olympic qualifying events, World championships, World Volleyball League and the Sydney Olympics Test event. He also competed in three Asian championships and took part in a total of 26 International tours. His commitment to his sport is evident by his playing record and he maintained a high standard of fitness and wonderful playing skills during that time. We can be justly proud of this Sheppartonian who represented his City on the world stage and is now inducted into the Shepparton Sports Hall of Fame. Welcome David Waite.