Super League 2024-25 round 5 preview – Four-year hiatus fuels the fire within El Alouani

Born in Italy, growing up in Novara, 40 minutes’ drive from Milan, she was urged to take up the game by her sports-loving parents, who wanted her to follow in the footsteps of her footballer brother in staying active. 

As a result, she started with San Rocco Volley and quickly came to love playing and was good enough to attract interest from a number of clubs playing at a higher level and age group. 

But it was then, as a teenager, that she was hit with the bombshell that she and the rest of the family would be moving to England for good to join her father, who had moved for work.

So disappointed was she at not being able to fulfil her full potential in the Italian system, and recognising that the interest and level of play over here did not match what she was accustomed to, Hajar soon quit volleyball seemingly for good.

Thankfully, her after-school boredom eventually got the better of her and she decided to give things another go, linking back up with Darkstar Derbyshire, in what has become her home town of Derby, having briefly played in their junior set-up before her hiatus.

From there, she played for the senior second team for a year-and-a-half honing her skills and getting back in the swing of things, but quickly attracted the attention of first team joint coach Maria Bertelli. 

Promotion to the first team followed where she has become an integral part of the roster, first playing as an Outside when coming off the bench as now at Opposite as a regular starter. 

“I was around six or seven when I began playing in Italy and I had always played in teams older than my own age, and I had other teams trying to scout me,” said Hajar. “I was already playing for the Novara Academy U18 team and things were progressing well and I was looking to advance my volleyball career. 

“That was when I found out that I was moving, and it was gutting at the time. I wondered if I might be able to stay there but I was too young and I was a bit angry. 

“That’s why I stopped playing really – the disappointment – along with trying out Junior Volleyball here and realising it was not to the level I was used to in Italy, where, of course, the sport is much more established. 

“I didn’t really try anything else in terms of sports at that time, other than when I went to the gym a little bit when I turned 16, but I wasn’t really enjoying it that much. 

“In the end, I decided I would give volleyball another go and I contacted them through Instagram and I initially played with the second team until there was one session where the regular coach couldn’t attend so Maria attended instead. 

“She asked me if I wanted to move up to the first team squad and I said ‘yes’ and the extra training and higher level has definitely helped me stick at it because that is what I love about it... I love to compete.” 

Alongside her involvement with Darkstar, Hajar is studying for a degree in Sports Management and International Business, having first completed a Sport Pathway Foundation Year. 

She plays for the university’s first team in the BUCS Premier – contesting a match against Northumbria University on Wednesday, in fact.  

Playing and training regularly for both teams, meaning she is on-court most days has helped her stay sharp and continued to improve her game in her late teenage years. 

Hajar said: “It has been nice to know that after four years that I can still compete for a place in a good standard and compete against good players from other teams. 

“With the Derby team and Darkstar, where we train twice a week, it means I’m getting lots and lots of volleyball and playing regularly can only help me get better. 

“When I finish uni, then maybe I would like to go abroad and play for a year and see how that goes, but for the moment I am just concentrating on my studies and getting my degree. 

“I would say that simply playing is not something I want to do for good... I would rather settle into a career after volleyball.” 

Since joining the first team, Hajar has enjoyed working with Head Coach Bertelli and Assistant Coach Audrey Cooper. 

The pair bring a wealth of experience, both having played at the Olympics (in 2012 and 1996 respectively), and then subsequently clocking up a host of hours leading teams from the sidelines. 

“I always had male coaches in Italy, so it is a bit different, but the bottom line is that they have a lot to bring in terms of knowledge and experience... there is not much about the sport they don’t know,” said Hajar. 

“They both played to a high level and, crucially, they are both serious about it and wanting us to improve as a club.  

“Ultimately it doesn’t matter whether the coaches are men and women so long as they know their stuff, which they really do.” 

Last season was, overall, widely regarded as a disappointment for Darkstar, despite plenty of moments of promise. 

While always retaining a gap between themselves and the relegation and play-off spots, the team were unable to make much impression when playing the teams at the top end of the MAAREE Women’s Super League. 

The team has faced a tough start to a 2024-25 season where, come its end, the top-flight will be reduced from 10 to eight teams. 

They played last season’s National Cup winners Team SideOut Polonia at Opening Weekend in Kettering and then followed that up with a trip to Essex Rebels – two teams who reached April’s Final 4. 

Things don’t get much easier this weekend, either, when they journey south to the capital for a double header against an in-form London Lionhearts and the return fixture against Polonia. 

But Hajar remains optimistic the team can have a strong season. 

She said: “It’s been a difficult time, we’ve had a two tough games to start with, but if you ask the team I’m sure they would agree we can do better. 

“It’s tough physically as well as mentally when you are playing these double headers on the road. We have a game quite late on Saturday and then early on Sunday, and it can be hard to carry the level and the intensity across two games. 

“Lionhearts have started the season really well after doing an amazing job to stay up (via the play-offs) at the end of last season and have added a couple of players in the summer. 

“We have seen how strong Polonia have been over the last couple of seasons, so we know it’s a hard weekend, but we have trained hard for it and we feel ready to step it up. 

“We had some good individuals in the team, but we haven’t played together that much before now, so we just need to get everyone ready to compete. 

“I think it is a bit early in the season what should be the overall focus of our season and what teams we are looking at being rivals with.” 

Early next month, Darkstar will play their part in only the second Super League Live broadcast when they take on Lionhearts Vinarius at the Ruth Gorse Academy in Leeds. 

The occasion will also see Leeds Gorse play the Durham Palatinates, with both fixtures to be streamed live on Volleyball England’s YouTube Channel. 

The first in that series of Super League live events will be staged at Crystal Palace in London on 24th November – where men’s matches will be played between IBB Polonia and Malory Eagles and London Giants and Richmond Docklands – with three more dates set to follow in the New Year. 

Hajar feels some big steps forward in terms of the presentation of the sport at the top level have been made in recent times and hopes to see that continue into the future. 

“It was great to see Opening Weekend introduced last year and return this year and we saw the Final 4 as well and now there are the Super League Live events as well. 

“There’s also the stats tables for the leagues and the other coverage the league gets, so it’s really building the interest and building the profile of the sport that will hopefully attract the next generation of players. 

“Since I came to the UK, interest in the sport, I think, has been increasing and I think Volleyball England are doing a great job in making things look more professional, which hopefully we will see more and more as time goes on.”

Darkstar images by Nathaniel Macrae

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