JaVA completes Primary, Prep coaching clinics

The Jamaica Volleyball Association (JaVA) recently completed the fourth and final in a series of coaching clinics, in itscontinued drive to develop the sport in Jamaica through its Under-13 Prep/Primary Schools Programme.

The clinics were held in Kingston, St Catherine, Westmoreland and Manchester and catered to physical education teachers from schools in St Thomas, Kingston and St Andrew, St Catherine, Westmoreland, St Elizabeth and Manchester. A total of 47 candidates, representing 20 Prep and Primary schools, received training.

The aim of the programme is to identify children with the aptitude, attitude and body profile that is suited to volleyball. Parish, zonal and national level competitions will be used as the main mechanism to identify the desired talents. After the children are identified, national training camps will be conducted to hone the skill sets required at the national level.

Sidetrack the initiative

"Mini-volleyball is the new direction of the volleyball world," said Major Warrenton Dixon, president of the JaVA.

"Children are being introduced to the sport as young as five years old. The idea is to allow the children to grow while developing the muscle strength and muscle memory required for volleyball."

The JaVA has been unable to attract sponsorship for the programme, but Dixon is unwilling to allow this to sidetrack the initiative.

"The programme is too important to allow it to be derailed by sponsorship challenges. In fact, we took the decision to launch the programme knowing that we would likely have such challenges, given our recent history," stated Dixon.

However, the JaVA has been able to attract donations of new and used balls from friends of the association, who live in Canada and Italy.

"We are trying to get more donations of balls and hopefully nets, because we still do not have enough to make a practical allocation to each school," Dixon pointed out.

Although more than 40 schools in seven parishes have expressed interest in participating in this year's pilot project, for varying reasons, not all the schools were able to send representatives to the clinics.

As such, the JaVA is considering ways in which it can facilitate schools that are still interested in participating in the programme.

The lead coaches who conducted the clinics were Steve Davis, JaVA's coaches manager, Oneil Ebanks, JaVA's schools development manager and Oral Channer.