Mohammed lauds TT teams after CAZOVA stint

THE TRINIDAD and Tobago Women`s Under-20 and Men`s U21 volleyball team returned home from Martinique with silver and bronze medals respectively over the weekend from the Caribbean Zonal Volleyball Association (CAZOVA) Junior Championship.

The women`s team are usually dominant at this level having won the tournament on six previous occasions while this was the third occasion grabbing the silver medal.

The men`s team collected their third bronze medal in history of the tournament with their best ever finishing was a silver medal in 2015.

TT`s female skipper Kiune Fletcher, who will be leaving next year for a scholarship, won best opposite as well as best scorer. Whereas, Marley Davidson received the award for best server and Josiah Constant for best blocker.

The president of the TT Volleyball Association, Mushtaque Mohammed, said, “It was indeed a commendable effort made by the players, coaches and parents in preparing for this tournament. The medals were a result of commitment, dedication and passion for the sport as we had very little financial support to offer in preparation for the tournament. The participation in the tournament was made possible by fundraising efforts and loans taken.”

He continued, “The teams lost the opportunity to qualify for the final round of the world championship qualification tournaments but we must regroup and set our sight on qualifying when the next time presents itself in 2021. The boys team had an unfortunate accident of one of our players in the first match and who knows if that didn’t happen, they might have returned with the gold medal. Nevertheless, kudos to all for a job well done.”

Coach of the U-17 and U-20 male teams, Peer Nasseir said, “In terms of achievements, the youth programme moved up a notch from fifth or sixth to placing third. In Jamaica, for the U17 tournament the bronze medal eluded us which I thought was firmly in our grasp. In Martinique, it was the first time we ever topped our group to qualify automatically to the semi-final.”

Speaking about future plans, Nasseir pointed out, “We need to recruit from schools and club as they are our major feeder and the national school volleyball league will be critical in this effort. However, we have to take a break to allow the premier league and school league to play and for the boys to focus on exams. Then, we will continue to run the junior and youth programmes once the contracts of the staff members are renewed because the programme comes to an end in December.”