Jamaica names team to July's Junior men's volleyball championships in Kingston
A 13 man Jamaican team was named on Thursday, (July 7), as preparations intensify for the eighth Caribbean Men’s Junior Volleyball Championship to be held from July 23-27 at the Alfred Sangster Auditorium at the University of Technology (UTech) in Kingston, Jamaica.
The details of the team and tournament were announced by Major Warrenton Dixon, President of the Jamaica Volleyball Association (JaVA), at a Press Briefing held the office of the Jamaica Olympic Association. The tournament is being staged by JaVA under the auspices of the Caribbean Zonal Volleyball Association (CAZOVA), the North Central America and Caribbean Volleyball Confederation (NORCECA), and the FIVB (International Volleyball Federation.)
The 13 man unit will be lead by Captain Meshach McKnight and includes his outstanding schoolmate from St Jago High, Ryck Webb, as well as Jovanny Clarke and Matthew Blake.
Rojey Hutchinson, Shadayne Reynolds, Omar Wilson, Shavar Bryan and Nicolas Campbell are all members of Oracabessa’s 2010 winning under-15 high school team. The remainder of the team includes; Kammar Segree and Kristopher Thompson who were part of the Wolmers 2011 high school under-15 winning team, as well as Ackeem West of Old Harbour High and Ramoine Peart from Campion College. The team is coached by O’neil Ebanks (Head) and Gatasheu Bonner and includes trainer Fabian Miller and manager Diana Millwood.
They will enter the final stage of preparations starting this weekend with a camp at GC Foster College that will run until July 20.
Jamaica will do battle with seven other teams at the five day event. The teams include two-time champions Barbados as well as Bahamas, Trinidad and Tobago, Us Virgin Islands, Curacao and Haiti. Defending champions French Guyana as well as well as three time winners Netherland Antilles will both not make the trip.
Jamaica will be seeking to go one better than their best finish of second at the tournament’s inaugural staging in 1997. Their next best placing was third when they last hosted the event in 1999. They are also working hard to improve on their most recent placing of 7th when they last entered in 2007.
When the tournament gets going on Saturday July 23 matches will be played between 12 and 9 p.m while all other match days will see games between one and nine p.m. Jamaica as the host county will have prime time matches at 7:00pm each day.
In a written message from CAZOVA President Mushtaque Mohammed, he pointed out the importance of building a foundation from the youth level. In a time when several governments are reducing support for sports he called for increased government and corporate support as he pointed out the difficulties faced by the local organizing committee in garnering sponsorship for the event.
However he said despite all the challenges he is confident that with JaVA President Major Warrenton Dixon leading the way the event will have a successful staging.
For further information, please contact:
Major Warrenton Dixon at 322.0235
Paula-Anne Porter Jones at 383.2121.
