Coaches well prepared for CAZOVA Championship

PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad, July 3, 2017 - With less than 24 hours to go before the first serve in the 16th Senior Caribbean Zonal Volleyball Association (CAZOVA) Men's Championship at the National Cycling Centre, in Balmain, Couva, the coaches of the eight participating teams all said they are pleased with their preparations and eager for competition.

The coaches were speaking at the Preliminary Enquiry which was held at the Cascadia Hotel & Conference Centre, Cascade, St Ann's, under the supervision of CAZOVA President and former T&T Volleyball Federation boss, Mushtaque Mohammed, the head of the Tournament’s Control Committee.

Barbados (Anrdew Culpepper): “Our team has changes a lot with only three players returning from out last senior CAZOVA Championship and nine members graduating through the ranks of the Under-21 team. So its a young team but a very good competitive one with the aim to win the tournament. Our preparations were a bit stop start, because the younger players were also part of the Under-23 team which participated at the recent NORCECA Championship, but we are ready to compete”.

Getrouw Verdy (Suriname): “Our team preparations was good as we had almost five months of constant training together with the preparations for the previous round. We have no serious injuries and our best players are here and we hope to move from from finish last at the previous CAZOVA tournament to first place this time around”.

Covance Mortimer (Bahamas): “We had a very good series of intense preparations and to my knowledge we are ready as can be. The big difference for us from the first round to now is that we have improve in the size of the team in that more players were available for selection this time and we are now basically at full strength with the only absentee being Renaldo Knowles”.

Joseph Yves Larrieux (Haiti): “This team we have is a totally different team to the last one we had at home when we won in the first round. We now have more younger players because many of the previous players left the country while some are unavailable. However, we still think we can play very good and compete because the team has been preparing for a while and we expect to do well”.

Erialc Eddy (Martinique): “I think we had a very good preparation for this tournament and we have most of the players from the previous competition as well. Now I think all the teams have a good chance and it will come down to the team that makes the less mistakes.”

Maverick Alexander (Curacao): “We had a brief but very good series of preparation. Our team a rather young one with the youngest players being 19. But we had a very good group and I think we have a good chance to reach the finals”.

Gatasheu Bonner (Jamaica): “The team build-up to this tournament has been great for the past six months and the guys are mentally and physically ready. We have three players returning from the last team and our goal is to qualify first and foremost and we intend to take it game by game”.

Sean Morrison (T&T): “I believe our preparations have gone as good as they could have and we intend to take it step by step and focus on each match as it comes.

“As host country there is normally some pressure, but to be honest the guys are very much relaxed and just eager to go out and put their best game forward.”