Coaches expect an even tournament

PANAMA CITY, Panama, October 18, 2017 - The 12th U19 Men's Volleyball Championship kicked off Wednesday with the presentation of the teams in the preliminary interview and the confirmation of six countries in the competition, with the exception of Belize.

The coaches of the different teams all agree that it will be a very even tournament, as it is the first category in competition at the AFECAVOL level, few players have international experience and are still correcting technical issues with the players.

Juan Acuña, coach of Costa Rica: "We have been working with this group for a year and I consider that we have a good team, since that has been a limitation in these categories. We have good volleyball, but we did not choose players with good size and that cost us in the last Central American (sub 21) in Nicaragua. At these ages everything can happen, so I do not see favorites in the tournament. "

Osman Hernandez, of Nicaragua: "All the teams are going to do their best to win the tournament, just like us. We hope that some of the boys who have had experience already assume this responsibility and support their peers. An important aspect will be emotional stability as we work hard on players to reduce the mistakes."

Ulises Trujillo, of El Salvador: "This category is difficult, here it is fundamental to establish the bases of volleyball, they are 16-17 boys who are in training, some with technical problems and have to spend a lot of time to correct those flaws."

Alejandro Castillo, of Honduras: "The objective of our participation is the training of players, none has a trajectory at an international level. What will help us is that there have been children's school tournaments to compensate for the lack of experience and we feel good. It will be important to trust them as coach and work and support as a team."

Edgar Callejas, of Guatemala: "We have a very young team, like the other countries, everything is an expectation of what is going to happen, because we do not know the rivals, we do not know what they are bringing. As Guatemala we have come here to maintain the prestige that we have always shown playing a good volleyball."

Eugenio Ortiz, of Panama: "It will be a key that the boys know that they can play and do it united first and foremost. The work has been aimed at improving the technique, it has worked quite well with the setters since they are fundamental. We have some players with good height and we hope to be among the finalists and see what happens."

The Central American will begin this Thursday at 3:00 p.m. at the Gym José "Beto" Remón, of this city, and will have three matches in the first day.