Coaches speak on the eve of the 18th Senior Caribbean Volleyball Championships

PARAMARIBO. Suriname, July 22, 2023.- The head coaches of the 12 participating teams speak ahead of the 18^th Caribbean Senior Championships that starts on Sunday 23 at the Anthony Nesty Sports Hall in Paramaribo.

The Caribbean Cup serves as preparation for the Pan-Am Cup for both men and women. The women will compete in Puerto Rico August 4-14 and the men August 13-21 in Guadalajara, Mexico.

Matches will be streamed on Surinaamse Volleybalbond on Facebook live.

Carlos Orta Fellova, Head Coach of Suriname men team: “The team is good. I aspect like any other team here to be the best. We come here to win and do our best like the last tournament in 2018 that we won. We had actually a good preparation competing in the CACSO games playing against Mexico, Trinidad and Tobago, Cuba and El Salvador. The aim is to finish on top of our group, but we know we will face strong opponents. We think it will be a good tournament”.

Lloyd Davis, Head Coach of Bahamas men team: “I expect a very interesting tournament. We haven’t played any volleyball at this level since the covid pandemic. So, basically every team should be even and we could play volleyball again. We came in 2018 to win the tournament, but we lost against Suriname. We will be a team to recon with. We are now shorthanded, but I hope two of our players will fly in tomorrow. This team did not play any international games. We will rely on our talents.”

Nicholas Branker, Head Coach of Barbados men team: “Since 2018 we haven’t had any international competition for our side due to the Covid pandemic. I must say we are very eager to go back on it. We do feel happy to be here. We came with a team to win and obviously our aim is to be champion and we will see how it goes. We have a very young team core and I think it will be good to let them experience this one. I hope it will be a great competition.”

Eddy Erialc, Head Coach of Martinique men team: “Yes. I want us to win and improve so that we can compete against the best teams in the Caribbean. We haven’t played any games since 2018. We came with a strong team and will take every single game at a time.”  

Rigo Thode, Head Coach of Curaçao men team: “32 years ago when this started here in Suriname I was also the head coach of Curaçao. Now I'm back and it's a nice memory and I'm happy to be there to participate in this. We have not played any international matches since 2018. But we prepared well. I have a very good technical team. We will also play good matches. Some of the players have experience in the Eredivisie of the Netherlands and we hope with their experience we will achieve a good result.”

Saleem Ali, Head Coach of Trinidad and Tobago women team: “We are now in a process of rebuilding the team. I expect to take one game at a time. We still have two players on the roster from 2018. I think everybody is here to win and we will do our best to be champions again.”

Sergio Valdes Diaz, Head Coach of Suriname women team: “There are new players in the team. Only Sandrina Hunsel is left from the team that lost against Trinidad in 2018. We have a good preparation for this tournament and hopefully the women now will understand what the goal is. It is now hard to say how the games will go, but other teams will be very strong to keep us at bay.”

Ricardo Chong, Head Coach of Jamaica women team: “We have not played as a team since 2017 and the expectation is of course to play as well as we can. You have to see first what all the other countries are doing before you are going forward. The team is a completely new team. We could not afford to play any intentional games. We recently restarted volleyball in our country, especially on the women side. The level is a lot lower than 2017. We can only hope to do the job.”

Shon Hurdle, Head Coach of Barbados women team: “I expect the tournament to be competitive. I believe everyone presents their best team after waiting for so long. We are anxious to go back on the court to do well. As usual we are going to have many respects for Trinidad and Suriname in what they did in the last years. We haven’t been in any international games, but we will do our best to give our all on the court.”

Jason Saunders, Head Coach of Bahamas women team: “Most of our team members haven’t played together yet. Also, we haven’t practiced together. Particularly the young ladies in the group. I think we will do well. Obviously, everyone wants to win the tournament. But I will be happy if we all can demonstrate volleyball at a very high level. Be consistent in what we do. For those countries think that we are not ready. They will see that we can make some noise.”