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BALMAIN COUVA, Trinidad, May 28, 2022 - The
much-anticipated T&T Volleyball Federation (TTVF)
Development Festival featuring 75 teams from a
combined 12 Development Centre throughout the
country will serve off at the National Cycling
Centre (NCC) in Balmain, Couva today from 6 pm.
The tournament which is being used to broaden
the talent pools for the national teams will
continue until Monday at the same venue will
participation involving players from the
Development Centres located in Port-of-Spain &
Environs, St George East, Caroni, North East,
Victoria, St Patrick, South East, and Tobago.
Speaking on the eve of the Development Festival,
TTVF president, Daymian Stewart was quick to
point out that the event is a major milestone.
He said, “We would have launched our Development
Programme on March 7 and this Development
Festival is the showpiece to what we have
achieved coming out of the programme, whether it
has been successful.”
Not wanting to say too much until he sees what
transpires during the festival, Stewart said he
was delighted that so far 75 teams have been
registered across the different age groups and
categories which is close to 400 athletes
participating in the weekend of activities.
He added, “So just by the numbers it is an
excellent return for us so far because we have
done this with minimum resources and we have
persons training in savannahs and outdoors
around the country.”
Looking ahead, Stewart said the TTVF wants to
take the Development Festival to a next level
but the support is needed.
He explained, “Our approach is let us show what
we are doing and then we will ask for help,
rather than us talking about something that
could sound like a pie in the sky.
“So this weekend is really a demonstration to
T&T of what could be done in the sport of
volleyball with minimum resources in just three
months of activities with 75 teams registering.
He added: “This weekend our national players are
not allowed to be a part of the teams, as well
as persons who would have competed in our
Premier and Super League Divisions, so this is
really about development and new persons getting
involved in the sport.
“We are also going to demonstrate seated
volleyball for the disabled persons as we want
to show that the sport is for all and we will
have some abled-body persons playing seated as
part of an exhibition.
“And in the Open category, we will see some of
the former top players like the over-45 age
group mixed in with the novice players and then
we have all the age groups. But for us we expect
the Under-19 and U-21 competitions to be the
keenly contested age groups and competitive
categories because in those categories the
winning Development Centre coaching staff will
earn the privilege of coaching the national
teams in the upcoming Caribbean Zonal Volleyball
Association (CAZOVA) U-19 and U-21 Championships
which are both expected to be held in T&T in
July.
“So it’s expected that this weekend will entail
a lot of excitement over the four days of
volleyball for us, but we don’t want to be
running and begging for money all over, so we
are going to show what we can do with minimum
resources and then hope we can get support going
forward as our programmes have to continue,”
stated Stewart. |
