KINGSTON, Jamaica, March 26, 2014 - The Jamaica Volleyball
Association (JAVA) is earnestly continuing its drive to have
volleyball played routinely in all schools around the country. The
effort has yielded noteworthy results at both the primary and
secondary school levels, with the growing interest in the sport
credited to the efforts of Zone/Parish Coordinators and PE
teachers.
Since initiating the JAVA primary-level schools competition in
2010, the competition has grown to almost double the number of high
schools participating in the Inter-Secondary Schools Association
(ISSA) competition, with over 60 schools participating in the
2013/2014 edition of the competition.
Westmoreland schools have shown the strongest interest in terms
of total number of participants, due mainly to the efforts of Haile
Mikael, who initiated a primary school competition in the parish in
2009. Mikael was later appointed as JaVA's Western Regional
Coordinator, responsible for the St Elizabeth, Westmoreland and
Hanover regions.
Richard Johnson, St Ann Parish Coordinator, has taken the parish
from two participating schools in 2011 to 14 in 2013. Ricardo
Williams and Andre Neil have driven the effort in St James, while
Lester Bernard spearheaded the programme in St Thomas, a parish
that has racked up a few volleyball accolades over the past two
years.
JaVA, through its School Development Manager, Warrenton Dixon,
is pushing to realise even greater participation, particularly in
high schools. Over the past few months over 25 new high and
primary-level schools island-wide have expressed interest and are
taking steps to participate in volleyball competitions. "We
are really pleased with the increased interest and we are doing
what we can, within our resource limitations, to nurture these show
of interests," stated Dixon.
"This is also a good time for them to show interest, so that
they can capitalise on the presence of Mr. Augusto Sabbatini, the
international volleyball coach visiting us from Brazil.
We have organised a number of two-day coaching clinics at
convenient locations around the island between 25 March and 12
April 2014. The clinics are targeted at PE teachers and
coaches at the school level but anyone who wishes to benefit from
it can attend as it's free."