– national coach
National volleyball coach Jageshwar Doolchand says that the junior national volleyball team’s preparation for their participation in the upcoming volleyball events of the Inter-Guiana Games (IGG) is progressing very well.
Doolchand explained that preparations are on course for both the male and female teams, when contacted by Stabroek Sport via telephone yesterday.
“The preparations are coming along very good,” said Doolchand.
The under-19 volleyball squad which will be representing Guyana at the IGG is currently arranged in two units with players coming from the Guysuco Training Centre (GTC) in Port Mourant, Berbice and Goed Fortuin, West Demerara.
Port Mourant’s players make up the majority of the IGG volleyball team and are vastly experienced since, according to Doolchand, they all represented Guyana in last year’s IGG and are under the direction of coach and head of the GTC, Levi Nedd.
“About seven to eight members of the squad are from Port Mourant and participated last year in the Inter- Guiana Games,” Doolchand stated. He noted also that the remainder of the squad is in training at Goed Fortuin.
The two units from Goed Fortuin and Port Mourant meet for their weekly training session at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall which is scheduled for weekends. Doolchand said that the training sessions are slated that way since most of the Port Mourant players are in school.
However, this does not hamper the team from participating in competitions and getting prepared competitively.
The national coach further emphasized that the national squad members from the Training Centre have represented the institution on many occasions at competitions around the country as an under-19 unit and have performed creditably.
The Port Mourant faction of the male squad also recently participated in the GuySuCo Training Centre sponsored Inter-Club Volleyball Tournament, which was contested Sunday at Berbice.
“The two groups come together on Saturday and Sunday at the Sports Hall. This is a way to get them drilled together as a unit and they competed against some of the best in the country and did fairly well,” said Doolchand.
He explained that the female volleyball team that will be representing Guyana at next month’s IGG is also in training at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall, under coaches Trevor Smith, Randy Adams and Lawrence Rowe.
According to Doolchand the female team is also training intensively as they practice on Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays and they too extend their practice sessions to the Goed Fortuin Centre ground.
