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Coaches are ready for the NORECA Men’s Championship

DURANGO, Mexico, August 18, 2021. - The head coaches of the eight competing teams at the NORCECA Men’s Continental Championship said to be ready for event that starts on Wednesday at the Auditorio del Pueblo in Durango, Mexico.

The competition offers two vacancies to the FIVB World Championship to be held in Russia next year and the participating teams win ranking points for the qualification process towards the 2023 Pan American Games to be held in Santiago, Chile.  

Larry McKay, Head Coach of Canada: “Our team is very young and we will try to play well to represent our country. We really don’t know how the competition will be like for this team or how strong they will perform, but we are looking forward to compete”.

Yosvany Muñoz Pérez, Head Coach of Cuba: “In every event our minds our set to win, but always aware of the high-quality of our opponents. This team is a fusion of young experimented players and others much younger without experience. Due to Covid we weren’t able to gather our regular players so we are bringing those much closer to Havana and we’ve been training for twenty days”.

Dante Mañon, Head Coach of Dominican Republic: “Our expectations are good, we are restructuring with the under 23 team that recently qualified to the Junior Pan American Games and some of our senior players. We are fighting to keep our U23 team for at least four years”

William Fernández, Head Coach of Guatemala: “Our main goal is to keep our ranking position in NORCECA (seventh place) and perform well against all our opponents. The team has been training since January with head coach, Reider Lucas, who’s not here because he will be traveling soon with the under 19 team to the FIVB World Championship in Iran”.

Jorge Azair, Head Coach of Mexico: “Glad, first for getting back in action and playing volleyball, second for the group we´re presenting, they are young, talented and with lots of energy. We are convinced in giving our best effort to qualify to the World Championship”.

Oswald Antonetti, Head Coach of Puerto Rico: “This is a renovated group, players with an interesting performance to compete at international level; we’ve been working in recruiting new talents. We are excited to show this team to the region and competing, taking one day at a time”.

Gideon Dixon, Head Coach of Trinidad and Tobago: “We had a very short window of two and a half weeks to prepare; our country has been locked down over eighteen months so it has been challenging. We have guys who came prepared mentally and physically to perform and represent the best that we can. I hope that the challenges of getting here can transcend into opportunities”. 

Andy Read, Head Coach of United States: “The quality of players is excellent for us and the team here from NORCECA, it will be a very strong tournament and we’re looking forward to the experience. Our team is well prepared and we look forward playing good at the beginning and better throughout”.