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”. |