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TTO Volleyball Festival gets underway

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.