After two days of trial matches the Guyana Volleyball Association (GVA) yesterday named 18 players to commence training in preparation for next month’s South American Men’s Under-23 Championships in Colombia from June 18-25.
According to Demerara Volleyball Association (DVA) Vice-President Ian
Wills who spoke with Stabroek Sport yesterday following the end of the trials at the National Gymnasium, the players were assessed by head coach Levi Nedd who assisted in reducing the 32 players down to the current 18.
“Coach Nedd came down, he ran some sessions and he was looking for the basic volleyball skills in players as well as their levels, their ability to play as a team and he came up with the final 18,” said Wills who further explained that of the 32 players, 20 players came from Berbice and out of the 20, 15 were products of the Port Mourant Training Center (PMTC) which is coached by Nedd.
Only seven players are from Demerara and they include the likes of Creston Rodney and Vance Hardine who are currently in Trinidad but were added to the squad. “We have two senior players to add to the team, Rodney and Hardine who are in Trinidad, they are senior players and they were also part of the senior team who represented Guyana in Brazil last year.”
Apart from some of the senior volleyball players in the side, Wills said that it was pleasing to see some fresh faces stepping up to the challenge and earning selection in to the squad. He added that those players now have a good opportunity to continue their training over the next few weeks and could possible make their international debut once selected for the team.
Speaking about Nedd’s prowess as a coach, Wills said that he hopes Demerara can pattern off the works done in Berbice by Nedd and produce the same amount or even more players in the future. “Of the 32 players, 20 came from Berbice and that’s because most of them are from PMTC which is practically a live-in facility for the males. So Coach Nedd will continue to produce a large number of players from PMTC because they are playing structured volleyball”.
“I’d like to see Demerara up their game and play a bit more volleyball, because right now the level of activity is small”. Wills also credited the solid structure of PMTC for producing not only players from Berbice but out of the seven Demerara players, most of them came through the center.
Now that the 18-man squad has been selected, the hard work begins with a short encampment period which will then narrow down the current side to the final crop of players who will represent Guyana and Wills, who was designated by Nedd to work with some of the players also confirmed that camp is likely to spike off this coming weekend.
“I will be working with the team, Coach Nedd has appointed me to work with the Demerara U23 players and we start training next weekend with a short two day camp. We will then scout the players to find our final team, while the head coach is currently trying to facilitate an international engagement for the players as practice before the championships start,” said Wills.
The 18-man volleyball squad reads: Devendra Latchman, Imran Khan, Adriel Moore, Trevon Mc Rae, Samuel Fraser, Creston Rodney, Vancejoffe Hardine, Joshua Jagmohan, Devon Bowman, Michael Adolph, Travis Stanley, Marcellious Hector, Akeem Bowling, Lezon Khan, Klovdyke Rodney, Wendell Austin, Ryan Mangru and Xavier Lambert.
