By RENALDO DORSETT
Sports Reporter
rdorsett@tribunemedia.net
BYRON FERGUSON made a major splash on the professional volleyball scene in Europe this past season and now the Bahamas’ premier middle blocker has his sights set on bringing greater awareness to a path to the pro ranks for Bahamians.
Ferguson, currently at home on vacation until August when he continues contract negotiations for the upcoming season, said one of his goals is to help young players explore professional volleyball as a viable option.
“I can definitely see more Bahamian professional volleyball players coming down the road, we just need to continue to develop younger players on the male and female sides. The federation needs to pull together and do a better job of giving people some exposure,” he said.
“Once you become an international player at a senior national level, agents will start to contact you or if you could find some contact for an agent online they will sign you and negotiate for you. In my case, a few agents contacted me but I didn’t sign with them. I contacted a coach I knew in Denmark and I went over there last August, but the deal wasn’t right for me financially or for other reasons. So I contacted another agent who pursued me for a few years and I signed with him. Eventually he sent me to Finland which is a far better league and everything worked out.”
Ferguson, 24, played last season with Pielaveden Sampo of the Finland Volleyball League, the highest level of volleyball in the country, with 12 franchises in the league.
Based in the small town of Pielavesi, the club is one of the most successful teams in the league. The team has become a national champion three times - in 2004, 2005, and 2009 - and has been the first runner-up in 2001, 2007, 2008, and 2010.
“The team has already made an offer before I left, but I was in a small town and no matter how much money you make or how many friends you have you want to be some place comfortable,” he said. “This summer I want to use my connections to bring in some professional coaches down here from Finland to help develop our younger athletes. We will see in a few months how that works out.”
Like most Bahamians, Ferguson had hoop dreams in his younger years but made a permanent shift to volleyball because of the opportunity to excel at an elite level.
“Basketball is bigger on this side of the world than it is in Europe. In Europe the most popular sports are soccer, track and field, volleyball and so on. So at our games we have about a minimum of 5,000 people in attendance,” Ferguson said. “I chose volleyball over basketball, which I started doing first, because I know I had a better chance of making it professionally with volleyball. I always encourage Bahamians to come out and watch the local teams and the national teams play for the main purpose of why I made the shift myself, to get to that next level. I know some basketball players who I played with, who tried volleyball and made the junior national team and were really good, but when it came to playing basketball they just stopped for the most part at night league level, whereas with volleyball they could have played at the professional level or for the national team.”
With respect to the local game, and at the national level, Ferguson said the Bahamas has much to improve on to become perennial contenders in the region.
“I think personally we have a way to go. Just like with another national sport you usually have two or three guys who have played at a higher level. A lot of the time the case with us is we have the talent but no exposure,” he said. “Many of the teams we compete against at the national level, the reason they have an edge on us is when it comes down to making an adjustment they have a strong 12-man roster, it’s all about playing more and playing at a higher level. The competition in Europe, for instance, is very tough. I have played Olympians, world league players and people who are well known in the volleyball community.”
Despite his achievements at the pro level, Ferguson values one of his national team experiences as the highlight of his career.
“The highlight of my career was winning the Caribbean Cup last year. It was the most important thing in my career so far personally because I know coaches, people from the Bahamas who said we would never do it because we played in it every year for years and the men’s team has never won in the Caribbean Cup. Right now we are still the defending champions,” he said.
Ferguson is the son of local volleyball icon Margaret “Muggy” Albury who was inducted in the National Sports Hall of Fame in 2012. “I plan on giving volleyball another seven or eight years at this level, then I’m probably going to move back home and open some businesses. After a while it gets old, your body starts to break down and time catches up to you,” he said. “But I do plan on giving back to the game that gave so much opportunities to me.”
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