The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

SEVEN men and seven women teams, coming from the Bahamas, Jamaica, US Virgin Islands, the United States of America and Canada, will be participating in the fourth annual “Defend Ya Spike” volleyball tournament over the Labour Day weekend at the Kendal Isaacs Gymnasium.

Rajahl Moxey, one of the organizers and a member of the host Scotiabank Defenders men’s team, said they are appreciative of the support they have received over the past seven years from their sponsor Scotiabank (Bahamas) Limited, who has also sponsored the tournament since its inception.

“Despite ongoing economic challenges, Scotiabank continues to give back to the community and in particular they remain committed to the Defenders and was more than willing to partner with us, being our Gold Sponsor, for this international club volleyball tournament,” Moxey said.

Leah Davis, Senior Manager for Products, Marketing and Public Relations at Scotiabank, indicated that they are proud to be associated with the Defenders.

“It is also with great pleasure that I take this time to congratulate the Scotiabank Defenders, the reigning champions, on another 2014 New Providence Volleyball Association championship. You guys continue to make us proud,” Davis stressed. “So congratulations.

“For the past four years, we have partnered with the Defenders in hosting this tournament that continues to grow and does more than just showcase the athletic talents of our Bahamian volleyball athletes, but it also showcase the Bahamas in making significant development in the area of Sports Tourism. So we congratulate you for that as well.”

As a contrubutor to a number of community events, Davis said Scotiabank wish to extend best wishes to the Defenders and all of the participants in the tournament.

Bahamas Volleyball Federation president, the Rev. Joseph ‘Joe Mo’ Smith endorsed the tournament, noting that it paves the way for the future growth and development if the sport.

“For the ast four years, the BVF saw fit that this tournament was meaningful to the region and the coach, DeVince Smith and his delegates form the Scotiabank Defenders, have put this tournament together and we fully endorse it because we saw where it as going,

“From the federation prospective, we would like to see this happening throughout the year. We will endorse any club who wants to put on a tournament of this magnitude because we have players coming from throughout the Caribbean and it is a good warm up tournament that we can get ourselves involved in before we go to the Caribbean Volleyball Championships. It really tells us where we are as a nation, it tells us where we are as federation and as players and what we need to do and not to do.”

The Defenders, the reigning New Providence Volleyball Association champions, having won the title for the past four consecutive years and five out of the last seven, are the two-time defending champions of their tournament and are looking forward to retaining their crown.

“Over the past years, the Scotiabank Defenders have fiercely represented throughout the Caribbean and the USA and hence the word has gotten out about out action packed, highly anticipated annual tournament,” Moxey said. “This year, we have once again attracted international players from Jamaica, US Virgin Islands, Trinidad, Puerto Rico, Canada and the United States.

“As the word continues to spread about this high tournament, we are also expecting professional players to play alongside and against our very own professional player in Byron Ferguson,” Moxey stated. “Other named players expected to represent our club are national team standouts Jamal Ferguson, Tony Simon, Shedrick Forbes, Ian ‘Wire’ Pinder, Shonari Hepburn and Endierich Rahming.”

On the ladies’ side, players such as Melinda Bastian, Cheryse Bain, Krystel Rolle, Laval Sands, Janae Saunders, Avi Seymour and Brittney Bonamy, are expected to be in action.

“We’re looking for a very exciting tournament this weekend,” Defenders coach DeVince Smith projected. “So far, the excitement is in the air. We have two players already in from Canada. They practiced with the men’s national team, so they are looking forward to a very good tournament.”

The Internayional Jammers, winners of the first women’s title four years ago, will be returning with a male team as well from North Carolina. They will be joined for the first time by two teams from Grand Bahama, along with male and female players from Canada, who will be combining to play with some players from Florida and some of the local players will be matched with some of the visiting players.

The visiting teams are expected to start arriving in town today for the tournament will begin on Friday at noon and continue on Saturday at 11 am and will wrap up on Sunday, starting at 10 am.

Admission is priced at $2 for adults, $1 for high school students and children under 10 years will be free.

When asked what has been the key to the Defenders’ success over the years, not only as a club in the NPVA, but as host of the tournament, Davis emphatically stated: “Scotiabank.”

But DeVince Smith took it a bit further.

“Thanks to them (Scotiabank), we have been able to travel a lot and that has kind of helped us a lot because as a club, what we want to do is expose our athletes to the other competition out there and I think that has played a tremendous role in the success of this team,” he said.

While the men’s team and the national programme on a whole has been riding a wave of success, having already qualified for the Central American and Caribbean Games in November in Mexico, former national team player Margaret ‘Muggie’ Albury said the women’s time will come.

“The male team excelled when they started to go to college,” she said. “We’re starting to see that with the women. We have a lot of girls going off on scholarships and we are starting to see the difference in their play. So along with the older ladies who have been off to college and are the core of the team now, I think the ones who are going off to college, once they get the expertises, they will add to the3 older players, so the future is bright, very bright.”

Joe Smith, however, said it’s going to be important for the federtion to secure the necessary funding to assist the women.

“We are seeing a re-branding of the women’s programme,” he said. “This is the year for them to excel with new faces, new collegiate athletes, the younger version. The tam is in average of 21. That is the age that the guys started to excel. We have a core of athletes now that we can do. We just have to put our money to the wheel and allow them to travel and to get the exposure. You’re not going to do it playing by yourself.”